With extreme caution.
CHAPTER
9
HAVING JUST BEEN REMINDED BY TIERNEY that she was no longer married, Lilly tossed aside the afghan and scrambled off the sofa. She expected him to try to keep her beside him, but his injuries prevented him from moving that quickly. He managed only to stand up unsteadily. “Lilly—”
“No, listen, Tierney.” Although he hadn’t touched her, she put out her hand to stop him from trying. “Our present circumstances are unnerving enough without—”
“Unnerving? You’re unnerved? Don’t you feel safe with me?”
“Safe? Yes, of course. Who said anything about safe? It’s just . . .”
“What?” Eyebrows arched in silent inquiry, he let the question hang there.
“We were getting personal. For the time we’re here, we should avoid that. Let’s leave everything personal alone and concentrate on practical matters.” He seemed on the verge of arguing, but she added a please that softened her tone of voice.
He agreed, reluctantly. “All right, let’s be practical. Are you up for a project?”
“Like what?”
“Scavenger hunt.”
He suggested they search the rooms to see if she had overlooked anything when she had cleared out the cabin earlier. He said he would start in the kitchen. Turning away from her, he hobbled off in that direction.
“Tierney?”
He came back around. Before she lost her nerve or talked herself out of it, she asked, “Did you meet up with them later?”
He frowned quizzically. “Who?”
“The two college girls. The ones in the Jeep, begging for trouble. After I turned down your invitation to meet for a drink, did you hook up with them?”
He gave her a long, measured look, then turned and continued toward the kitchen. “See what you can find in the bedroom and bath.”
• • •
The bedroom yielded only three straight pins she found stuck in a crack in a bureau drawer. She presented them to Tierney. “That’s it, other than two dead cockroaches under the bed. I left them there.”
“We may need them for protein,” he said, only half in jest. He produced two candles that were faded and warped but would come in handy if the electricity went out. “They were way in the back of the drawer of the end table.”
He was leaning heavily against the kitchen bar, his hand planted firmly on the granite surface. His eyes were closed. “You should lie down,” she said.
“No, I’m fine,” he mumbled absently as he opened his eyes.
“You’re about to keel over.”
“Just another wave of dizziness.” Leaving the bar, he walked over to one of the windows flanking the front door and pushed aside the drape. “I’ve been thinking.”
Lilly waited to hear his thought, but already she had a bad feeling about it.
“If snow comes behind this sleet and freezing rain, which is likely at this altitude, our situation is going to become more dangerous. I’m worried that the propane tank will empty, which means we’ll need fuel.” He turned back into the room. “While it’s fractionally safer than it will be later, I should go to the shed and bring back what firewood I can.”
She looked beyond his shoulder toward the window, then back at him. “You can’t go out there! You can barely stand up without losing your balance. You have a brain concussion.”
“Which won’t matter much if we freeze to death.”
“Well forget about it. You can’t go. I won’t let you.”