"Okay, stalker," he joked, smiling as he reached out, resting a hand on my arm. "I've driven through worse. Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it. Especially when you trade in your car for something a little more practical."
"Trade in my car? Do you think I totaled it?" I'd done a number on it, smashing the windows and denting the body when I had crashed into the tree. He was right, and I needed to think about a more reliable vehicle for Breckenridge's roads, but how would I afford it?
Jaxson guided his hand back to the steering wheel. "Even if you got it fixed up, it still won't get you up the mountain in a blizzard."
"What about if my car had those metal things on the wheels?" I asked, trying to remember what they were called.
"Chains?"
"Yes, those." I hoped I could buy a set of chains and fix the car, and put off making payments on a new vehicle. My income was tight. I'd spent every dime on that property and driving across the country to Montana. I didn't have a job lined up, and my wallet was near empty.
He lamented before answering. "I've never seen a car like yours around here."
I stared out the window, mesmerized but the beauty of the night. We've cleared the fog, which seemed strange since we'd traveled higher, but it appeared only to be a small patch along one section of the mountain. In the distance, lights twinkled at the base of the mountain. A small town clustered together. "It's beautiful out here," I said as he slowed on the approach and turned off the road.
Jaxson rolled down his window as he came up to the mailbox and retrieved a set of house keys. "Here you go," he said, handing me the cold metal.
"Thank you." I took the keys with my gloved hands. As quick as he had opened the window, Jaxson shut it and put the car in drive, heading down the narrow gravel road and through the forest. I couldn't see anything except a few feet in front of us from the headlights. There was no sign of a cabin. "How much farther?" I asked.
"Another mile or two." Snow crunched beneath the tires as we finally slowed on the approach. The lights were off, the cabin dark as night.
"I guess no one left the porch light on."
He laughed under his breath.
"What's so funny?" I asked, not seeing anything worth joking about. From the outside, the wood exterior looked nice, well-kept, and rustic. It was indeed a log cabin, single-story and small, but the perfect size for one person. I didn't need anything big or pricy. Besides, I couldn't afford anything else.
He shut off the engine of his truck and stepped outside in the cold air.
Jaxson didn't answer me. I climbed out from the truck, my shoes hitting the fresh snow piling up that hadn't been shoveled. His vehicle had driven through it with ease, but I trampled through the slush and up the porch steps covered in ice.
"Be careful," Jaxson warned, his breath on my neck as he followed me up the steps, a hand on my lower back. Was he trying to make sure I didn't fall, or was the proximity something else far more intimate?
Already I enjoyed being around him, but that was dangerous. I barely knew the guy, and he had a kid. Talk about complicated. That didn’t even include the fact that there was a bounty on my head. There were several people who wanted me dead. Living in the middle of nowhere was supposed to protect me, but would it?
"Do you have the key?"
"Yes," I said, trying the front door key that Jaxson had retrieved earlier from the mailbox. It slid into the lock easily and turned. I pushed open the door, expecting it to be warm and inviting. It certainly wasn't warm.
I shivered and reached for the wall, looking for a light switch. Nothing. "It's freezing."
"The cabin uses a wood-burning stove to heat the place." He stalked right for the stove and bent down. He grabbed a few logs kept out of the snow and dry and worked on the fire. Jaxson stacked the wood and struck a match, it slowly caught ablaze.
"You know your stuff," I said, watching him with curiosity. It had been years since I'd lit a fire like that. The last house had a gas fireplace that involved flipping a switch. I wasn't so lucky out here. However, the wood-burning stove would be a lot warmer. "What about the lights?"
He headed toward the bed, just a few feet away from the fire that roared to life. The open floor plan offered no real privacy, but I hoped it would help heat the space evenly. The cabin had come fully furnished, which was nice since I had little with me. Most of it had been sold in New York everything else of mine was stuffed into the trunk of my car.
"Here you go." Jaxson grabbed a flashlight style lantern and handed it to me. "Keep a few extra sets of batteries on hand."
The smile fell from my face. "You're joking." He had to be kidding with me. The cabin had electricity, right? I had wanted to live off grid, but I hadn’t actually intended to live primitively.
"About what?"
"There's seriously no electric in this place?" I couldn't believe it! How could his buddy sell me a house that didn't have electricity? It hadn't been mentioned—one way or the other—on the listing online.
"You bought a cabin in the woods. You're lucky it has indoor plumbing."