Snowbound (2 page)

The kids in back were talking excitedly now that salvation was at hand. Dieter started telling them about this great old lodge, the ancient trees and the river just below.

Theres this
huge
fireplace, he was saying, when the van lurched and the front end seemed to drop.

One of the girls screamed. Fiona braked, out of instinctthey had already come to a dead stop. Dieter jumped out again, coming back to shake his head.

I dont know if we can get it out.

Can you still see the tire tracks?

He looked. Yeah.

It cant be that far. Well walk. She turned. Everyone, bring your stuff, especially if you have any food left over from lunch or dinner. They had stopped at a hamburger joint on the way out of Redmond. Put on all the clothes you brought.

She took her purse, but left the tote that held only the schedule for the day, competition rules and her notes on questions she would drill students on in the expectation theyd be asked the same ones again someday. Once everybody was out, she made them line up single file behind Dieter, bringing up the end herself. Then, feeling silly, she locked the van.

Lead on, she called.

Her face felt the cold first, then her feet. Was this the right decision? she worried, as they stumbled through the dark and falling snow led byGod help thema sixteen-year-old boys memory of a winter vacation.

Well, she had no choicenot after shed gotten the van stuck. Within minutes, she was almost too cold to care.

I see lights! Dieter exclaimed.

Fiona blinked away the flakes clinging to her lashes and peered numbly ahead. Was that a dim glow, or a mirage?

Keep going, she ordered, her face feeling stiff.

Gradually she saw them: golden squares of windows. Not brightly lit, but as if there might be lights on deeper inside the lodge. Or maybe firelight was providing the illumination.

They were staggering, a ragged line of kids and Fiona, when they reached porch steps. Freshly shoveled, she saw in amazement, as if someone had been expecting them.

On the porch that seemed to run the width of the rustic lodge, her students clustered, waiting for her.

The door was massive, the knocker a cast-iron bear. She lifted it and let it fall. Once. Twice. Then again.

She was about to reach for the handle to find out if the door was locked when the porch light came on, all but blinding her, and the door swung open.

Framed in the opening was a man with a scarred face who said, What in hell?

Fionas knees weakened and she grabbed for the door frame. Can we please come in?

W
ATCHING THEM
file past him, not just a couple of stranded travelers but a whole damn
crowd
of them, John felt a wave of incredulity. What kind of idiots had been taking the pass in this blizzard? How in Gods name had they found the lodge?

And how long was he going to be stuck with them?

They all went straight to the fireplace and huddled in front of the fire with their hands out toward it as if asking for a blessing. None made any move to shed jackets, and he realized studying their backs that most of them werent dressed for the weather at all. Athletic shoes and jeans were soaked to their knees and probably frozen, too.

Was he going to have to deal with frostbite?

How far did you walk?

One guy turned his head. Just, I dont know, halfway from the turn?

The voice gave him away. He was a kid. John looked down the line. They were all kids!

Isnt there an adult with you?

Me. The woman whod been the first to come in turned to face him, pushing back the hood on her parka. Dark, curly hair framed a face on which he could read exhaustion. Her eyes, though, were the pale, clear grey of the river water cutting between snowbanks. She was young, not much older than her charges, her body as slight as those of the teenage girls. My name is Fiona MacPherson. Thank you for taking us in.

What were you doing out on the road?

She explained. Theyd competed in a high school Knowledge Champs tournament in Redmond, and were returning home over the mountains.

We came over this morning on Highway 22, she explained, sounding meek. But the weather reports said a storm was coming from the south, so I thought Id take a more northerly route back.

This highway closes in the winter. Youre probably the last ones over it.

I didnt know that.

And parents trusted her to be in charge? He shook his head.

Youre damn lucky to have made it. John waved off whatever she was going to say. You all need to get out of your wet clothes. I dont suppose you have anything to change into?

Eightno, nineheads shook in unison.

Get your shoes and socks off. Ill see what I can find.

He started with the lost and found. Seemed like every week somebody left something. Sunglasses, single gloves, bras hanging on the towel rack in the shared bathroom, long underwear left carelessly on the bed, you name it, hed found it. If one of the girls wanted birth control pills, he could offer her a months supply. Bottles containing half a dozen other prescription drugs. Pillows, watches, but mostly clothes.

John dragged the boxes out and distributed socks, one pair of mens slippers, sweatpants, a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and miscellaneous other garments. Then, irritated at the necessity, he raided his own drawers and closet for jeans, socks and sweaters.

Without arguing, they sat down on chairs and the floor as close to the fire as they could get and changed, nobody worrying about modesty. Not even the teacher, who wore bikini underwear and had spectacular legs that she quickly shivvied into a pair of those skintight, stretchy pants cross-country skiers wore these days. They looked fine on her, he saw, while trying not to notice.

We were so lucky to find you, she told him, appar
ently unaware that hed noticed her changing. I couldnt see anything. But Dieter she gestured toward one of the boys saw tire tracks. I dont know how. Then he spotted your sign. He and his family have stayed here before.

Youre not the old guy who was here then, the kid said.

I bought the lodge last year.

Its a cool place! My family and me, weve come a couple times. Once in the summer, when we stayed in one of the cabins. Last time we skied.

Its not skiing when you have to plod instead of riding up the hill, one of the girls sniffed. Literallyher nose was bright red and dripping.

Sure it is, the first boy argued. He was at that ungainly stage when his hands and feet were out-sized and the rest of him skinny. Crooked features added up to a puppy-dog friendly face. You dont think when they invented skiing they had quad chairlifts, do you?

My great-great-whatever came west in a covered wagon, too, she retorted, with another sniff. Id rather fly United, thanks.

The rest chimed in with opinions; John didnt listen. He looked at the teacher. Anyone going to miss you?

Oh Lord! Yes! We were having trouble with cell phone coverage. She gave him a hopeful look. Do you have a land line?

Out here? No. And cell phone coverage is lousy for miles around even when the weathers good. Unfortunately, my shortwave radio had an accident and I havent got it fixed. If what his idiot guest had done to
it with spilled coffee could be called an accident. And he should have taken the damn thing to town to be worked on, but hadnt felt any urgency. Stupid, when a guest could have an emergency at any time.

Well, well try again anyway. Kids, anyone who brought a phone. If you reach someone, tell them to start a phone tree.

Six out of the eight kids pulled tiny flip phones out of a pocket or bag. John suddenly felt old. When he was sixteen, nobodyd had a phone. Or wanted one.

The teacher was the only one who got lucky, although he gathered the reception wasnt good. The kids all put theirs away, shaking their heads.

She kept raising her voice. Yes, Thunder Mountain. Youll call the parents? Pause. Its snowing there, too?

That caused a stir.

Wow.

Cool.

We dont get snow that much. I wish I was home.

We have more here.

Snowball fight! another boy said. This ones face caused a shift in Johns chest. He looked too much like the teenage boys hanging around on dusty streets in Baghdad. He might be Hawaiian or Polynesian. Something just a little exotic, skin brown and eyes dark and tilted.

Yeah! The third boy, short and stocky with spiky blond hair. Sweatpants from the lost and found bagged on him. I will so take you down.

Girls giggled. Like a litter of puppies driven by instincts they didnt understand, the boys began shoving and wrestling.

Dark heads, laughter. A group of boys much like this, clowning around. A mud-brick wall. Rusty dust puffing under their feet, a couple of dirty soccer balls lying forgotten.

With a physical wrench, John pulled himself from the past. He tolerated guests at the lodge. Teenage boys, he avoided. Their very presence brought back things he couldnt let himself remember. How was he going to endure this group?

The teacherFiona?evidently sensed his longing. After telling the kids that the principal would call all their parents, she said to John, I hope you wont be stuck with us for long. UmDo you have any idea when this storm is supposed to end?

A couple of days, at least. And Im at the bottom of the highway departments list for plowing. Could be a week before they get here.

The longest week of his life.

Just like that, he was propelled into another flashback.

He was driving a truck, the sun scorching through the window and sweat dripping from his helmet, dust from the convoy ahead turning his and everyone elses face to gray masks their mamas wouldnt have recognized. Women walking along the side of the road in dark robeshow in hell did they stand the heat inside them? Kids giving the convoy wary, sidelong looks. Men staring with flat hostility. M-16 in his lap, John scanned the people, the side of the road, the rooftops of the sand-colored mud buildings for anything that looked wrong.

As quickly, the vivid memory faded and he was
back in the lodge, only the teacher looking at him a little strangely.

Not the longest week of his life, he apologized silently, if anyone was listening. Hed lived a year of longer ones. Survived them.

If living half in the past, hiding out in the present, could be called survival.

A
WEEK
!
the teacher exclaimed, and John had the sense she was repeating herself.

Yeah, hed definitely tuned out.

Butif the highway department knows were stranded here, surely theyll plow this far sooner than that. You cant possibly have enough food to keep us that long.

This is a lodge. I take in paying guests. Since I just stocked up, we wont starve.

Oh. She nibbled on a delectable bottom lip, full enough to make his groin tighten.

Damn. Why her? The subject of women wasnt something hed wasted any time thinking about since he got out of the VA hospital.

Do you have any guests right now? she asked.

John shook his head. Expected a couple today. Dont suppose theyll make it.

So you have enough beds?

This was a woman who knew how to stick to the essentials.

Well have to make some up.

We can do it. I dont want to put you out any more than we have to.

You want to share mine?

Right. That was happening.

Nice, he thought somewhat grimly, to know that his libido
had
survived.

Ill show you where the bedding is.

She ordered them all to come. You can make up your own beds.

We get our own? a blond pixie asked.

Two to a bed, Fiona MacPherson decreed. Well stick to our buddy system.

Made it harder for a boy to sneak into a girls room, John diagnosed with wry amusement. Chaperoning this bunch for a week would be a chore. The school ought to give her a nice fat bonus once she returned the kids to their parents custody. Unless, of course, she was in hot water for setting out in the first place on the foolhardy venture to cross the pass.

They trooped upstairs. He showed them the shared bathrooms, each boasting a deep, claw-foot tub, double sinks, piles of towels and open shelving for the guests toiletries.

Oh, eew, one of the girls exclaimed. We dont have toothbrushes or anything!

He almost kept his mouth shut. Bad breath might make the chaperoning easier. But that was just plain mean. He might be a recluse, but he was also an innkeeper.

I keep extras for guests who forget them. Remind me and Ill go get some.

Bless you, the teacher murmured, apparently not having considered the benefits of halitosis.

He handed out flannel sheets and duvet covers, they
picked partners and rooms. Fortunately two of the rooms each had a pair of queen beds, so the three boys went in one of those and three of the girls in the other. Another pair of girls shared a room and Fiona claimed the first room at the head of the stairs.

John went in with her to help her make up the bed. Setting the armful of linens on a chair, she looked around with approval.

Dieter told me the lodge was really nice. This is lovely.

Hed bought the place as-is, but it was in good shape. Her room was typical: polished plank floors with a rag rug to add warmth, a bed built of peeled Ponderosa pine and covered with a puffy duvet, antique pine dresser with a mirror that showed a wavery reflection. The artwork varied from room to room, giving each character. She was in the one he privately thought of as the Rose Room, with cottage-style paintings in which roses smothered fences and arbors and tangled in old-fashioned hedgerows. He tended to put women in here.

With quick, efficient movements, he and Fiona made up her bed with snow-white sheets and duvet cover. When theyd finished, she looked at him over the bed.

I dont think you told me your name.

Fallon. John Fallon.

Her smile was a thing of beauty, somehow merry and so warm he had the sudden illusion of not needing the fire downstairs. Its nice to meet you, John Fallon. Youre a kind man to try to hide how much you wish we hadnt shown up on your front porch.

He thought of himself as a decent man. Decent enough to do the right thing when he had to.

I usually have guests. Youre not putting me out. What was a little white lie?

Were just surprise guests.

And nonpaying ones, he presumed.

Again, she seemed to read his mind.

Ill make sure youre reimbursed, at least for the food. I teach at a private school. She nodded toward the voices drifting from the other bedrooms. Most of their parents are pretty well-to-do.

He only nodded. That would be appreciated.

Again her teeth closed briefly on her lower lip. I hate to ask, butWe ate at four oclock. I suspect the boys especially are starved.

John had once been skinny like the one kid. He seemed to remember eating from morning to night and never feeling full.

Sandwiches?

Sandwiches would be great. She treated him to another smile, this time relieved.

They met at the foot of the bed and had one of those awkward moments where they both hesitated, started forward, shuffled, until he finally waved toward the door. After you.

It seemed to him that her cheeks were a little bit pink. Did she feel some of the pull that had him half-aroused and uncomfortable?

He couldnt imagine. With his scarred face and obvious limp, he was more likely to be an object of pity than lust. His throat momentarily tightened. Had that
moment been so clumsy because shed been trying to defer to him since he was disabled?

Ill get started on food, he said shortly, and left her to the kids.

Like a bunch of locusts, they showed up in the kitchen all too quickly and began filling plates. A couple of the smaller girls barely nibbledone was Asian, a tiny thing with glossy black hair down to her hips, the other thin and plain with braces that pushed her lips out. Those two, he remembered, had taken the room with one bed, and now were quieter than the others.

Two girls were arguing loudly about some math question, while another flirted with the stocky boy who seemed more interested in piling food on his plate. The teacher looked dead on her feet.

She swayed, and John stepped forward, but she rallied and said, Wow! This is great. Thank you.

They took seats around the long, farmhouse table that occupied the middle of the enormous kitchen, John at her right side.

Everyone, our host is John Fallon. She reeled off their names, most of which hed likely need to hear again.

The tall, skinny boy whod stayed here before was Dieter Schoenecker, the stocky one had the unlikely name of Hopper Daniels, and the third boy was Troy Thorsen. Nordic last name, which didnt explain his racial heritage.

The girls were a blur. Kelliwith an i, she made sure to tell him, last name he didnt catch, Amy Brooks, who seemed given to posing and flipping her hair,
Tabitha, Erin andthat left someone out, but he couldnt remember who. Probably the plain, quiet one.

Watching the speed with which the food disappeared, John took mental stock of his larder. Theyd be okay for a week, he figured; he kept an emergency supply of canned goods he could dip into if need be.

Fiona took half a sandwich and ate it slowly, as if she had to remind herself to take a bite and swallow. Clearly theyd driven across the mountains that morning, and had probably made an early start to have had time for any kind of competition during the day. Driving for hours through the blizzard had to have wrung her out.

Why dont you hit the sack? he said quietly. Theyre still wound up. I can sort them out later.

Im responsible

You look ready to collapse.

Dieter Schoenecker, who sat on her other side, heard. Ms. Mac was Superwoman today.

She managed a grin and pretended to flex a bicep. Thats me. Speaking of which she pitched her voice a little louder have I mentioned that I have X-ray vision? I see through walls.

Ahh! Ms. Mac doesnt trust us. The Hopper kid clasped his hand to his chest and fell back in his chair.

She just smiled. Bathroom on the right side upstairs is for girls, left side for boys.

Toothbrushes. John pushed back his chair and stood. His bad leg chose to cave, and he had to brace his hand on the back of the chair until the spasm let up. Without looking to see if anyone had noticed, he left the kitchen.

He grabbed a basket and piled it with toothbrushes,
toothpaste in sample tubes, dental floss, the small bottles of shampoo and hand lotion he put out when readying a bathroom for guests, and a couple of packages of feminine products. It might embarrass the girls, but if they were here for very many days, odds were a couple of them would need something.

Fiona stood when he came back. Ill take that up. She looked into the basket. Oh, thank goodness. I didnt even think of that as a problem. Ill distribute all this. She raised her voice. Im going to bed, kids. Help Mr. Fallon clean up, then I expect you to get ready for bed, too. Its been a long day.

Do we have to turn the lights out? Amy looked genuinely horrified.

No. You can read, talk, listen to music, whatever. Just keep it down, and be considerate of each other.

If you need anything during the night John pointed to a door at the back of the kitchen thats where Ill be.

Nods all around.

He walked the teacher to the foot of the stairs.

Standing one step up, she was at eye level with him. Did I tell you when I called that our principal said they had four inches and snow still piling up even in Portland? Its amazing that you have electricity.

We operate on a generator. There arent any power lines out here.

Oh. That makes sense. She gave a small shiver. I cant believe how lucky we were. I didnt want the kids to know, butI was so scared.

Feeling cruel, he said, You should have been. Without winter gear

Her chin came up. This blizzard wasnt predicted so soon. And none of the meteorologists expected it to be so major. Its only November!

You ever noticed how ski areas open Thanksgiving weekend? Means theyve been getting snow for weeks.

Thats true, but were not at that kind of elevation here She trailed off, then sighed. Youre right. We should have never set off without being prepared. I knew we had chains, and Ive driven in snow, so I got complacent. But my dad kept down sleeping bags in the trunk whenever we traveled during the winter.

Smart man.

You saved our lives.

No. It sounds like Dieter did.

Her face softened. He did. Hes an amazing boy. Really brilliant. I mean, theyre all smart, but not like him. And hes sotogether. Mature and, I dont know, comfortable with himself. Which, let me tell you, is rare in sixteen-year-olds.

The boys hed known in Iraq were younger in years, if older in experience. Living in a war zone did that to kids.

He jerked his head toward the kitchen. They all that age?

Willow is fifteen. Shes our only sophomore. And Troy and Erin are seniors, so theyre seventeen. The rest are juniors.

John nodded.

Its nice of you to take charge. I really am tired.

Go. Theyll be fine.

I know. Youre right.

Still she didnt move, and he thought how easy it
would be to step forward, wrap a hand around the back of her head and kiss her.

Something on his face may have given away the tenor of his thoughts, because her color rose and she groped backward with one foot for the next step.

I dont know what Im just standing here for. Tiredness, I guess. Um, good night.

He dipped his head. Good night.

John stayed at the foot of the stairs watching until she disappeared above with the basket of toiletries. He should have offered her a nightgown; he had a few of those in the lost and found, too. All were sturdy flannel. He didnt know if any newlyweds had ever honeymooned at Thunder Mountain Lodge, but if so the brides had remembered to take home their lacy negligees.

John frowned, trying to remember whether the kids had called her Miss. Or was it Ms.? Young as she looked, she could be married. No, he decided; if she was, she would have called her husband tonight, not the principal. And shed asked him to phone parents. She hadnt said anything about him calling a husband.

Heading back to the kitchen, he was irritated to realize that he felt relieved.

F
IONA HAD NEVER
been more grateful to be able to brush her teeth. As she did so, she thought about their host. Hed been remarkably kind so far, but hed looked so grim all the while!

She wondered what had happened to give him the limp and the scar that ran from his jaw down his neck
and beneath the collar of his shirt. It lookednot brand-new, but not as if hed lived with it for years, either. Several times shed seen a spasm of pain on his face, too, so the injury to his leg obviously still troubled him.

Well, she could hardly ask, and hoped the kids would be tactful enough not to. Or, more realistically, she should hope that they were too self-centered to care about John Fallons history.

Fiona brushed her hair with her own brush from her purse, then gazed at herself in the mirror. What had he seen when he looked at her? A couple of times shed imaginedBut that was silly. He probably thought she was an idiot who hadnt showed any more sense than the teenagers would have.

She sighed. Sad as it was to admit, he was right. It terrified her still to think what might have happened if Dieter hadnt spotted those tire tracks. The fact that they were safe and warm tonight was a miracle.

In the bedroom, she hesitated over what to wearor
not
wear, finally leaving on the pants hed lent her and her turtleneck. Just in case she had to get up for some reason during the night.

The bed felt wonderful, the fluffy duvet heavenly atop her. Tension drained out of her, and Fiona closed her eyes.

The moment she did, white swirled beneath her lids, as if the sight had been imprinted on them. She squeezed her eyes tighter shut and fought to picture something or someone else.

What she came up with was John Fallons face as theyd stood at the foot of the stairs. Lean, tanned, with strong cheekbones, dark bristles on jaw and cheeks, a
fan of lines beside watchful brown eyes, and a mouth he kept compressed. The scar, puckered and angry. Maybe, she thought, his mouth was tight against pain and not from impatience or irritation.

But there had been that moment when shed have sworn his gaze had lowered briefly to her mouth. The muscles in his jaw had knotted, and something had flickered in his eyes.