Beverly Long - Snowbound Security

But it was better than he’d let on last night. Because he’d been fairly confident that the woman would have demanded he leave had he not appeared to be significantly impaired.

It had taken her just one trip to move a few items out of the larger bedroom and into the smaller one. Then she’d closed her door.

He’d made two trips to his vehicle. The first time, he’d moved his SUV into the driveway, parking it right next to her Mustang. Lucky had tumbled out of the car, so damn excited to finally be there. He loved his time at the cabin.

Rico had let him sniff around and do the things dogs do outside while he unloaded. Finally, he had his crutches, his duffel bag and all the groceries inside. But before calling Lucky in, he took a second to enter her license plate into his phone.

Back inside, he’d made sure the door was locked. Lucky had immediately made a path to the doorway of the second bedroom and stood at the door, softly whining. “I’ll introduce you in the morning,” Rico had whispered. “Settle down.”

The dog had stopped whining and moved to the living room where he plopped down on one of the leather couches. Rico had quietly put away the perishables into the refrigerator. There’d been nothing in there but a few apples and oranges. The woman had said she’d arrived yesterday. He had wondered what she’d planned to eat if she stayed awhile. He’d left his remaining groceries on the counter, not wanting to open and shut cupboards and drawers.

When he got into the bedroom, he saw a pile of sheets in the corner. Knew that his cleaning crew would never have left them there and was confident that she’d stripped the sheets off the king-sized bed and put on a clean set from the tote. Interesting. Had no qualms about being in the cabin without permission, but didn’t want him to sleep on used sheets.

He probably wouldn’t have minded. He’d caught a whiff of her scent as she’d come in the door behind him and it had been sharply sexy.

Last night he’d examined both the front and back doors of the cabin and all the windows. Hadn’t seen anything that led him to believe that she’d broken in. If she hadn’t forced her way in, then she’d had the entry code for the door. Only a couple ways she could have gotten that.

He supposed it was time to figure out the mystery. And Lucky was likely more than ready to go outside.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, moved his ankle gently to loosen it up and stood. He’d slept in his clothes because...well, just because he’d wanted to be prepared for anything. It was the same reason his gun had been under his pillow. Now he slipped said gun into the waistband of his jeans and made sure his shirt was covering it.

She seemed normal enough, but there were a bunch of crazies in the world and he wasn’t going to be stupid about sharing his cabin with a stranger. She’d been vocal about her intent to shoot first and ask questions later. He’d been more reticent, but that didn’t mean he was a trusting fool.

He grabbed the crutches that he’d left leaning against the headboard. He was really curious to see what her story was this morning. Would she suddenly remember that she had a commitment somewhere else and hustle to get on the road? Would she continue to pretend that she had every right to be in the cabin, that he was the one who’d made the mistake?

And who had been in the bedroom? He suspected a child, given the car seat in the back of the Mustang.

A rifle-toting woman traveling alone with a child. Interesting. Staying someplace she had no right to be. Even more interesting.

He opened his door at almost exactly the same time the second bedroom door opened. Out walked a beautiful child, her short brown hair tucked behind her ears, wearing lion pajamas. She looked up at him, smiled and said, “Hello.”

“Hello, Lion,” he said.

She patted her belly, where the lion’s face was prominent. “I’m not really a lion.”

“That’s good. I think I might be afraid of lions.”

“Hey, sweetie,” the woman said, coming fast behind the child. She scooped her up and held her close to her body.

“Pancakes, today?” the child asked.

The woman shook her head. “Soon.” She looked at Rico over the child’s shoulder. “Morning,” she mumbled.

“Good morning,” he said cheerfully. “Cute kid.” He barely got that out before Lucky came skidding around the corner. Barking. So damn excited that there was company.

The kid squealed and the woman lifted her higher.

“Stay down,” he said to Lucky. “He won’t bite,” he said to the woman.

“A dog,” the child said, voice full of awe. “We have a dog?”

“He’s not our dog,” the woman said.

“What’s his name?” the child asked.

“Lucky,” Rico said. “Because he was lucky I kept him after he chewed up two pairs of really nice shoes.”

“Shoes,” the kid echoed, all big-eyed.

And part of a couch, he added silently, but didn’t see a need to mention that. Lucky was a longhaired, midsized mutt who had been left to die near Rico’s condo building. He’d taken him in about two years ago, regretted it every day for the first three months and now couldn’t imagine life without him.

The woman and child walked down the short hallway and into the living area. She put the little girl on the couch and handed her a laptop computer. “You can watch a little of your movie while I get breakfast ready.”

Rico opened the door for Lucky. When he turned back around, he saw that she was pouring a cup of coffee that she’d either started earlier or had left on a timer the night before. She took a sip, then set it down. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out an orange. Efficiently peeled it, separated it into pieces and put it on a paper towel. Then she put a piece of toast into the toaster and, when it popped, spread peanut butter on it. Added it to the paper towel, which she carried over to the child, along with a glass of water in a plastic cup with a lid and a straw.

She was basically acting as if he wasn’t there.

Well, two could play that game. He found his teakettle in the cupboard, filled it with water and set it on the stove to heat. Then he circled the interior of the cabin, pulling up the shades on all the windows. Immediately, the cabin was flooded with natural light. “Looks like a nice day,” he said conversationally.

“Yes,” she said. She topped off her cup of coffee and he saw that her hand was shaking slightly. It made him think that she wasn’t nearly as calm as she was pretending to be. She wore the same clothes that she’d had on last night and he wondered if she, too, had slept in her clothes. Prepared. And by the way she’d sprang after the child this morning, he figured it was for anything that was necessary to protect the little girl.

There was only a double bed in the smaller bedroom, which meant that she’d either snuggled close to the child or slept on the floor. He had a crazy suspicion it had been the latter, with her body squarely in front of the door to prevent it from being opened and surprising her.

Mother bears always fascinated him.

“I...uh...didn’t mention...” she waved in the direction of the couch “...last night.”

He shrugged. “The bed in the room you gave up is a king. The two of you should have slept there.”

“We were fine,” she said, dismissing his comment.

“Crazy situation we got here, but I know I’ve got the rental company information in my contacts so that we can get this straightened out.” He looked at his watch. “They probably open at nine.”

She looked around. “It’s a really nice place.”

She didn’t sound that happy about it. Ten years ago, Rico had looked for months for just the right property. And when he’d seen this place, he’d fallen for it. The exterior logs had been solid and didn’t require much. He’d gutted the insides, replacing everything, and adding a laundry room off the kitchen and a second bath off the master bedroom. Now, it fit his needs almost perfectly. It was a good size for him and enough room that when his parents or his sister’s family visited, it was big enough.