Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(41)

Montana winters could be harsh and cruel, but the spring, summer, and fall were full of wonder and activity, and out of all the places she’d lived over the past ten years, no place had felt like home as much as this sleepy country town did.

Looking around at the scenery as she walked, her body fighting off the cold suddenly ripping through the air, she enjoyed the sight of a flowing stream, a source that ran year-round and kept the cows hydrated while also nourishing the plant life.

The farther she moved from Cam’s house, the more she was able to focus on the sounds of the woods. She kept going, listening for the chirping of the birds and the scratching of chipmunks in search of food.

A chill ran through her, and Grace looked around as another layer of clouds covered the sun, making the shadows deepen and sending a streak of fear through her. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea she’d ever come up with.

No, it was fine. As long as she followed the road, she would reach Grace’s house. And by doing this she was letting Cam know that he couldn’t control her, couldn’t tell her how to live her life or where she was supposed to be.

When the first touch of cold settled upon her nose, Grace looked up, and a new shiver of fear raced through her. It was spring, a time for birth, for new beginnings, for the ice of winter to melt away. But as she stood there in amazement, snow soon dotted her shoulders, and Grace knew she needed to hurry this up.

How long had she been walking? She wasn’t sure. It had to have been an hour, maybe a little more. She’d been so lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t paid attention. Her only goal had been to reach Sage’s welcoming house, where she could go inside, warm up, and have a nice hot cup of coffee.

That plan had failed. Grace turned around and began following the road back, fear a constant as the path that had been laid out before her quickly filled with new snow. Within fifteen minutes, she stopped.

The road was covered, as was the forest floor around her. She could no longer tell where the road ended and the forest began. If she stepped off the pavement, she’d be lost in the woods. But if she didn’t keep moving, she had no idea how long it would take someone to figure out that she’d gone walking toward Sage’s house.

She knew it didn’t take long for frostbite to set in. She had to forge ahead. The road was a winding one, though, and without being able to see it, she might go straight instead of making a necessary turn. She might wander farther inside the woods and end up making them her eternal home.

How foolish she’d been in her anger. No wonder the birds hadn’t been singing, the forest had been so quiet. The animals had been smart enough to keep hidden from the encroaching storm. They knew not to get caught in the unforgiving torrent of snow that weighed heavier and heavier upon her shoulders, making each step so much harder to take.

Uncontrollable shivers racked her body as she bent her head and moved forward with as much momentum as she could, but when she turned back around to see how far she’d come, she wasn’t able to tell. Her footsteps were quickly erased by the layers of fresh snow on top of them.

Her fingers shaking, she reached into her pocket. It was time to admit defeat and call Cam, to let him know she was wandering in the woods. Even if she was lost, he would know how to find her. He knew this area far better than she did.

Nothing in the first pocket. When she reached in the other, her fingers came up empty. Had she really left her phone behind? What the hell was she thinking?

Grace didn’t give up, didn’t call defeat, not ever. But as the piercing cold took a new turn—her body was not even able to shiver anymore, it was so exhausted—she knew she was going to lose this battle.

Wanting nothing more than to sink to the ground and let the snow bury her the same way it was burying her path home, she still trudged along, moving slower than she’d ever moved before but knowing there was no way she would give up without one hell of a fight. Her clothes were heavy, the cotton feeling permanently plastered to her skin. When a strange warmth spread through her, Grace was too tired to panic.

She’d taken survival classes. She knew it wasn’t a good thing that she wasn’t as cold as she’d been a few moments before, or that all she wanted to do was close her eyes. She moved ahead, her eyelids feeling as if weights were dragging them down. Closing them for just a moment, she took another step, and another.

And then Grace smiled, because the sun broke through the sky and shined down on her, warming her from the outside all the way in. It was only a small break in the sky as she glanced around at the falling snow all around her, but in her one special place, it was warm.

And she was no longer hurting. She was no longer moving . . .





“I need both of you to quit fighting long enough to try to let me mediate here,” Cam said with a heavy sigh.

“Listen to me, Camden Whitman, you were a stubborn, pigheaded pain in my butt not too long ago, so don’t you dare use that tone of voice with me.”

Cam had to fight hard not to smile as the retired city librarian, Darcie Stuller, who had to be somewhere in her nineties, and her equally opinionated neighbor, who was in the same age bracket, squabbled over dog poop.

“Don’t you listen to her, Camden. She lets little Toby come into my yard and poop on purpose. Do you hear me? On purpose!” Linda Reedy shouted as she shook her arthritic fingers in the air.

“I would never do such a thing. Toby is good to Linda. He wouldn’t do such a tasteless thing as . . . do his duty . . . in a yard,” Darcie said with a vicious glare.