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Authors: Marian P. Merritt

Tags: #christian Fiction

Deep Freeze Christmas (8 page)

BOOK: Deep Freeze Christmas
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Cameron released Max and then removed his helmet. "Whew, the temperature is dropping fast." Cameron searched the cabin. "Looks like there's several logs left over from last year. I'll get a fire started." He began clearing the fireplace and setting the logs inside.

"I'll dress Max's wounds." Leona carried the first-aid kit and the lantern to where Max had curled up on the rug next to the bed. She searched for the items she needed and then worked quickly on his wounds and wrapped them in gauze.

The poor pooch, exhausted from his earlier struggle, didn't object. He rested his large head on her knee while she replaced the items in the kit. His yellow/brown eyes watched her closely. She caressed his ear. "There ya go, Max. You're gonna be just fine."

He rewarded her with a lick to her hand.

She went to the kitchen and searched the cabinets for a small bowl. She found one and filled it with water from the bottles they'd put in the duffel.

Max lapped at the water until it stood empty and then curled on the rug again and closed his eyes.

Leona handed Cameron a bottle of water, plopped into the loveseat, and took a long drink from hers.

Before long a soft glow spilled from the fireplace where small flames began to grow.

"Looks like he's ready for sleep." Cameron clapped his hands together to clear the dust and soot from them and winced from the action.

Leona unzipped her thick jacket. "I think he'll be fine. How's your hand?"

"I'm good." He added another log to the budding fire and sat next to Leona. He gulped from the water bottle and then exhaled long and loud. "What a night."

"You can say that again." She rested her head onto the cushion.

He turned toward her and placed his elbow on the back of the seat. "You were amazing tonight. I don't know anyone who could have done what you did especially after only learning to ride a few days ago."

She lifted her head and met his piercing gaze. "Thanks. It was the least I could do considering I was responsible for him running off."

He placed his hand on her shoulder, his eyes filled with compassion. "Don't even go there. Max is a young lab. They need to run. He was just doing what dogs do. You had no way of knowing he'd get tangled in that wire. His running off like that could have happened to anyone of us."

What should she say? She knew he was trying to make her feel better. "So I guess we should prepare to spend the night here?"

"That may be our only choice unless this blizzard stops anytime soon. You can take the bed. I'll sleep here on the loveseat."

She followed his gaze toward the bed and out the window where snowflakes danced in random patterns under the porch.

"Don't be silly. Your long legs will spill over on this. I'll fit perfectly." She'd always hated being so short, but tonight her five-foot two-inch frame came in handy. She looked at him and grinned. "Besides it's closer to the fire."

This wasn't what she had in mind for tonight. All she'd wanted was to enjoy the evening, add to her journal, then take a long soak in the deep Jacuzzi tub in her bathroom, followed by a warm cup of tea. Spending the night alone with another woman's boyfriend wasn't her idea of the perfect evening.

 

****

 

Cameron rested his head on his hand while his elbow remained propped on the back of the loveseat. Leona's flattened helmet hair and the rosy highlight of her cheeks was a sight he could never tire of seeing. A tiny strand of her chestnut-colored hair curled near the corner of her left eye. He resisted the urge to push it away. Sitting close to her comforted him.

She'd handled tonight's situation like a pro.

He couldn't imagine what things would have been like had Marissa been the one he had to rely on.

Tonight's conversation with Marissa had gone better than he'd hoped. He knew the timing could have been better. No girl wants to hear, at any time, much less on Christmas Eve, that the guy she's got her sights on is not interested. But the last two times he'd told her, she hadn't seemed to get the message. This time he made sure she understood.

Her words came back to him. “You're a fool, Cameron Fleming. You know how many men would love to be in your shoes right now? Well, I'm not going to beg anyone to be with me. You're the one missing out.” After she spat the words at him, she'd stormed away and began flirting with Bryan.

He hated being so blunt but realized it was the only thing to do. The more subtle approach didn't work with Marissa. He looked at the bandage on his hand. It wasn't long after their conversation that Marissa had bumped into him and cast him into the fire. He smiled at the metaphoric irony.

"What's so funny?" Leona smiled.

He thought his chest would burst. This was the thing he loved about her. When she smiled tiny wrinkles fanned above her cheeks, and her brown eyes looked like amber with sparks of gold.

"Just thinking about the whole night."

"Won't Marissa be looking for you?"

"I doubt it. Women don't usually come looking for a guy who has just told them he's not interested in them for the third time."

Leona's eyes widened. Her mouth opened. She closed it, and then opened it again. "You…and Marissa are not…together anymore?"

He looked directly at her. He wanted to drive the point home—to make her understand that there had never been anything between him and Marissa. "We were
never
together."

"But…the kiss." Her brows creased and confusion seeped into her eyes.

"That was Marissa trying to get me to visit her bedroom that night. That was all. It ended right there in the hallway. That was the first time I told her I wasn't interested." He gave in and pushed the curl away from her eye and tucked it behind her ear. The rosy blush on her cheeks deepened to a darker shade of red.

"So you two," she shook her head, "were never together. But I thought she came here with you."

"I drove her to the airport in Los Angeles and from the airport in Hayden per Dad's request. She mistook that act of kindness as more."

Leona's bright eyes reflected the roaring fire warming the small cabin. She turned to him. "I'm glad to hear that."

He laughed. "Really?"

"Really." She smiled.

He cupped her hand in his. "Can I tell you something? From the first day we met I have felt I've known you all my life."

She squeezed his hand while her eyebrows lifted. "Me, too! There's something familiar about you. Chef said you lived in Louisiana. Was it in New Orleans?"

"We lived in the Lakeshore neighborhood."

"You did, did you?" She grinned and examined his face. With a tender touch, she ran her finger along the scar near his right eyebrow. A look of wonder filled her comforting eyes. "You got this when you fell from an oak limb while trying to rescue Mrs. Moreau's white Persian cat."

His jaw dropped. How would she know?

"Georgie. Georgie Fleming. Why did I not see it before?"

"Only two people ever called me Georgie. My best buddy in sixth grade, Everett, and his sister, René." Recognition rushed and slapped him in the face. "René?"

She nodded.

He slapped his leg. "I can't believe it! René Buquet. I remember so vividly the last words you told me when we moved away. Do you remember?"

Her cheeks turned a deeper crimson, redder than he thought possible.

 

 

 

 

Douze

 

Leona lifted both hands to her face and nodded.

"Aren't you going to say them? After all, a promise is a promise." Cameron laced his pinky finger through hers and tugged on her hand. His teasing smile twitched her stomach. "C'mon. It wasn't that bad."

She lowered her hands but held onto his. The fluttering in her stomach reminded her of that day almost twenty years ago. Her trembling heart brought her back to her first heartbreak. She looked at him and recognized the familiar twinkle in his perfect blue eyes. "I said, 'I promise, I'll love you until my dying breath, Georgie Fleming."

"And I said?"

"You said, 'René, some lucky guy will snatch you up before I have a chance to come back and get you.'"

He brought her fingers to his lips and gently kissed the tips. "I've thought about you so often since that day. Why haven't we kept in touch?"

She knew why she hadn't looked him up. He had her heart and a gnawing fear kept her from reaching out for fear he wouldn't feel the same. They'd lost touch. He'd moved away and moved on. She'd moved on. Her work had filled her heart's desires. She'd exchanged her love of Georgie Fleming for her love of cooking and the dream of owning her own restaurant.

"Work, life, moving in different circles. All those things. I'm so driven to open
Leo's
again that's all I think about."

His eyes widened. "That's right,
Leo's
was your dad's place on the lakefront. It's closed?"

"Gone. Hurricane Katrina."

"Oh. I'm sorry. You want to rebuild in the same place?"

"You bet. It's such a beautiful view of the lake. Besides, we still own the property. I've been saving and learning as much as I can. I'm hoping to start re-building within the next year."

He smiled. "I'm a little jealous. You're living our dream. Remember how we sat in that silly tree house and talked about our dreams. Everett wanted to be a firefighter. You and me, we wanted to be chefs. We said we'd get married, open our own restaurant, and call it R & G's." He shook his head in a slow methodical way as though he remembered more. "Kid dreams."

"If it makes you feel better, Everett's not a firefighter."

He looked at her with an expectant gaze. "Really. What is he?"

"A doctor."

He chuckled. "I should have known. He doctored every stray animal we came across."

"Yeah, remember when we went to our papa's ole place on the bayou, and we ran into that alligator with the cut foot that he thought about caring for?" She laughed at the memory of her brother taking a few steps toward the thing and jumping back when the alligator had hissed at him.

"He ran backward for about ten yards and then tripped on that tree branch. We had to doctor him." He snickered. "Well, at least he's doing what he wants to do, right?"

"He is. He's a natural and his patients love him." She loved recalling those days. Her…René, the little sister tag-a-long Everett and Cameron had tolerated. Although Cameron had been only two years older, to a nine-year-old he was the more mature man whom she'd adored.

Leona lifted her knee and turned toward Cameron. "Wanting to be a chef and have your own restaurant was all you talked about. Honestly, that was probably one of the reasons I think I wanted to be one. Your passion inspired me. It also helped that my family had a restaurant." She leaned forward and touched his forearm. "What happened to your dreams, Cameron?"

He cleared his throat and his eyes lost a bit of the luster from earlier. "Once we moved to California, things changed. Dad made it clear when he found out I'd been taking cooking lessons from Julian that his son was destined for a grander calling. His calling. As a young boy, I thought it was cool that my dad thought so highly of me and wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Now, as a thirty-year-old, I don't see it the same. I've traded my dreams for his." He squeezed his lips together, stood, and walked to the fireplace. He bent over to stoke the fire and add another log. "I feel like I've settled."

His heartfelt words swelled her heart. She couldn't imagine feeling so lost and trapped. "Have you talked to your dad about this?"

He returned to his seat. "No, I'm not sure he'd understand."

She placed her hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "You'll never know unless you say something."

"You're right. I need to say something before he gets too far along with this New Orleans office. I want to be in New Orleans." He reached for her hand. "But in a tiny restaurant kitchen simmering up awesome dishes, not in a high-rise office building negotiating movie deals for movies I have no desire to watch."

Leona loved sitting next to her old flame, Georgie. It was as though the years had made them older in age, but their hearts were still back in that Lakeshore tree house all those years ago. Talking with him tonight was as comfortable and familiar as wearing her favorite pair of tennis shoes.

"You're the only one who can make a change. You have to decide what you want to do and go for it. But usually before I decide anything, I pray. Ask God's direction for my life. Many times, my choices and His don't align. But after prayerful consideration, I usually have some clue. Sometime just waiting is enough. The right answer presents itself."

Although the wind howled and the light fluffy snow swirled in circles outside the window under the porch, Leona didn't care. Inside the cabin was warm and comfortable. Being with Cameron warmed her soul.

He met her gaze and tilted his head. His soft gaze glistened in the firelight. "You always knew the right thing to say. I can't believe I let you slip completely out of my life. What a fool I've been." His failure to acknowledge her comment about God ambushed her.

A flutter in Leona's stomach jerked and her heart shrank. She suspected that she hadn't been the only thing he'd loved that he'd let slip out of his life. She guessed his lifestyle in Los Angeles would have been far different than hers in Louisiana. Had he given up on God completely? Lost his true values? The image of the kiss Cameron and Marissa shared flashed through her mind. He hadn't seemed like a man fighting off unwanted advances.

The man she dreamed of marrying one day would be a Christian who would lead their family in Christian values. Could Cameron be considered that man if they were unevenly yoked?

 

****

 

Cameron rested his arm on the loveseat behind Leona. Being with her like this was a Christmas present. One that was far more than he had hoped for or imagined. He'd been drawn to her personality from that first day he'd almost run into her in the lodge, and now he knew why. She was his little René.

BOOK: Deep Freeze Christmas
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