Free Stranded With a Hero by Karen Erickson, Cindi Madsen, Coleen Kwan, Roxanne Snopek

the front door, though the covered porch could allow them a bit of a break. As in, find a way to get them out.
    Hell. He’d have to tunnel his way out of here just to get to the stack of firewood he knew sat on the backside of the house. And there was no guarantee they’d make their escape any time soon. They could be stuck like this for days.
    Mindy was not going to like this.
    Letting the curtain drop, he moved from the window and went to the front door, unlocking it quickly and stepping just outside so he could stand on the thick doormat. He was still in his thick socks, jeans, and sweatshirt and the frigid, damp air nearly took his breath away.
    The covered porch had faired well but was completely socked in by snow on all three sides. Sound was muffled. He could hardly tell if the freaking sun was out or not, though he doubted it was.
    This was not good.
    He headed back into the house, his mind awhirl with a game plan. After he’d angrily left Mindy last night, he’d powered off his cell phone to save the battery. With the power out, he thought it was a good move. He had no idea how reception would be now though, considering they were snowed in. All that packed snow could obliterate reception.
    Maybe he could check out the upstairs…
    Josh glanced up the staircase, knowing that Mindy was still up there and most likely sleeping. He’d checked the battery-operated clock that hung on the kitchen wall when he first woke up and he knew it was around seven. Naturally he was an early bird, his job called for it and after last night’s epic fail of a make-out session that turned into an argument, he’d tossed and turned.
    Deciding to hell with it, he took the risk and slowly climbed the stairs, not wanting to create too much of a racket and wake her up.
    Confess the truth, jerkwad. You don’t want her to catch you up here.
    He stopped at the top of the stairs, looking around. The wall facing him was lined with various photos, most of them of Mindy’s boys at the different stages of their lives. Babies, toddlers, school pictures, sports-team photos, this wall was the life and times of Mindy and Marty’s children. In a few photos Mindy stood with her boys, smiling proudly, her arms around their shoulders after a soccer game or some sort of school function.
    Marty wasn’t in one single photo. That gave Josh such a flare of satisfaction, though he felt like an ass just thinking it.
    Moving away from the wall, he headed down the hall, glancing in each open doorway he passed. One boy’s bedroom, a bathroom, then another bedroom. He approached the last door on the right and he slowed his steps, knowing exactly who waited beyond that partially closed door.
    It was Mindy’s room. And most likely, Mindy was in bed, sleeping soundly.
    Josh peeked inside around the edge of the door, catching sight of Mindy lying on her stomach, sprawled across the middle of the bed. Despite their earlier fight and the uneasiness over where he stood with Mindy that clung to him like smoke, he smiled. Pleased to see she’d taken over that entire bed versus lying on just one side.
    He wished she could be the same about her life.
    Damn. The minute she was awake and coherent, they were going to talk about what happened last night. He refused to let it end like this. More than anything, he needed to apologize for trying to take over her life so thoroughly. He hated himself for that the most.
    Quickly he left her doorway and went into one of the boy’s bedrooms, headed straight for the window. He cracked open the blinds, relief flooding him when he found that he could actually see outside. The sky was dark with clouds, not a hint of sunshine anywhere and the snow seemed to stop just at the first story of the house.
    The clouds appeared bloated, and he knew with the cold air outside if any rain fell from them, it would turn into snow. What he needed to get out of here was for the temperatures to warm up. A steady rainfall would work away at the snow.