Free Stuck With A Stranger by Grace McCabe Page B

ago.
     
    Still, it was worth a try. If nothing else, she'd get
some fresh air and aerobic exercise, and get to see some beautiful
scenery in the Colorado Rockies. She’d be out the air fare to
Denver, but her severance checks were coming in now and she could
use a break from the stress and anxiety of being temporarily
unemployed.
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    But now, sitting in a greasy-spoon diner in rural
Colorado, snowbound and miles from Aspen, she was beginning to
think the weekend was going to turn out to be a colossal disaster.
Mother Nature was conspiring to keep her and Andy Hubbard apart,
and it was looking like she wouldn’t even get a chance at some
relaxing solitude in a remote yurt high in the mountains.
     
    “Have you heard any news about the weather?” Rachel
asked the waitress as she walked by.
     
    The waitress shrugged. “They said we’d probably get
six more inches before the storm lets up. The interstate’s closed
all the way up to the Eisenhower Tunnel, and they probably won’t
get it plowed off until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.”
     
    “Do you think there are any motel rooms available in
town?”
     
    The waitress shrugged again. “I could bring you the
phone book and you could call around and find out.”
     
    Wonderful. Instead of curling up in front of a fire
with the man of her dreams, it looked like Rachel would be spending
the night alone in a cheap motel – if she could even find a room at
this point. She tried not to slip into self-pity, she tried to tell
herself that “shit happens” sometimes, but it did little to
brighten her ever-darkening mood.
     
    "Another cup?" The waitress asked her, holding up a
pot of coffee.
     
    "No thanks. I want to get some sleep tonight.”
     
    “We’ve got decaf.”
     
    Rachel shook her head. Glancing around the diner, she
saw that most of the dinner crowd had emptied out, and only a
handful of patrons remained. Most appeared to be truckers stranded
by the blizzard--the delay costing them both time and money--and
they looked none too happy about it. Rachel was thankful for the
fact that she was in Colorado on a weekend getaway and not work,
and maybe she’d be able to at least have Sunday to do some
site-seeing before she had to fly back to Dallas.
     
    Her gaze wandered to the other side of the diner,
where a man was sitting alone at the counter. At first glance there
didn’t seem to be anything extraordinary about the guy, but as her
eyes adjusted to the dim light and she got a better look at him,
she saw that he was actually quite handsome in a rugged, Marlboro
Man sort of way. Dressed in a sweater and designer jeans, he had
olive skin, chestnut-brown hair, and a strong jaw. His shoulders
were broad, and even from across the room she could see a
well-muscled torso hiding beneath the folds of his sweater.
     
    He was staring straight ahead with a vacant
expression that said his mind was somewhere else. He probably
wished that he was somewhere else, Rachel thought. Suddenly, as if
sensing that he was being observed, he turned and looked at her. He
gave her a nod and a wry smile. She returned his smile, then
quickly glanced away, embarrassed that she'd been caught gawking at
a strange man in a diner.
     
    “Here you go,” the waitress said, returning to
Rachel’s table. She handed her a laminated sheet of paper which
turned out to be Lone Pine’s “phone book.”
     
    Wonderful . Rachel opened her purse and was
rummaging for her cell phone when a shadow appeared above her. She
glanced up and found Marlboro Man standing there, his coffee cup in
his hand.
     
    "Mind if I join you?" He asked.
     
    "Ah, sure," she stammered. "That would be nice."
     
    “It looks like we’re stranded in this crappy little
town for the duration,” he said, sliding into the seat opposite
her. He had a deep, resonant voice that was easy on the ears.
     
    “It certainly looks that way,” she agreed. “Unless we
get some sort of miracle heat wave in