Free Falling Fast, Contemporary Romance (Last Frontier Lodge Novels Book 4) by J.H. Croix

slow is the smart thing right now. It’s getting bad pretty fast.” No matter how many years she’d driven in rough weather, it always made her a little anxious. Cam’s steady presence soothed her, which also flustered her because she didn’t like how much she enjoyed his confident, calm manner.
    The rest of the drive was quiet, save the wind howling outside and the incessant sound of snow drumming against the windshield. He eventually made it to her house, following her earlier directions precisely. He carefully turned into her driveway. The snow was piling up, so she guided him to where to park. She looked his way and wondered what to say. The words that came out surprised her. She most certainly wasn’t thinking, yet she couldn’t help but want to hunker down with him to wait the storm out.
    “Want to come in? You might be better off waiting the storm out here for a bit before you head up the hill to the lodge.”
    Uh, what the hell are you thinking? I’m thinking the weather’s awful and I don’t want to see him drive away in this. I’ll be worried until I know he makes it back to the lodge. Oh right, you’re worried about him. Maybe so, but it’s more than that and you know it.  
    Ginger sighed internally. Cam had this amazing ability to turn off the sensible part of her brain. She could tell herself she was worried about the weather, and she legitimately was, but the part of her that got bold and invited him to come in was the part that wanted Cam like she’d never wanted any man.
    She looked out the window into the swirl of blinding snow. The wind was flying in hard off the water and blowing the snow sideways. With her house situated on the bluff overlooking the bay, when storms came in, the house tended to bear the brunt of the wind with little to offer protection. When she turned back to Cam, he was staring out at the snow as well. His profile was silhouetted in the shadowed car. The strong, clean lines of his face held her gaze. When he glanced her way, a bolt of need shot through her and butterflies amassed in her belly.
    He nodded, and she forgot what she’d last said.
    “If you don’t mind, it’s probably better if I wait a bit to see if this slows down. I’d rather not drive at a crawl in this snow. The visibility’s close to none.”
    Oh yeah. She’d invited him to come in and stay until the snow slowed down. It occurred to her this storm didn’t appear to have any plans for slowing down. If her guess was right, they were only at the beginning. Her mind dodged away from what that could mean as far as Cam waiting it out.
    “Let’s get inside then,” she said quickly. She tugged her gloves on and threw her hood up before climbing out.
    They trudged through the snow to her front door. Her porch light had come on automatically since it was set on a timer. The soft glow of the light was a beacon in the falling darkness and driving snow. She pointlessly tried to kick the snow off her boots before she stepped inside, but she immediately picked up more snow the moment she set her foot down again.
    After they got inside, she put her boots by the heater to dry off and hung her coat up, insisting he do the same. She flicked the lights on in the living room and kitchen and turned on an outside light. It illuminated the snow on the other side of the windows, lighting it up like falling glitter.
    She went straight to the kitchen and gestured for Cam to sit at the small round table in the corner. “Coffee? Tea? Or maybe you’d rather have a beer.”
    “Got any of Delia’s hard cider?” he countered with a grin.
    She burst out laughing. “She’s got you hooked too, huh?”
    He nodded emphatically.
    She turned and walked into the small pantry off to the side of the kitchen. “Hang on, let me see. Delia gave me a few quarts of it a while ago. I’m not sure if I have any left.”
    After rearranging a messy shelf, she found two quarts of Delia’s beloved hard cider behind some flour and a bag of