Page 42 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men

CAMRYN

I stepped from the house carefully, the freshly-fallen snow feeling soft and light beneath my boots. Fluffy mounds of it gave way in every direction; a vast, virgin-white playground, completely unblemished.

“I can’t believe it finally stopped!”

The skies were mostly clear. A beautiful, wonderful blue dome, with wispy white streaks.

“Temporarily stopped,” Oakley corrected me. “This is only a break in the storm. It’s going to snow again later, and then all night tonight.”

“It is?”

“Another two to three feet.”

I stopped for a moment to lean on my shovel. “Why are we even digging out then?”

“To keep ahead of it.”

The sound of scraping filled my ears, as all three of them began to dig in a different direction. Their well-muscled arms and shoulders made short work of the walkway. Snow flew everywhere, plopping on top of other snow with a soft hiss.

“You two go clear the Marauder,” Jaxon ordered, pointing to Ryder and myself. “We’ll do the solar array.”

With that we split up, and for the better part of the next hour I worked up quite a sweat.

Ryder and I cut a very clean, satisfying path to the driveway, then began digging around the giant vehicle.

I’d never really shoveled snow before — not like this, anyway.

Somehow, I found the whole process oddly gratifying.

“Are we driving this thing today?” I asked over the plop of his shovel.

Ryder looked at the half-buried Marauder and shook his head. “No way in hell the roads are open yet.”

“So why are we—”

“To keep it clear,” he cut me off. “For when they are open.”

We dug some more, clearing all new sections of the big truck. The monstrosity was too big for the garage, but they’d parked it against the house to reduce the amount of snow that might bury it. Eventually, Ryder cleared the driver’s side door. He pulled it open, climbed in, then extended his hand.

“Get that hot little ass in here.”

I allowed myself to be pulled up, but not before burying my own shovel in a nearby pile. Ryder positioned me in his lap for a moment, then pressed the button that would start the vehicle.

To my surprise and delight, the Marauder fired right up.

“There we go.”

He reached past me to close the door, divorcing us from the wind. It was suddenly very dark and very quiet, especially with most of the windows still buried.

“This is cool,” I giggled. “Kinda like being in a fort. When I was a little girl, I—”

My statement ended where Ryder’s hot mouth began. He kissed me hard, thrusting that playful yet powerful tongue past my lips and into my hungry mouth. His big, suddenly gloveless hands felt exceptionally warm on my thighs.

“You’re pretty good at digging,” I chuckled into his mouth.

He answered by kissing me with even more fire and passion. It made me dizzy. It made me… other things, too.

“We dug a lot of snow growing up in Vermont,” he eventually whispered, cupping my face. “Our parents were meticulous about keepings things clear. Maybe that’s why they had so many of us.”

My eyes narrowed. “How many?”

“Ten.”

I gasped. “You have ten siblings!?”

“Six brothers and three sisters,” he said, nonchalantly. “I myself was number nine. My mother was exhausted by then, and my father was barely around. Even when he was, he was hardly in a good mood. Couldn’t blame him though. The guy was always working.”

“That sucks.”

Ryder nodded. “A little bit, yeah. The only time we got to see him was in the garage, after work, when he’d be teaching one or more us how to fix something. He was nice then, though — probably because he loved to tinker with stuff. Those are my best memories of him.”

“Nine of ten,” I swore. “Damn.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I was raised mostly by my older siblings, who were already looking out for themselves. Very quickly I got lost in the mix. Shit, I became an afterthought, mostly.”

“From your own parents?” I asked skeptically. “I don’t believe that.”

“And why not?” demanded Ryder. “By the time I came around, they’d done all this eight times already. Trust me when I say there was a lot less interest.” He laughed and shrugged. “The good and bad parts were the same, though. No one watched over me, so I could pretty much do anything I wanted.”

“And so you joined the Army,” I added sardonically. “Giving you another couple hundred instant siblings.”

He laughed, and I laughed right along with him. I couldn’t help but smile as I pictured it; a young and very impetuous Ryder, sailing through the chaos of his crowded childhood home, ducking responsibility wherever he saw it. The whole scenario fit his personality so perfectly, too.

“Did you enjoy having so many siblings growing up?”

He thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Sometimes. Other times I wanted to crawl under my bed, just to be alone. And even that little space wasn’t entirely mine. I had to share.”

“I was an only child,” I admitted. “I would’ve traded anything for a brother or sister.”

“And I would’ve traded you a handful of brothers and sisters for a single candy bar,” he smiled. “Either that, or a minute’s peace.”

The heating system finally kicked in, taking the wispy frost of our breath away as it filled the Marauder’s interior with a welcomed warmth.

I squirmed more snugly into Ryder’s lap, staring into those gorgeous blue eyes.

The snow in our hair began melting, running down our rosy faces.

It made it seem like we were crying through our mutual smiles.

“I want a big family,” Ryder admitted softly. “But not at the expense of time with my kids. Growing up I felt left out a lot, but also left behind. Like my oldest siblings got all the best times with mom and dad, and I was left with the scraps.”

His expression was softer now, more introspective. It was a side of him I hadn’t yet seen.

“I shouldn’t even be talking,” he sighed, apologetically. “You lost both your parents already, and at such a young age. That pales in comparison to my—”

“Hey…”

I cradled his face in both hands and tilted his face toward mine.

“It’s okay,” I told him. “To feel like this, I mean. Whatever happened to me doesn’t make your own experience any less valid.”

His shoulders drooped, and his body relaxed even further beneath me. It felt amazing, peeking beneath Ryder’s rugged, masculine shell. I sensed without knowing, that it was a place very few people were allowed.

“It’s okay to love the camaraderie,” I told him. “I love it too. Oakley and Jaxon are pretty special. So was Sarge. You’re lucky to find people like this. People who’ll share your life forever.”

Now it was my chin that dropped a little. Ryder picked it up between two thick fingers.

“What about you?” he asked gently.

I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “W—What about me?”

“Are you that type of woman?” he asked. “The kind who’ll share her life with—”

The roar of an engine suddenly split the silence. It was loud and crisp, and sailed through the octaves as it revved to full throttle. Almost like a chainsaw, but much, much deeper.

Ryder reached down and cracked the door open. The roar grew even louder.

“What’s that?” I asked.

His smile was so boyish, it was almost like that of a child.

“Snowblower,” Ryder grinned.

“Snowblower?” I asked in confusion. “Who? Where?”

“Jaxon,” he said simply. “He’s plowing the field at the back of the house.”

“Why?”

Ryder hopped down, then grabbed me around the waist and pulled me from the Marauder. The drone of the snowblower’s engine abruptly changed pitch. Off in the distance, I could see snow flying everywhere.

“You’ll see why,” he said excitedly, slipping his hand into mine. “Now quick, start making snowballs.”