CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER

2

I

saac stood on the porch of Cabin #3 holding the second plate of breakfast.

Well, that was interesting.

A woman who wears porn star elf PJs and blushes like a schoolgirl. With a grin, he wondered what colour she would go when she looked in the mirror and realized just how crazy her hair was.

Not that he was complaining. Her riot of curls appealed to him. He wondered if her temper matched the red-headed stereotype. And the freckles. Lord, he’d always had a weakness for those.

Isaac walked slowly up the path back to his place, part of his brain cataloguing the work that still needed to be done on the property while the rest was still distracted by the freckles in Cabin #3.

Jenna had made the reservation by phone, and he had assumed that because she booked the cabin he called the honeymoon suite, she wasn’t going to be alone.

He’d distinctly heard “no boyfriend” in the conversation they’d just had. But even if there was no boyfriend, it was unprofessional to hit on a guest. There was no way he was going to make a move. No matter how curious he was about what was hidden under those bulky flannel pyjamas.

After all, she was going home in ten days, and he had learned his lesson the hard way about getting involved with people who leave.

That was one lesson he had no intention of learning a second time. No matter how many freckles she had.

Good thing his family was arriving in a couple of days. Not only would they fill the rest of the cabins and rooms in the lodge, but they would also provide a welcome distraction from Jenna and the X-rated thoughts inspired by her PJs.

It was official.

Jenna sucked at relaxing. After a whopping twenty-four hours of “vacation time,” she was going crazy.

A dozen or so hours of post–hot tub and champagne sleep followed by the breakfast provided by the lodge’s hunky proprietor had topped up her energy supply. She had cleaned herself up, read a book, and ignored the four calls that had already come in from her brother.

It wasn’t even 10 a.m. yet, and she was jumping out of her skin.

What she needed was to get out of the cabin and get some stimulation for her body as well as her brain. Without the distraction of the ever-ringing phone.

This year, there would be no family at all taking part in Jenna’s un-Christmas. It was going to be fantastic. She just needed to get used to the whole relaxing thing.

Maybe she could go for a walk in the woods. There was a lot of snow, but it wasn’t terribly cold. Close to the ocean on Vancouver Island it rarely went much below freezing. And she did have a nice pair of boots that never got any use in the city.

Jenna put on her boots and bundled up in her jacket and a cozy scarf. Then she silenced her phone—ringing once again—and left it on the table as she closed the door firmly behind her. Relaxing did not include talking to her brother.

Jenna trudged through the snow until she found the trail sign to the left of the lodge. The snow didn’t look too deep.

Besides, it would do her good to get some real fresh air and clear her head. And if she happened, as she passed by, to get a good glimpse of the hunky innkeeper chopping wood on the other side of the clearing, so much the better to fuel her holiday fantasies.

Isaac stopped chopping

for a minute and listened. He thought he’d heard something, but all was quiet now. It had sounded like a scream. He remembered seeing the woman from Cabin #3 set off for a walk, but surely she wasn’t still out there. It had been almost two hours, and the trail loop only took an hour to walk, even for people who weren’t all that fit.

But he

had

seen her head out, and had

not

seen her come back. Maybe he’d just make sure she was okay and then go back to chopping.

He walked over to the cabin and knocked on the door. No one answered, and a glance at the quickly darkening sky left him feeling uneasy. The storm was definitely on its way. It wouldn’t hurt to walk down the path a bit, and see if she was on her way back.

Isaac got a few hundred yards down the trail and heard a voice calling for help. He didn’t see anyone on the trail, but he could see where footprints veered off the path. Damn it. What was she thinking, going off the trail on her own with this much snow on the ground? There was a steep embankment off the edge of the path that was nearly impossible to see in the snow. He’d been adding signage and catching up on the trail maintenance over the past year, but he was far from done.

He really hoped she hadn’t fallen down the embankment. There was a river at the bottom of it. Getting her out would be difficult—assuming she hadn’t already frozen to death—and the last thing he needed right now was a lawsuit from an injured guest. He hadn’t even been running the lodge a full year.

“Jenna?” He carefully followed her prints, calling out every couple of steps. “Jenna? Can you hear me?” He stood still for a second, and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard her voice to his left. At least she’d gone

away

from the perilous embankment by the river.

“I’m here.” She was sitting with her back up against a tree, her leg straight out in front of her.

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

“It’s my knee. I got my foot caught in a root and fell down funny. I heard a

pop

, and now it hurts like crazy. I can’t bend it.” She looked like she was in a lot of pain.

“Do you think your leg is broken?”

“No, but there’s definitely something wrong with my knee. It hurts when my leg moves at all, and my kneecap is all wonky. I tried to make a crutch but I couldn’t find any branches that were strong enough.”

“I can be your crutch, but I think we should make you a splint to hold your knee straight.” Isaac broke a fairly straight branch off a nearby tree and used his pocket knife to strip off the excess greenery. He bound the makeshift splint to Jenna’s leg with her scarf, trying to ignore the grimace of pain that appeared on her face with every little movement. God, he really hoped she didn’t sue him. The last thing he needed right now was bad publicity.

He helped her to her feet, being careful to support her so she didn’t put any weight on the leg. “If it is broken, you don’t want to risk doing any more damage.”

Jenna nodded in agreement.

And before she knew what he intended, he had scooped her up and was carrying her back along the trail.

It was too bad she was in so much pain, as she didn’t get to fully appreciate the experience of resting against Isaac’s chest while he carried her to the truck.