gesture he sensed was more for her own comfort than for the dog.
“There it goes,” Josh said ruefully. “I was pretty sure that would happen eventually. The power goes out every time the wind blows too hard. Don’t worry. I have a backup generator if we need it and plenty of lanterns. Why don’t you sit by the fire and I’ll find some light?”
He gathered up all the lanterns and emergency candles he could find and lit them all.
“Sorry about that,” he said again.
“Do you think it will come back again soon?”
“Hard to say. Sometimes it’s only out an hour, sometimes all night. I’ll keep my fingers crossed it’s a short outage.”
“Why do you live out here, instead of closer to your shop in town?”
He considered his reasons. “The horses, mostly. I can ride into the mountains right after work without having to hitch up a trailer. And I suppose because I like the quiet. I grew up in a large family with two brothers and three sisters. My childhood was never quiet.”
“How do you fare in the winter? Aren’t you stranded up here?”
“There are a half dozen other year-round properties among the vacation cabins. The county plows to the end of the pavement and the rest of us trade off plowing the lower section of the road so we can get out. It’s beautiful up here in the winter.”
“I’ll have to take your word for that.”
He wanted to invite her to come back in a month or so but didn’t want to scare her off. Anyway, she would see plenty of snow in the morning.
“Can I interest you in dessert? We could make s’mores in front of the fire.”
“I’ve never had a s’more. Is it marshmallows and biscuits?”
“Plus chocolate. You can’t forget the chocolate. I have a special recipe. I use Nutella and sliced strawberries. And I happen to have some of both.”
She looked intrigued. “Sure. All right. How can I help?”
“You can help me slice a couple of strawberries, if you want.”
By candlelight, they worked together gathering the ingredients.
“Do you always keep these things on hand in case you’re entertaining a lady friend?”
He had to laugh. “No. My brother and his kids came up to stay and go for an overnight ride last weekend and we did s’mores over the campfire. You’re just fortunate enough to benefit from the extras.”
“Lucky me.” She smiled and Josh suddenly felt a little breathless.
He was the lucky one. Gemma Summerhill was here, in his house, and he wanted to savor every moment.
CHAPTER THREE
“THAT MIGHT POSSIBLY be the most delicious thing I’ve ever had in my life.” Gemma swallowed the last bite of s’more, the marshmallow, strawberry and Nutella melting on her mouth.
“I’ve got a couple more strawberries if you want to go for another one.”
“I can’t. Really. You’ve stuffed me to the brim.”
“Well, I don’t want them to go to waste. I’d better have another one.”
While Joshua speared a marshmallow on the long-handled fork and turned it to the fire’s heat, Gemma sat back, perfectly content.
She should be frightened. She was trapped in a mountain hideaway, possibly for several more hours if not days, with a man she barely knew, in the middle of an October snowstorm.
She wasn’t. All her nerves seemed to have disappeared around the time the power went out.
How strange, that something that had starting out so frightening could evolve into an evening she had enjoyed more than any she could remember in a long time.
Joshua Bailey was wonderful company. He was funny, clever, solicitous. And, she had to admit, deliciously good-looking.
After he finished roasting the marshmallow, he slapped it on a biscuit, spread Nutella from a jar on the other one, added sliced strawberries then took a big bite of the whole concoction.
“There you go. The third one was just as good as the first,” he declared after he finished it off.
His dog hopped onto the sofa to curl next to him and Josh absently stroked Toby’s ears. She had a feeling this was a routine they were both accustomed to.
He was very different from the somewhat arrogant American cowboy she had taken him for the first time they had met. This version of him was sweet and funny and definitely a man she liked very much and wanted to get to know better.
“So,” he said into the conversational lull. “I have a serious question for you.”
“Oh?”
“I’m a bit hesitant to ask it.”
“Go ahead,” she said. “You’ve told me about your brothers’ divorces, your mother’s breast cancer scare