Double Booked

They stumbled into the cabin about an hour later, soaked to the skin with mud up to their knees. Dibs on the shower had been claimed by Nora shortly after they continued the journey back, but all bets were off once they realized the power had been shut down by the storm. No lights. No heat. No water pump.

“Just my luck,” Nora grumbled through chattering teeth, tugging the once-beige hiking boots from her pruned feet and throwing them out the front door to be rinsed by the staggared trickle of rain still going on.

Sid sat down to do the same, nose scrunching at the less-than-desirable feeling of his cold, wet foot. “Gross,” he commented as Nora peeled one sock off. Her foot was pale and wrinkled with water intake; it looked dead. He kept his sock on, at least until her eyes weren’t on him - he doubted his feet looked any better.

She wriggled her toes with a frown. “Looks like it’s going to slough off,” she observed, giving it a good shake to make sure her skin didn’t in fact come loose. And then she shot him a pointed look. “When the power comes back on, I still get the first shower.”

“We’ll see about that,” he murmured, still contemplating whether he should take his socks off or not. He could feel his foot absorb the water like a sponge - definitely less that desirable.

With a huff, she got up, damp feet slapping the wooden floors as she walked.

“Where are you going?” he asked, squinting through the dimmed lighting at her slim figure. The sunset wasn’t doing his sight any justice.

“To change,” she told him, pulling the clinging fabric of her tank top out and letting it suction back to her taut stomach. Even in the lack of light, Sidney could still trace her sinewy limbs. He wondered if she worked out. And if she did, he wondered if she wanted to work out with him sometime. On a bed. With no clothes.

Before his wandering mind could lead him to trouble, Sidney dropped his gaze. Three days with the girl was really starting to get to him.

When it was his turn to take that shower, it was going to have to be a cold one.

“Good idea,” he agreed, heading for his own suitcase. Sweats and an old tee sounded like heaven on earth at this point. Even if he was half covered in dirt.

Being raised by old-fashioned parents, Sidney chivalrously let Nora take the windowed upstairs bedroom to change in, refining himself to the pitch black bathroom on the first floor. After much elbow-bumping and toe-stubbing, he emerged a few minutes later - fully clothed - to find Nora propped cross-legged on the couch in an aged Aeropostale sweatshirt and a slim-fitting pair of yoga pants. She was really trying to kill him.

In front of her on the coffee table was a disorganized scramble of cards in what he was suspecting to be in rows, illuminated by a single flickering candle. In its low light, he could make out the furrow of her eyebrows and the concentrated twist to her lips. “What are you playing?” he asked her. The card version of pick-up sticks?

She tucked a damp piece of hair behind her ear and looked at him. “I’ve never played Solitare on anything but my computer before,” she said meekly, shooting him a shy smile. “Not as easy as it looks.”

Obviously.

Sidney rolled his eyes and reached for the box of matches she had set next to the candle. “First things first,” he explained, pulling back one of the creaking doors to the fireplace. “Let’s get some decent light.” The previous renter had left some logs in there before they’d left, ensuring him dry wood to work with. He grabbed a newspaper from the coffee table’s lower shelf and crumpled a page up, tucking it deep beneath the logs. If there was one other thing his old-fashioned parents had taught him, it was how to survive without a light switch. Striking one of the matches against the box’s built-in flint, Sidney quickly discarded it to the underbelly of the logs and watched as the fireplace began to spark to life.

“Show off,” he heard Nora mumble as he sat back on the couch next to her and began gathering the cards. But even Nora couldn’t turn her nose up to the instant temperature boost - she slowly unwrapped her arms from her chest and let her long legs spread out.

He brushed off her comment. “Ever played Ultimate Golf?” he asked, shuffling the pile and dealing each of them eight cards.

“No, but I guess that’s what we’re playing,” she said with a drawl, blowing out the emergency candle that was no longer in need.

“Line the cards up in rows of four, only flip two over,” he explained, organizing his own cards. “The goal of the game is to get as few points as possible.”

“Must be a hard task for you,” she deadpanned, making Sid dig his elbow into her side.

After the first few games, Nora had begun to get the hang of it. But by the end of the ninth, he’d whooped her 37 to 108. It seemed to be his day for kicking Nora’s ass. But thankfully to him, Nora seemed to take finishing last well.

Unlike himself.

“That’s enough for tonight,” she decided she flipped her last few cards over. A jack and a queen, ten points each. Make that 128. She yawned and stretched her arms out like a feline in front of her. “I’m all carded out.”

“Suit yourself,” he said, gathering up the cards and securing them with a rubber band. “Ready for bed?” Sidney froze - did he really just say that? He could have kicked himself at the eager tone in his voice, too. It wouldn’t be surprising if she took off sprinting right now.

But - thankfully for him - Nora pretended not to notice. “Could we just bring some blankets down here instead?” she asked, which made him exhale the breath he’d been hanging on to. “I almost froze a toe off changing up there - I don’t think the windows are sealed completely.”

So she wanted an indoor fireside campout. With him. She’d said ‘we,’ right? He was pretty sure he’d heard that. “Sure we can,” he subsided, glad he’d made it out of that one alive.

If only narrowly.

---

Nora hid her smile behind the armful of blankets as she hauled them down the steps. Ready for bed? She couldn’t believe he’d actually said that - how hilarious! Yet there she was, grinning into the side of a sleeping bag like a hockey-loving fan girl. Sidney Crosby had asked her if she was ready for bed.

Ehmehgawd!

But as soon as she hit the bottom step, Nora ordered the smile from her face and peeked out from behind the pile of blankets weighing her down.

Sidney had cleared a spot on the floor, since the leak prone couch and too-small chairs were out of the question as sleeping surfaces. She unloaded the armful onto the floor, dropping down to lay out the first few layers of blankets for cushion. Sidney helped her, too, and within five minutes their make-shift bed was complete.

“I feel like I’m five again,” Nora laughed to herself as she slipped under the covers. “The only thing missing is the fort made out of chairs and blankets.”

Sidney laughed from beside her; she felt it through the floor. “We’d totally do that if I wasn’t dead tired,” he chuckled. There it was again - we.

“My legs are already sore,” she noted, curling them against her as she turned on her side to face him. He was turned her way, too, dark eyes flickering in the fire’s light as he watched her. He had an easy smile on those lips of his; her fingers curled together as she fought the urge to reach out and touch them.

Down girl.

“I’d offer a massage, but-” he trailed off, that easy smile widening.

“But what?” she challenged, propping herself on an elbow to see him better.

“I don’t work for free,” he explained, his grin turning dopey.

You don’t say.

---

Sidney couldn’t believe the runs he was making with his mouth. He wasn’t normally like that - not even in the locker room. Maybe lack of contact with the outside world was going this to him. Or maybe he was just doing this to himself. He grimaced at the latter explanation.

But nonetheless, the same amused expression stuck to Nora’s glowing face. “And what is it you work for?” she challenged, a brow raising upward.

Money. Trophies. Yoga pants. He almost choked at that last one. Instead, he just shrugged, leaving it a mystery for her to crack.

But she wasn’t having it. Not after a hike-gone-wrong and being owned in cards. Nora, with a trademark roll of her eyes, collapsed back onto her pillow and snapped her eyes shut. “Goodnight, Sidney.” She said it like it was an order.

He kept his eyes open, waiting for her to open her own again. When she didn’t, he finally raised a white flag and let his own slip shut. “Goodnight, Nora,” he managed before leaning back into his own pillow.

This one, Sidney lost.