Page 53 of Stubborn as a Shadow

Was Nelson rambling? It was sweet how he was worrying about me.

But wouldn’t we be better sleeping together? For warmth, obviously. I waggled my eyebrows, even though he wasn’t looking at me and didn’t know what was going on in my head.

I wasn’t ready to abandon my sex-up-Nelson plans yet. But time was on my side since the chances of our getting out of here tomorrow were rather slim. I had at least one full day and another night to break down his defenses.

Excellent. Gotta love a plan.

I pushed open the door to the other room, since cocooning in a blanket sounded marvelous.

“Uh oh,” I whispered as the door swung open to reveal a small bathroom.

I moved the door to peer behind it. Nope. No bedroom. No bed to purloin. Nelson wasn’t going to like that. It looked like we were going to be up close and personal tonight. I rubbed my hands together and barely resisted the urge to cackle.

Then I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror above the sink. The room was dark, so I did a double take. I gasped at the horror that was my face. The murky glow from wimpy solar lights outside the bathroom window did me no favors.

“Oh my freaking magic!”

I resembled a rabid raccoon who aspired to be that clown fromIt. Holy sweet mother of chipmunks. No wonder Nelson kept shying away from me when I flirted with him. I had to fix this.

The towel rack was empty.

Shit, shit, shit.

“What did you say?” Nelson called from the other room.

I slammed the door shut. Could I hide here forever?

I tugged open my borrowed jacket. I no longer cared if the air was cold enough to freeze my breath. This was an emergency. I grabbed the hem of my shirt and tried to tug it up to my face. The stupid dress shirt was too tight and didn’t have enough give to reach my face. I tried to work the buttons open, but my fingers were too cold.

Son of a spider.

There had to be something. A dusty cotton ball? A stray roll of toilet paper? I wasn’t picky. I groped inside the large freestanding cupboard in the corner and found a container of sanitizer and a stash of stale-smelling towels. Hallelujah. The sanitizer wouldn’t help me now, but I set it aside for later. Then I sent out a silent apology to the cabin’s owner, because I was totally going to destroy at least one of their towels. But needs must.

I wiped the rough terry cloth over my face, then squinted into the mirror to see if that helped. It was a teensy bit better, but a towel alone was clearly not going to cut it. I tried turning the tap. Nothing came out. Right, the owners would have turned the water off for the season.

“Okay,” I muttered to my reflection. “Don’t panic. You can figure this out.”

“I still can’t hear you.” Nelson projected his voice.

My panic spiked.

I needed snow. Excellent. Now I had a plan.

But that’d mean going back to the other room like this. And I just couldn’t do it. Not when Nelson must have the fire going by now. A fire meant light. A light meant Nelson would see the atrocity that was my face.

I tried prying open the window. Nope. It didn’t budge.

What else…? Then I knew.

I produced as much spit as I could and dropped it onto the towel.Okay. Here we go. I gagged a little when the warm, wet towel touched my face, but I ignored the grossness factor and got to work. It didn’t take long for my spit glands to protest and go on strike. I squinted into the mirror. Lingering streaks of makeup coated my skin.

“Come on,” I encouraged the deities of spit, whoever they were. “Just a little more.”

“Hey,” Nelson whispered. He very quietly knocked on the door. “Are you sleeping?”

The doorknob twisted, and the door opened before I could block it.

“Ah!” In my panic, my body jerked. My dirty, spit-covered towel flew out of my hand and smacked him in the face.