Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Chapter 7 Sawyer

7

C H A P T E R

Sawyer

S awyer wiped the sweat from his brow, his breath coming in quicky steamy puffs and he leaned on his shovel. His muscles ached from hours of shoveling, but he couldn’t very well go back inside the lodge and rest when there were people still trapped in their cabins.

The four men had devised a rotation of digging so that they didn’t drop. Each man would dig for thirty minutes and rest for thirty minutes. He glanced over at Lucas who was trying to catch his breath since he had just stepped back from his turn to dig. Lucas looked as exhausted as Sawyer felt.

“Almost there,” Lucas said between breaths.

“Finally,” Sawyer muttered as he headed toward the angled tunnel that they had leading to the next cabin door.

They’d started with the cabin directly across from Lucas’ and Sawyer’s cabin. Joseph and Elsie Gates, who came to the mountain for their honeymoon, were trapped inside.

Sawyer carefully maneuvered through the tunnel and lightly tapped on the cabin’s door. Joseph slowly opened it. His eyes widened when he saw Sawyer and he hesitated just a minute, no doubt remembering that Jerome had called him a murderer.

“Get a bag of clothes. We managed to dig you guys out, but there are still three other cabins that we have to dig out, so you need to move quickly. Lucas, Oliver, and Daniel are waiting at the top of the tunnel to help you out.”

Sawyer stepped inside and put out the fire in the fireplace while the couple stuffed some clothes into a couple of bags.

“The tunnel is three feet wide so you should fit, one at a time. Go slow because we don’t want the tunnel to collapse on you. It’s at an angle so you should be able to navigate it. Elsie, do you want to go first?”

She nodded. Her eyes were side, her face pale, and she trembled a little.

“Don’t worry, Joseph will be right behind you,” Sawyer assured her.

Elsie kissed Joseph and then crawled into the tunnel.

A few minutes later, Lucas softly called out, “We’ve got her.”

Sawyer nodded to Joseph. “Go, and don’t kiss me first.”

Joseph grinned at the joke and crawled into the tunnel.

“Safe,” Lucas called.

Sawyer slithered into the tunnel, pulling the cabin door closed behind him, and carefully made his way to the top.

“It’s a good thing that I’m not claustrophobic,” he said.

“Heck of a way to spend a honeymoon,” Joseph joked.

Elsie grinned. “We’ll have great stories to tell our children. I’m six weeks pregnant.”

“Congrats,” everyone said.

“What can we do to help?” Joseph asked.

“Take your bags to the lodge and grab a shovel,” Daniel said.

“I want to help, too.”

All of the men looked at her and then her belly, almost in unison. If the situation hadn’t been so dire, it would have been comical.

“I’m pregnant, not dying. The baby will be fine and exercise is good for him. If I get tired, I’ll rest.”

Joseph stared at her and raised his eyebrows. “Him?”

She smirked. “Just a feeling I have.”

They all walked back to the lodge for water and a five-minute break before heading back out into the cold air. It was gently snowing again.

“Great, just what we need,” Sawyer said.

No one replied.

Oliver took a deep breath. “Daniel, you and I will work on that cabin. It has the three college girls, Maddie, Samantha, and Emilia, in there. Joseph and Elsie will get the cabin across from you guys. Two men are in that one I believe – Darren and Zaid. Sawyer and Lucas will work on that last cabin.”

His stomach turned at the thought. Jerome was a ticking time bomb and if his outburst at dinner was any indication, anything might happen when they opened the door and saw him.

Great. I get to help save the man who hates me and my family. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Sawyer and Lucas trudged over to the cabin. He would have sworn that the snow was getting deeper by the minute, making it harder and harder to walk. His legs were aching and he was positive that his arms were going to fall off any minute. They had been digging for nine hours straight and there was still one more cabin to dig out.

“If it weren’t for Audrey and Brent, I might just leave them there, at least until tomorrow,” Sawyer muttered.

“No, you wouldn’t. You’re too good a man for that. You save people.”

They reached the cabin and Sawyer groaned. The snow was deeper here than anywhere else and it was packed tightly around the cabin.

Taking a deep breath, Sawyer put the edge of his shovel into the snow, put his foot on the back, and started digging. His mind was blank as he and Lucas carefully cleared snow out of the tunnel. Every muscle in Sawyer’s body screamed in protest as they shoveled deeper and deeper into the packed snow. After what felt like an eternity they had a tunnel that led all the way to the door.

Sawyer crawled through the tunnel, grabbed the door handle, and twisted it, pushing the door open. A high-pitched scream pierced the air. Sawyer pulled himself out of the tunnel and looked at the Coopers, wrapped in blankets, huddled in front of the small fire. It was cold in the cabin and Sawyer glanced at the wood box. It was empty.

Gwen’s eyes opened wide when she realized that Sawyer was standing there.

Before she could say anything, Sawyer said, “Pack a bag of clothes and essentials quickly before the tunnel collapses.”

His voice was very rough from exhaustion. They looked at him for a split second before hurrying off to do what they were told. Sawyer put out the fire and candles. Brent was back out first.

“Okay, I’m going to open this door and I need you to crawl slowly along the tunnel. Lucas will be at the top to help you out.”

Brent nodded and obeyed.

Sawyer helped Gwen and Audrey get into the tunnel, making sure they waited until he got the signal from Lucas. He was half tempted to go up before letting Jerome go through.

It would serve him right if the tunnel collapsed on him.

Sawyer knew that he was tired and grumpy, and even though Jerome was not a friend, he was still a human.

Jerome went through the tunnel and when Lucas called down letting him know, Sawyer followed. He was very glad to see that everyone was standing safely on the snow.

“Let’s head to the lodge,” Lucas said, tiredly.

Gwen looked at Sawyer. “Thanks,” she muttered.

He just nodded. They had only walked a couple of feet when Sawyer realized they had a huge problem. The snow was too deep for Brent to get through. The little boy would take a step and then sink through.

Sawyer took Brent’s pack and handed it to Lucas.

Then, Sawyer said, “How about a piggyback ride?”

Brent nodded. Gwen helped lift her nephew onto Sawyer’s back, and then took his shovel. Sawyer felt like he was on a treadmill because no matter how long they walked the lodge seemed to get further away.

As they reached the lodge, Sawyer asked, “Do you think we should go back to the cabins for supplies?”

Lucas shook his head. “No. We don’t know if they’ll be needed, and if they are, we can go back later. Honestly, I don’t know that I can go much longer.”

As they approached the lodge, they could hear the voices. It sounded like complete chaos inside. Sawyer opened the door and stepped wearily inside. Everyone was sitting in the living room talking loudly. One of the college women was pacing back and forth while the other two were talking quietly. Elsie and Joseph were talking quietly to Darren and Zaid.

Sawyer barely had the energy to pull off his coat, gloves, hat, scarf, and boots and hang them on the coat racks. The room was warm in stark contrast to the biting cold. The last little bit of adrenaline drained and Sawyer felt his knees buckle. He made it over to a recliner in front of the fireplace and collapsed onto it. Lucas followed suit with a tired groan.

Tessie and Millie brought them hot cups of coffee.

“Can I get you guys a sandwich, some soup, or anything else to eat?”

Sawyer shook his head. “No thank you. Maybe in a minute.”

“No, thank you,” Lucas said.

Lucas sighed heavily and leaned his head against the chair. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been this exhausted.”

Sawyer grunted his agreement. He was too tired to say anything. His mind was a fog and his entire body felt like it was on fire.

The room was filled with conversations, but Sawyer couldn’t register any of it. He set his coffee cup on the table next to the chair, leaned his head back, and closed his eyes. The sweet darkness of sleep closed in on him.

Jerome’s sharp voice cut through the noise like a knife, waking Sawyer. “It took you long enough to get to us. Were you taking naps between shovelfuls of snow? We were cold and they were terrified.”

Sawyer’s jaw clenched and anger exploded inside of him.

However, before he could say anything, Oliver spat out a cutting reply. “Shut your pie hole, Jerome. Do you think it was easy? Daniel, Sawyer, Lucas, and I have been shoveling for almost twenty hours straight. We dug out your cabin as soon as we possibly could.”

Jerome growled at him, but Oliver held up his hand. “If you’re so unhappy about how long it took or you have something else nasty to say, feel free to go back to your cabin. You can take an armload of wood to last you the night.”

Everyone stared at Jerome. His face was bright red and the vein in the side of his neck was throbbing. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something else, but after looking at Oliver’s face, he apparently decided to keep his mouth shut. He pressed his lips tightly together and looked away.

Sawyer glanced around the room. He smiled and nodded when he saw Audrey mouth, “Thank you.”

Everyone started talking again, but Oliver held up his hands. “Hold on folks. We aren’t able to get any kind of reception on our cell phones and we can’t get reception on our emergency radios. We have absolutely no way of communicating with anyone. The good thing is that they are aware of the situation and will send help as soon as they possibly can. Meanwhile, everyone will have to work together.”

Oliver glared at Jerome as he made the last statement.

Sawyer looked at Lucas and shook his head. “This is why I never go on vacation.”