Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Chapter 9 Sawyer

9

C H A P T E R

Sawyer

S awyer woke when he heard people start moving around. He kept his eyes closed for a few minutes, hoping that people would go away and let him sleep. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

His eyes fluttered open and he saw Daniel putting some wood in the fireplace.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up, but the fire was getting low.”

“No worries,” Sawyer said. “What time is it?”

“Ten. Everyone is going to start pouring out of the bedrooms because it’s about to get very cold in there.”

Lucas groaned. “I’m not sure I can move. Every muscle in my body is screaming.”

“Oliver is a medic and keeps supplies on hand. He’ll have some acetaminophen or something.”

“I think morphine is more in order,” Lucas groaned. “You didn’t have to bring any with you, did you, Sawyer?”

“Um, no. The feds tend to frown on folks toting around morphine randomly.”

“Well, I guess you could take me out back and shoot me. If I’m not better in a week, then you can shoot me again,” Lucas said.

“You need new material, Brother,” Sawyer said. He looked at Daniel and grimaced. “Where’s Oliver? I would love to have some of those pills.”

“I’m here and I already figured you would need them,” Oliver said.

Tessie was right behind him with cups of hot coffee and bottled water. Sawyer held out his hands and Tessie gasped.

“Those are just as bad as Oliver’s and Daniel’s hands this morning. I have some aloe.”

Sawyer examined his hands and noticed that his blisters had blisters. “They do sting a little.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lucas said, inspecting his own hands.

Tessie suggested putting bandages on their hands.

“Unless you have a lot of gauze that we could wrap around our hands, no bandage would stay,” Sawyer said.

“We have plenty of gauze,” Oliver said, looking at his own hands. “We have enough to tend to our hands.”

They finally managed to force themselves out of the chairs and take their bags into the bedroom before heading to the kitchen for snacks to tide them over until lunch.

Daniel struggled to bring in an armload of wood. Without saying a word, Sawyer and Lucas pulled on their coats and gloves and followed him outside.

“Thanks. I appreciate the help.”

“Whatever we can do,” Sawyer said, while Lucas nodded in agreement.

Lunch was a delicious homemade beef stew. Sawyer was seriously considering a nap when Darren and Zaid approached their table.

“Can you guys snowshoe?” Darren asked.

Lucas nodded. “And we brought our own equipment. Why? What’s up?”

“We thought we might walk to the main road to see how bad it is,” Zaid said. “We thought you guys might like to tag along.”

Darren rubbed his face. “We know you’re even more tired than we are since you were shoveling a lot longer, and we would completely understand if you wanted to nap. However, I get the feeling that you would rather go with us than hang around in the living room, or parlor, as Oliver calls it.”

“I’m in,” Lucas said.

Sawyer nodded.

“Meet you outside in ten minutes,” Darren said.

The road was quite a distance from the lodge when walking on snowshoes. They walked mostly in silence. Sawyer’s breath came out in small frozen puffs. His parka shielded him from most of the cold, but his face felt as though tiny knives were stabbing him.

Aside from that, the land was incredibly beautiful. The snow glittered like a million diamonds had been thrown on it. The tall pine trees waved gracefully in the breeze. The silence was almost deafening. Sawyer could hear his own breathing and his own heartbeat.

Lucas interrupted the quiet. “What got you guys into classic cars?”

“My dad started the business when I was about ten. I loved to help him. Zaid has always been more like a brother than just a friend, so he was constantly hanging out at the shop or the house. He calls my folks Mom and Dad. It made sense to let him buy into half the business when Dad was ready to retire.”

“What’s your favorite?” Sawyer asked.

“I know it might sound trite, but I love the ’64 and a half Mustang,” Darren said.

“My favorite is a 1936 Model Ford 68,” Zaid said. “I actually have one that we restored. I take it to car shows when I get the chance.” He paused. “You fly helicopters, huh. I don’t suppose that you happen to have one handy, do you?”

“No, that would be too easy,” Lucas laughed. “It would probably be buried under several feet of snow, anyway.”

After a while, they reached the road. Sawyer let out a low whistle. “Wow.”

The road was completely impassable.

On the way back, Sawyer thought about Gwen. She had hated him a couple of days ago. Yesterday, or rather this morning, she thanked him and apologized for her father’s mouth. The apology seemed sincere, unlike the almost forced apology the first night. He vaguely remembered her covering him and Lucas up with blankets.

Has she changed or is it just because of the situation? My guess is that it’s the situation. She was terrified and my face was the first one she saw after the avalanche. Lucas and I were the ones who helped them escape the cabin. Don’t expect her improved attitude to last.

The four men were tired when they got back to the lodge. Oliver and Daniel were in the dining room having a cup of coffee. They looked up when Sawyer, Lucas, Darren, and Zaid walked in.

“What’s the word, Boys?” Oliver asked.

“The road is completely impassible. Not only is it covered in several feet of snow, but there were a couple of drifts that had to be at least fifteen feet deep,” Darren reported.

“There’s no way that even snowmobiles can get down the road because there is no way to know where the road is and where the drop off is. It wouldn’t take much for the machine to slide off the side of the cliff.”

“Bummer,” Daniel muttered. “I guess we’ll have to wait for the town to break out their machines and unbury us.”

Daniel stood up and said, “I’m going to bring in more wood. It’s better to make sure the box is full since we have the heaters turned off everywhere but the dining room and kitchen during the day.”

“We’ll help,” Zaid said.

The cold air slapped them in the face when they walked back outside. Sawyer was certain that the temperature had dropped a few degrees just since they returned from their trip.

The five men traipsed through the deep snow to the wood pile. Despite his thick gloves, Sawyer’s fingers were already starting to get cold. His hands burned. Several of the blisters had popped.

Daniel loaded the wood onto the men’s outstretched arms and then piled as much wood onto his own arms as he could carry.

“I swear, this is like carrying heavy boulders,” Darren muttered.

Sawyer grunted his agreement. “Better this than freezing, though.”

“Better this than hanging around and being bored,” Zaid said.

They had almost reached the front door of the lodge when Zaid suddenly cried out in pain.

“What happened?” Sawyer asked as he dropped his wood and rushed to help Zaid.

Zaid’s face was twisted in pain. “My foot just slipped out from under me. I think I might have broken it.”

He was panting, his breath coming out in short gasps. His face was pale.

Sawyer gently examined Zaid’s leg and his stomach dropped. The tibia and fibula were clearly broken and Zaid’s leg was bent at an unnatural angle. Zaid winced every time Sawyer even touched it gently.

“We need to get him inside,” Sawyer said.

Darren, Sawyer, and Lucas carefully lifted Zaid, trying not to jostle his leg any more than necessary. Sawyer and Lucas supported him on either side while Darren tried to hold the broken leg steady. Every step they took was careful and deliberate, but the deep snow made the trek even more difficult.

Zaid let out a hiss of pain as they walked steadily to the lodge. “Isn’t this oodles of fun?”

Daniel ran ahead of them to open the door and then to find Oliver.

By the time they reached the lodge, Zaid was pale and his breaths were shallow from the pain. They carried him carefully through the door, making sure they didn’t accidentally bump him and laid him on the floor in front of the fireplace.

Everyone quickly pulled off their coats, hats, gloves, and boots. Oliver ran over to them with a large tackle box full of medical supplies.

“What happened?” Gwen asked.

“He slipped and fell,” Sawyer said absently.

The women gathered around. Lucas looked up. “Please give us some room.”

“I need something to stabilize his leg,” Sawyer said. “I need some towels and some thick pieces of wood.”

“I actually have some splints in the first aid kit,” Oliver replied.

Sawyer looked at Zaid. “I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.”

“Do I need a leather strap or a piece of wood to bite down on?” Zaid joked weakly.

“It might help,” Sawyer said.

Darren held Zaid’s hand and said, “Squeeze if you need to.”

Sawyer gently manipulated the leg trying to realign Zaid’s leg.

Zaid clenched his jaw and closed his eyes tightly against the pain. He groaned loudly. Emilia knelt down on his other side, holding his hand.

“I’m sorry,” Sawyer said.

Once he was satisfied that the bones were as aligned as much as he could. Then, he wrapped some towels around Zaid’s legs trying to cushion his leg. Sawyer and Oliver carefully placed the splints in place and secured them with Ace bandages.

Zaid gritted his teeth and moaned. Sawyer felt bad because there was only so much they could do to ease his pain.

Oliver looked at Zaid sympathetically. “I don’t have any pain meds stronger than acetaminophen and ibuprofen. It’s not nearly enough for this kind of injury, but it’ll help a little.”

“I’ll take anything,” Zaid muttered, his face tight with pain.

“Actually, we have some wild lettuce. I can make some tea out of it. It has the same pain-alleviating properties as morphine but none of the nasty side effects,” Millie said. “I’ll put some honey in it for you.”

“That would be terrific. Thank you so much,” Zaid said.

“We’re going to lift you up onto the recliner. You will need to keep your foot elevated,” Sawyer said. “We’ll be as careful as we possibly can.”

Zaid nodded.

Lucas, Darren, Sawyer, and Oliver carefully lifted him up and put him in the chair. Millie brought some ice packs to help with swelling.

“At least it’s not a compound fracture,” Sawyer said. “It could be very dangerous if your bones had broken through the skin.”

“This is kind of an insult,” Zaid said. “I can’t believe I broke my leg at a ski resort and it wasn’t on the double black diamond run. It’s not nearly as exciting of a story.”

“When you’re ready to move, I do have a wheelchair you can use,” Oliver said.

“Thanks,” Zaid said.

Emilia brought him a bottle of water. “Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you,” he said.

The four men went back outside to finish bringing in the wood, stepping very carefully. Then, Sawyer took a couple of logs into the library and started a fire in there. He browsed through the books on the shelf. He smiled when he saw that Oliver and Tessie had the entire People of… series of historical fiction books by Michael and Kathleen Gear.

He pulled out People of the Wolf and sat down on the couch. Sawyer felt like he was being watched and looked over at the door. Gwen was watching him. Instead of hatred and disdain, she was gazing at him with admiration.

Sawyer smiled at her and she smiled back.