April rolled her eyes, and Carlise bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud.
“I seem to remember a job where Chappy was hit in the head by a flying piece of wood and bleeding like a stuck pig, but none of you felt the need to stop what you were doing to check on him. You just told him to slap some bandages on his head and get back to work.”
Chappy chuckled. April wasn’t wrong. She was the one who’d briefly stopped by his apartment after work to make sure he was all right.
“He’s got a hard head,” Bob muttered defensively.
“Nothing’s gonna get through that large melon of his,” JJ agreed.
“He’s hardy,” Cal added.
Carlise giggled.
April rolled her eyes again.
“Do you guys want to come in?”
Everyone nodded, and Chappy held his door open for his friends as they all filed inside. Cal, still bringing up the rear, stopped before he entered and asked quietly, “You really all right, mate?”
Chappy nodded. “Yeah. I feel fine. Was a little weak until my fever broke, but I’m good.”
Cal nodded. “And it seems she’s good for you.”
“What?”
“She’s good for you,” Cal repeated. “You look relaxed. Your eyes aren’t constantly on the move, looking for trouble, waiting for someone to leap out from behind a tree.”
He was right but wrong at the same time. When they went for their walk, Chappy had been very aware of where they were and the sounds around them, but it was to protect Carlise. Not because he was afraid there were hidden IEDs beneath the snow or rogue terrorists hiding in the trees.
Cal slapped him on the back, not giving him a chance to respond, and entered the house, carrying a huge bag of dog food.
Chappy looked back at Baxter and said, “Good boy.” Then he went inside and shut the door.
Bob was putting another log on the fire, Cal was headed for the bathroom, and JJ was standing near the couch, where April and Carlise were sitting and talking as if they were long-lost friends rather than two women who’d just met minutes ago.
It was a cozy scene. With four extra people in his small cabin, it should’ve felt packed. Almost claustrophobic. But having his friends come up to make sure he was all right, and to get a read on the woman who’d appeared out of nowhere, filled him with gratitude.
“You guys hungry?” he asked the room in general.
“Naw, we’re good.”
“Nope.”
“No, thank you.”
“I could eat something.”
That last comment came from JJ. Before Chappy could head into the kitchen to see what he could offer his friend, April spoke.
“Jack, you just ate before we came up here. You can’t be hungry already.”
“I’m a growing boy,” he told April with a smirk.
She turned to Carlise. “You would be shocked at how much of the company’s budget goes toward food. We have a packed fridge at the office, as well as very full cabinets. I swear they’re always eating.”
Carlise smiled at her. “I’m sure they burn a lot of calories chopping down trees and stuff.”
April nodded. “True, but still.”
“Carlise could make you a PB&J. She got really good at that while I was sick,” Chappy said with a chuckle. “I pretty much passed out as soon as we got back to the cabin after I found her wandering around on the road. I didn’t get a chance to explain anything about the place. She didn’t know the stove ran on gas, and of course the generator wasn’t on, so there wasn’t any electricity.”
“Oh no! You ate peanut butter and jelly for three days?” April asked.
“Yeah. But it wasn’t awful. I mean, I was more worried about Riggs than eating much.”
“Riggs. Man, I haven’t heard anyone call you that in years,” Cal said as he reentered the room.
“Right?”
“It’s what he told me his name was before he passed out,” Carlise said a little defensively. “It’s hard to use another name after calling him Riggs in my head for three days while he was out of it.”
“It’s more than fine,” Chappy said, not wanting her to think he didn’t like his given name coming from her lips. “So . . . I’m assuming by the suitcase Bob brought in, you guys found her car,” he said, wanting to take the attention off Carlise.
She gave him a relieved smile.
“Yup. Stopped on our way up. It’s buried, man,” Bob said. He was leaning against the wall of the cabin, now that he’d built the fire to his satisfaction.