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companionship for as many months as he had, couldn’t be blamed for what ran through his head on dark nights in his chilly cabin, especially not with the first woman he’d ever been with living so close by. But Liane was terrified, and with good reason. His own heart was still pounding with the adrenaline surging through his bloodstream. “It’s over now. You’re all right.”
    “We’re safe?”
    “For the moment, anyway, but we’d better get to shelter before it happens again.”
    She nodded, then disentangled herself and started moving back up the mountain. Minutes later she crouched under the lip of a low overhang and waved him inside.
    “Whoa, there,” he warned, stepping past her with the flashlight. “Better let me check first, just to make sure nothing else has holed up in here. We definitely don’t want to end up getting between a trapped animal and freedom.”
    He ducked his head inside and used his light to skim the recesses of a cave only marginally larger than a box stall. Relieved not to spot any glowing eyes, he said, “Looks clear, but watch where you step. Snakes can be hard to see.”
    “I’ll take my chances with the snakes,” she said. “I just want out of this wind.”
    She sounded so exhausted that he instinctively—foolishly, he warned himself—reached for her. To his relief, she didn’t fight, only laid her head on his shoulder and gradually relaxed into his embrace. Despite the circumstances, he liked the way she fit—and felt—against him all too well.
    The moment served as another painful reminder of how good they’d been together once, and how isolated he’d been since leaving the rehabilitation center. When was the last time he had touched anyone for more than a brief handshake? But with the grandmother who had raised him long gone and his former fellow firefighters too sharp a reminder of things he could never change, he’d told himself that he was better off focusing on adapting to his new life than pining for the old one.
    Maybe he’d told himself wrong, at least the part about living like some kind of recluse. Maybe he should adopt a big, slobbery dog that he could run and roughhouse with, and spoil rotten when no one else was looking. Having something he could claim might keep him from latching on to a woman who didn’t want him and a family that wasn’t his.
    Or better yet, maybe he just needed to remember the sleepless nights and crushing pain she’d cost him at eighteen, then get out there and find himself a woman with a heart. A woman who would give him a family of his own.
    “Tell me, Jake,” she said, the hollowness in her voice making him feel guilty for judging her so harshly. “Tell me this is just some awful nightmare. Tell me we’re both sleeping, and Dad and the kids are safe at home.”
    “I wish I could do that,” he said honestly, “or snap my fingers and make everything right for you. But until this storm dies down, there’s nothing I can do.”
    “We could call for help, at least.”
    “I’ll try,” he promised. “But let’s get you out of this wind first. You’re dead on your feet.”
    Unwinding his arms from around her, he edged a little farther inside. Outside, the wind shifted, setting off an unearthly howl as it gusted across the cave mouth like a child blowing over the top of a bottle.
    He focused his flashlight on a corner where leaf litter had accumulated and kicked at it with his prosthetic foot, but nothing stirred or slithered.
    “Why don’t you sit here and rest?” he suggested, his voice echoing in the enclosed space. “I’ll try the radio again.”
    He’d turned and made it several steps away when she said, “Thanks, Jake. And...I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry for what?” he asked, wondering if it was possible that she, too, might be thinking of their past. That she might be regretting the way things had ended.
    “For dragging you into this. And for the way...” as she knelt down in the dry leaves, the noise drowned