Chill Factor Read Free

it? Move it all out only to sell it to someone else? And where would I have stored it in the meantime? It made more sense to include everything in the sell price.”
    â€œThat’s not the point, Lilly.”
    She knew the point. He didn’t want to think of strangers living in the cabin, using their things. Leaving everything intact for someone else to enjoy seemed to him like a sacrilege, a violation of the privacy and intimacy they’d shared in these rooms.
    I don’t care how sensible it is to sell the whole kit and caboodle, Lilly. Screw sensible! How can you bear to think of other people sleeping in our bed between our sheets?
    That had been his reaction when she’d told him her plans for the furnishings. Obviously her decision still riled him, but it was too late for her tochange her mind even if she were so inclined. Which she wasn’t.
    When the shelves in the bookcase were empty, save for the lone Western novel, she looked around for anything she might have missed. “Those canned goods,” she said, pointing to the grocery items she’d placed on the bar that separated the kitchen from the living area. “Do you want to take them with you?”
    He shook his head.
    She added them to the last box of books, which was only half full. “I scheduled the utilities to be disconnected, since the new owners won’t be occupying the cabin until spring.” Doubtless he already knew all this. She was talking to fill the silence, which seemed to become conversely weightier the more of herself she removed from the cabin.
    â€œI have some last-minute items in the bathroom to gather up, then I’ll be out of here. I’ll shut off everything, lock up, then, as agreed, drop off the key at the realtor’s office on my way out of town.”
    His misery was evident in his expression, his stance. He nodded but didn’t say anything.
    â€œYou don’t have to wait on me, Dutch. I’m sure you have responsibilities in town.”
    â€œThey’ll keep.”
    â€œWith an ice and snow storm forecast? You’ll probably be needed to direct traffic in the supermarket,” she said, making light. “You know how everyone stocks up for the siege. Let’s say our good-byes now, and you can get a head start down the mountain.”
    â€œI’ll wait on you. We’ll leave together. Do whatyou need to do in there,” he said, indicating the bedroom. “I’ll load these boxes into your trunk.”
    He hefted the first box and carried it out. Lilly went into the next room. The bed, with a nightstand on each side, fit compactly against the wall under the sloping ceiling. The only other furnishings were a rocking chair and a bureau. Windows made up the far wall. A closet and small bath were behind the wall opposite the windows.
    Earlier she had drawn the drapes, so the room was gloomy. She checked the closet. The empty hangers on the rod looked forlorn. Nothing had been overlooked in the bureau drawers. She went into the bathroom and collected the toiletries she had used that morning, zipped them into a plastic travel case, and after checking to make certain that she’d left nothing in the medicine chest, returned to the bedroom.
    She added the bag of toiletries to her suitcase, which lay open on the bed, then closed it just as Dutch rejoined her.
    Without preamble of any kind, he said, “If it hadn’t been for Amy, we’d still be married.”
    Lilly looked down and slowly shook her head. “Dutch, please, let’s not—”
    â€œIf not for that, we’d have lasted forever.”
    â€œWe don’t know that.”
    â€œI do.” He reached for her hands. They felt cold in his hot clutch. “I take full responsibility for everything. Our failure was my fault. If I’d have handled things differently, you wouldn’t have left me. I see that now, Lilly. I acknowledge the mistakes I made, and they were