Page 59 of A Violet Obsession

“She’s a city cat,” I say to Finn, when I catch him smirking at the cat’s discomfort.

Finn unlocks the front door, and it swings open with a loud creak that echoes through the trees.

“At least we have a built-in alarm,” I joke. But when I step inside, I stop dead.

The entire back wall of the cabin is glass.

Floor-to-ceiling windows stretch the full width of the open room, and beyond them the Blue Ridge Mountains unroll in every direction. The early afternoon light catches the ridgeline, turning the bare treetops gold in the winter sunlight. I open the glass door in the center of the windows and step out onto the deck that runs the length of the back of the cabin.

“Oh.”

Finn sets down the bags and stops beside me to look at the view. “Didn’t expect that.”

“Me, either. It’s beautiful.” I turn back to face the cabin.

It’s essentially one large, open room with the kitchen running along the left wall and an enormous stone fireplace on the opposite wall. The only other furniture in the room is a small table with two chairs, sitting behind a plaid sofa and coffee table, grouped in front of the fireplace. Just inside the front door is a short hallway, and when I look, I find the door to a tiny bathroom and the bedroom.

Wait. One bedroom?

That means…

“I’ll take the sofa.”

I jump, not realizing Finn followed me to the bedroom doorway. I glance back at the plaid sofa through the doorway. “You’re too big. You aren’t going to fit.”

The words leave my mouth, and approximately two seconds later, my face is on fire. Finn’s eyebrows climb. For the first time since I’ve seen him as an adult, he laughs. The skin at the corners of his eyes crinkles and transforms his entire face into something I am wholly unprepared for.

Oh my god. I could stare at this man for hours.

“I meant the sofa,” I strangle out. “You’re too tall.”

“Uh huh. Sure you did.”

It takes four trips to unload the SUV. I set the provisions from Vincent on the kitchen counter and start organizing while Finn unpacks one of the duffels on the floor.

“Trail cams,” he says when he catches me looking at the small devices. “Motion-activated. I’m going to set a perimeter.”

He pulls on a jacket and heads for the door.

“Will you be gone long?”

“Hour, maybe. Depends on the terrain.” He pauses in the doorway. “Keep the door locked. Don’t go outside.” He looks at my cat. “You’re in charge, Hera.”

She pauses mid-lick of her paw to give him an I know look, and he chuckles.

I start with the kitchen. The cabinets are bare except for a few plates, mugs, some pots and pans, and a basic coffee machine. I line up the canned goods on the shelves, and using a cloth and cleaner I found under the sink, I quickly wipe down the kitchen and the bathroom. From the layer of dust on everything, it’s been a while since the Blooms visited. After wiping down the weathered rocking chairs on the deck, I fill a bowl with water for Hera, and place it, along with her food and litter pan, in the bathroom.

Hera finishes her tour of the cabin and stations herself in front of the stone fireplace, which is currently unlit and cold. She looks at the empty grate, looks at me, and chirps a single, accusatory meow.

“I don’t know who you’re looking at, ma’am. You and I are apartment dwellers. I have no idea how to start a fire.”

She huffs a breath and disappears into the bedroom.

The temperature is dropping outside, but the cabin is slowly warming with the heat turned on. I open my duffel and take stock of what I actually grabbed in the few minutes I had after Voss left: a few dresses, the long skirt I put on last night, three cardigans, a pair of leggings, and a T-shirt and sleep shorts. Not exactly the greatest wardrobe for a remote mountain cabin, then again, I don’t expect to be doing much hiking.

I frown. What exactly are we going to be doing? Wandering back into the main room, I confirm there’s no TV, and without my phone, I can’t even surf the internet.

Finn comes back about an hour later, his boots muddy and his cheeks flushed from the cold. He toes off his boots by the door and sets the rifle case against the wall, and it hits me.