When he could breathe more evenly, Jeff fell to the side and rolled Natalie so she was pressed against him. Wrapping his arms around her he kissed her forehead and rested his face in her hair. Lavender wafted up to him and he thought he might fall asleep. Natalie’s hand was pressed against his back and using only her fingertips, she began a slow trip up and down its expanse. She sighed happily.
“Are you still hurting?” he asked, concerned.
“I’m a little sore,” she admitted, “but you were very gentle and that helped a lot.” Indeed, she felt sure Nathan wouldn’t have been even a tenth as attentive as Jeff had.
“No regrets then?” Jeff asked sleepily.
She smiled in the dark. “No regrets.”
Satisfied, they both fell into an exhausted sleep.
***
Sometime in the night the fire had burnt itself out, and the cold of the bedroom woke Natalie from a deep, dreamless sleep. She didn’t know when Cujo had come into the room, but the large black dog was curled up on a rug in front of the hearth.
Jeff was still dead to the world, so she slipped her sweatshirt and panties back on and, wrapping herself once again in the quilt, crept to the bedroom window. The sun was just coming up and she could tell that it would be much warmer today than it had been the rest of the week. The icicles hanging from the top of the window were already melting, and she thought even the snow looked a little less deep than it had the day before.
Spotting movement in the corner of her eye, she looked toward the edge of the clearing. A deer had stepped out of the dense forest, and instinctively she knew it was the doe that had caused her accident. As she watched, a young fawn came out of the trees and clumsily made it’s way to the doe. Watching mother and baby, Natalie knew without doubt that everything that had happened the last few days was for a reason. For the first time in her life, she knew exactly what she wanted and what her future would hold. And that future started with the man sleeping peacefully behind her. She almost woke him up to tell him her plans, but decided to let him be. There was plenty of time, and she thought a toasted marshmallow or three really sounded nice.