The windshield wipers on the black SUV swept frantically back and forth, valiantly fighting a losing battle with the ever-thickening snowfall. Jennifer Love Hewitt brought the overmatched vehicle to an abrupt halt in the middle of the road; or at least she thought it was the middle of the road, the blizzard conditions made it nearly impossible to distinguish anything outside the truck.
She turned on the interior light and reread her directions for what seemed like the hundredth time. The problem was that with each read she understood them less and became more and more lost. She threw the paper down in disgust and again reached for her cell phone.
"Goddamnit!! Why won't you work, you piece of shit!!" she screamed at the phone before throwing it on the floor, right next to the directions.
She ran her fingers through her lush brown hair and sighed deeply as she tried to figure out her next move.
She couldn't help a sarcastic smile as she considered irony's sense of humor. This trip was supposed to be a retreat from her chaotic, everyday existence. A long weekend alone, in a posh vacation home tucked away high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
When she had rented the place, the realtor made no mention of this possibility. After all it was barely October and when she had landed in Denver earlier that day, the temperature was nearly sixty degrees. But mountain weather is nothing if not unpredictable and Jennifer had suddenly and unexpectedly found herself in an increasingly dangerous situation.
She tried to recall the last leg of her journey and came to the disconcerting realization that not only had she not seen another car, she hadn't seen anything, not since the snow had started more than hour before.
"Easy, Love. Let's not start to panic." She said nervously as she put the truck back into drive.
The vehicle lurched forward at a snail's pace, it's famous driver trying desperately to pick a line of sight through the violent swirl of white flakes. Progress was incredibly slow and after twenty minutes Jennifer was beginning to become really nervous.
Just as a tear rolled down her cheek, the first sign of her impending panic, she turned a corner in the road and her eyes opened wide. Ahead, far off in the distance, were two lights, moving independently of each other. She didn't know what kind of lights they were but was just happy to see someone else was out there. She was close to something, at least.
However, her eyes stayed fixed on the distant lights perhaps a moment too long. Before she could realize it, her outside tires caught the edge of the rugged pavement, causing the vehicle's rear end to slide out. Jennifer panicked and spun the wheel frantically in the opposite direction, but it was too late. The truck couldn't recover and slipped off the road into a deep ditch, where it came to a sudden halt.
The actress sat motionless for a moment, her hands locked in a death grip around the steering wheel, before tentatively looking around the inside of the truck to see if there was any damage. Luckily she was only going about twenty miles an hour when she lost control so the impact was not too severe.
After seeing that she wasn't injured and that the truck seemed intact, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. A moment later she put the truck in drive again. But this time the car didn't move. Jennifer tried forward, then reverse, then forward again, all to no avail.
After a few more fruitless attempts, she stepped out of the SUV, and right into fifteen inches of snow.
"Jesus Christ!!" howled the actress as she bounced right back into the driver's seat.
The lights were growing closer and by the looks of them, they had to be snowmobiles or ATV's. After hesitating a second, she began to flick her headlights on and off quickly. The riders must have seen her distress signal because they immediately made a beeline for the crippled vehicle.
She stared nervously as the riders approached, unsure if this was the wisest choice, but feeling she had no other recourse.
Within a minute or two the pair of snowmobiles were pulling up alongside her truck. She lowered her window as one of the riders approached, his face barely visible under multiple layers of outerwear.
"Are you OK?" the man shouted over the swirling wind and hum of the idling snowmobiles.
"Yeah, I'm fine! But I can't seem to get out of this ditch!" Jennifer yelled back.
The guy paused a moment, allowing for a chuckle, as he eyed the hopelessly trapped SUV.
"Yeah, it doesn't much look like you're getting out of here anytime soon!"
There was another pause as they each mulled the situation.
"Is there a phone nearby I could use to call for help?!"
He just shook his head slowly.
"Phone lines are down! Happens all the time when it snows, especially early storms like this one!"
Again there was an extended pause as the storm continued to intensify.
"Look, I can't make any decisions for you, but you'd be crazy to stay here much longer! There's no way you're getting out of that ditch without a winch and I seriously doubt anyone else will be passing by here tonight, with or without the means to help you! My place is just a few miles west of here; you're more than welcome to come back with us and wait out the storm!"
Jennifer thought hard for a moment. The idea of hopping on a snowmobile and riding away with two strange men to their house in the woods was far from appealing. However, her second option was even less so. If she stayed in her car there was a real chance she could be punching her own ticket to the great beyond. She quickly made the only decision she saw fit.
"Well I guess I really don't have much of a choice but to accept your hospitality!" she bellowed half-heartedly over the howling wind.
"Wise choice!" the stranger yelled back.
"From the looks of it it's probably going to get worse before it gets better! Grab whatever you need from your truck, as long as it can fit on your back! You can ride on the back of my machine, should only take us about ten or fifteen minutes!"
Jennifer hastily stuffed her small daypack full of her essentials and wrote a short note indicating her whereabouts in case someone got to the vehicle before she was able to return.
The stranger then came back to the driver's side of the truck.
"You about ready, miss...?"
"Jennifer!" she shouted back.
"Hi Jennifer, my name's Dennis and the quiet guy over here is Bill!"
The other heavily dressed man smiled and nodded a silent hello.
"We oughta get going!" shouted Dennis as he helped Jennifer from the truck.
"I don't know about you two but I sure could use a nice bowl of soup!"
They then mounted the still idling snowmobiles.
"I hope the boys had the good sense to get some dinner started!" Bill yelled to his friend.
"Doubtful buddy, very, very doubtful!" Dennis answered back with a grin.
"The boys? Who the hell are the boys?" Jennifer wondered. Before she could ask the question though, the snowmobile's engine roared, and they were off.
The ride, while frigid, bumpy and thoroughly uncomfortable, was also undeniably beautiful. Jennifer held on to Dennis tight as they sped across the broad, open floor of the valley. When her face wasn't buried in his back for protection from the biting wind, the brunette couldn't help but admire the raw beauty of her surroundings.
The scenery temporarily allayed her fear and uncertainty of the situation she was in. She took comfort in the simple fact that right or wrong, the decision had been made and she would now have to just hope for the best. The fact that neither of the two middle-aged men seemed to recognize her celebrity was welcome too, if only because it made her uncomfortable to have strangers fall all over themselves around her.
True to Dennis's word, about fifteen minutes later the two machines pulled up to a much more impressive structure than Jennifer had anticipated. Her preconceived notions had her spending the night in a dilapidated cabin, sleeping on the floor in front of a smoky fireplace, at best.
But this was a beautiful house, just on the edge of a steep slope whose pinnacle lay hidden above the thick cloud cover.
Both drivers parked their snowmobiles and cut the engines as the storm continued it's relentless assault on the high valley.
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Dennis asked as he took Jennifer's hand and helped her off the snowmobile.
"A little cold... but just beautiful, thank you." She answered with a genuine smile.
"Well let's get you inside and all warmed up, then."
They trudged through the snow towards the front door of the house and entered into a small foyer where they hung their coats and removed their boots. Jennifer stared wide-eyed as they passed into the living room. The place was gorgeous. It was beautifully decorated and furnished; a far cry from her initial conception and, ironically, similar to how she pictured her intended destination.
Once inside, she was introduced to three other guys, "the boys" Dennis had alluded to a short while before. Their names were Kevin, Rob and Mike and they were all very polite and cordial.
In the light of the house, she had her first good look at her rescuers and their companions. Dennis and Bill seemed a little older than the others, around forty she guessed, while she pinned their friends between thirty and thirty-five. While they were all relatively attractive and fit, Jennifer found herself instantly drawn to Dennis. It wasn't just that he was handsome, although that didn't hurt, there was something in the way he carried himself that she found intriguing.
Kevin graciously volunteered to give up his bed to the unexpected guest. Jennifer thanked him and took her things into the room to get herself situated. When she rejoined them, she was just in time for a dinner of soup and sandwiches.
Over dinner, they told Jennifer how they all worked for the same finance company in Denver. The house belonged to Dennis and they spent at least one weekend a month up there, as a group. In the summer it was fishing and some rock climbing, in the winter, skiing and snowmobiling.
Despite the odd circumstances surrounding her situation, Jennifer couldn't help but feel comfortable. These guys had not only been nice and extremely accommodating, but they were smart, successful and funny, too.
"Well if I was gonna be stranded with five guys, I could've done a lot worse." She thought as they finished up their dinner. She was very happy, although it was a minor shot to her ego, that none of them seemed to know who she was. "These guys must not surf the net much" Jennifer joked to herself.
After the meal the guys all sat in the living room by the fireplace, and set up for a round of poker.
"Hey Jennifer, you play poker?" asked Dennis as he shuffled the cards smoothly.
"You know... I could hustle you and pretend not to have learned the game from my dad who hosted a game every week and played in Vegas, like six times a year... but since you've been so nice, I won't. However, now that you're duly warned... deal me in."
That got a response from the men and they hooted and hollered, teasing her as she joined them confidently at the table.
A short while later they were playing some "serious", low stakes poker. She had passed on the first round of beers, mainly out of misplaced courtesy. But by the time Bill was going for the second round, she saw no need to pass again.
As they played, Jennifer did her best to flirt with all of them. She was used to being the center of attention, especially when it came to men, but this was different. These were older men and complete strangers, who didn't seem to know that she was famous. She focused most of her attentions on Dennis, whom she was becoming more and more interested in.
