Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Well, this sucked. Atlee had been in Roanoke to visit her daughter for the holidays, where they’d baked for three days straight, one of their favorite things to do together.
And it was wonderful. Atlee had been on her way back to Fallport—with a car full of baked goods to give to her patrons at the food pantry—when she’d gotten stuck in traffic.
And it didn’t look like she was going to make it back home anytime soon with the amount of snow piling up on the road.
Looking down at her gas gauge, Atlee sighed.
She was planning to fill up her tank in Christiansburg, but she doubted she was going to make it.
The yellow fuel light had been on for the last hour, and she didn’t want to think about what was going to happen when she ran out.
Turning off her engine wasn’t exactly an option, not with the wind howling outside.
Looking around at the dozens of vehicles nearby, she wondered what someone would think if she knocked on their window and asked to get into their car with them.
Shivering at the thought, because the consequences of doing that could be dire, she stared straight ahead and sighed.
She’d already called her daughter and downplayed the situation, letting her know that she was fine and insinuating this was a mere inconvenience.
But the truth was, it was a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
Atlee didn’t swear a lot, but sometimes only a good curse word could sum up a situation properly.
It was nearly dark when a sudden tap at her window made Atlee bark out a screech of fright and jerk away from her door.
Looking to the window, she saw a man standing next to her car. He wore a dark coat with the collar turned up. His shoulders were hunched over, as if trying to block the wind, and he had no hat on his head.
She recognized him immediately
Simon Hill. The guy she had the biggest crush on.
He was everything she liked in a man. Protective, big and burly, smart and kind.
As police chief of Fallport, he was a perfect mixture of badass and teddy bear.
And she’d had more than one inappropriate fantasy about him coming into the food pantry, declaring that he’d waited his entire life for her, and carrying her away as if she was a beautiful damsel in a fairy tale.
But of course that wasn’t going to happen, because she was pretty sure he didn’t even know she existed.
Except here he was. In the middle of a snowstorm. Knocking on her window.
His lips curled up into a smile—and Atlee would’ve swooned if she was a swoony kind of woman. Unfortunately, she wasn’t.
“Atlee? It’s me, Simon Hill. From Fallport. Are you all right? I’m a couple cars behind you, and was shocked when I saw your SUV and that dang Bigfoot sticker.”
It was hard to believe they’d been on the same road at the same time, just a couple cars away…and yet here he was. Atlee quickly rolled down her window, snow blowing in the second it slid open.
“I’m okay!” she told him. “Although I’m almost out of gas. But I’m sure I’ll be fine. I have a blanket…I think. It might be in the back. Are you all right?”
For some reason, that question made his smile widen. “I’m good. And I have plenty of gas in my car. Why don’t you turn your engine off and come sit with me? Save your gas for when we’re able to get out of here. We can pass the time together.”
Atlee stared at him for a beat. This was every one of her dreams come true. Okay, not being stranded on the interstate in the middle of a snowstorm, but spending some one-on-one time with Simon Hill? That was definitely on the list.
But…she really didn’t want to be a damsel in distress. She was a capable woman who’d been looking after herself and her daughter for a long time.
“Please? I’m going stir-crazy listening to my own thoughts,” Simon cajoled. “And you don’t want me to freeze to death alone, do you?” He smiled again.
That obviously wasn’t going to happen, especially since he’d just told her that he had plenty of gas in his vehicle, but she found herself saying, “Okay.”
“Great!”
Then Simon opened her door and held out a hand for her.
Atlee did her best not to blush or say something stupid as she reached for him. His gloved hand wrapped around hers and held on tightly as she stood.
“Keys?”
“Oh! Yeah, duh,” Atlee said, as she reached back inside her car to grab the keys out of the ignition.
She grabbed her purse while she was at it.
Not that she thought anyone would be out in the middle of the storm stealing stuff from people’s abandoned cars.
But she had some gum in there, and the last thing she wanted was bad breath while hanging out with the man she’d crushed on forever.
She also had her cell in her purse, in case she needed to call her daughter again.
She straightened, and Simon shut her door before heading toward his car. To her surprise, he didn’t let go of her hand as he led her to the passenger side. A little jolt of excitement shot through Atlee.
“This is the first time I get to be in a police car,” she blurted, feeling like an idiot after the words were out.
Simon didn’t comment, simply held open the door for her.
Atlee quickly sat on the leather seat, and Simon shut the door.
He jogged around the front to get in on his side.
The second the door closed, silence surrounded them.
He reached forward and turned up the heat a little, the warm air feeling heavenly on her feet.
Now that she was here, Atlee had no idea what to say to the man. What did someone say to the person they had a huge crush on?
“It doesn’t smell gross in here.”
She wanted to smack her head. God! What a stupid thing to say!
“Sorry! I mean, like it smells nice. Like leather.” Not sure that was much better, Atlee groaned. “I’ll shut up now,” she mumbled.
But Simon simply chuckled. The sound was rumbly and deep and it sent shivers through her entire body. “I don’t transport bad guys in this baby. And I do my best to take care of it, because who wants a trashy car? Especially since I spend so much time in here.”
Atlee turned in her seat so she could face him. “You do a lot of patrols?”
Simon shrugged. “I like to do my fair share. Just because I’m the police chief doesn’t mean I’m above doing things like patrols. And since Fallport only has a handful of officers, I like to be able to give them a break now and then.”
“That’s nice,” Atlee said.
They stared at each other for a long moment, and Atlee searched her head for something else to say. She came up blank. She was finally getting her chance to impress this man, to maybe have him see her as more than the frumpy old lady who ran the food pantry, and she was blowing it.
“Your daughter lives in Roanoke, right?” Simon asked. “Were you visiting her for the holiday?”
He knew where Renee lived? Why that should make her want to do a little dance, Atlee didn’t know, but she tried to keep her excitement tamped down.
“Yeah. It’s a tradition that we bake like fiends in December, but now that she has a serious boyfriend, it’s harder to find the time to get together, since she’s spending so much time with him and his family. ”
“You miss her,” Simon observed.
“Of course,” Atlee said with a shrug. “But it’s not as if I can keep her to myself for the rest of her life.
I want her to fly on her own, see the world, get married, start her own family, her own traditions.
But, I have to admit, I do miss the magic of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
” Then something occurred to her. “You don’t have any family, do you? ”
As soon as the words were out, she regretted them. How rude was she?
But he just shrugged and shook his head. “Just my share of good friends. I was going to go to Bristol and Rocky’s wedding tomorrow, but it looks as if I’ll miss it.”
Atlee knew who he was talking about. Rocky worked on the Eagle Point Search and Rescue team, and Bristol was fairly new to town, and had gone through that horrible kidnapping incident. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m kind of used to missing things. It’s not as if I can predict when bad guys are going to act up.”
Atlee reached out and put her hand on his knee in sympathy. “Still, I can tell you were looking forward to it.”
To her surprise, he placed his hand over hers and looked deep into her eyes. “I was. But I have to say, this doesn’t exactly suck.”
She snorted, then covered her mouth with her free hand as she said, “Yeah, sitting in a traffic jam being buried in snow is awesome.”
“I meant being here with you.”
Atlee stared at Simon in disbelief. Had he said what she thought he had? No, she had to be dreaming.
“You have to know how much I admire you,” Simon went on. “I would think the number of times I’ve ‘just happened to stop by’ the food pantry with lame excuses would give me away.”
Wait, what was he saying? That he didn’t actually need to get food for Davis and other citizens of their town every time he came in?
He gave her a crooked smile. “I can see by the expression on your face that I’ve surprised you. I’m sorry. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“No!” Atlee blurted. “You aren’t. I mean, I didn’t know. I thought…I don’t know what I thought. It’s just… You’re so hot!”
Okay, she could seriously die now. Right here, right now. Poof! Go up in a cloud of smoke. Why couldn’t she say anything reasonably intelligent around this man?
Simon chuckled again. “I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “But I think you’re the prettiest woman I’ve seen in a very long time.”
Atlee brought her free hand up to her hair and smoothed it back self-consciously.