Chapter 2
“Is that a skunk?” the voice questions as I roll onto my back, the snow cushioning my head. If it weren’t so cold, it would make the perfect pillow.
“Shh,” I hiss at the man, blocking out the sunlight. “Cooper likes to think he’s a cat. We don’t tell him he isn’t.”
“Did you hit your head?” He makes no move to help me up.
“How chivalrous of you.” I sit up, my body aching in ways that I didn’t think possible. I scoop up a purring Cooper and hold him to my chest.
“Lady, I’m no knight in shining armor.” He crouches down beside me, his grumpy voice coating me as snark calls to snark.
What I see is a set of baby blue eyes so bright, it’s a shame they belong to Mr. Grumpy.
His red flannel does nothing to hide the muscles beneath the fabric, and he has a well-groomed beard that curves low into a fine point.
Distracting and gorgeous, he looks at me with judgment while adjusting his thick brown beanie.
With the way the droplets of snow fall on his thick eyelashes, I’m convinced he is the epitome of a redneck Prince Charming.
“Mom!” Lark doesn’t just pull me out of my ogle, she yanks me out and throws me back into reality, where I crash and burn just like my car.
That’s when I notice the tow truck rumbling behind him.
“It’s fate.” I give him a doe-eyed look and a smile.
Ignoring me, he looks at Lark, who stands beside my broken down sedan. “This one belong to you?”
“Depends. What did she say?”
The beast of a man chuckles, and I swear it’s that kind of rumble that lights a fire inside me. “Talking about fate.”
“She’s cold. She doesn’t function well in the cold without coffee and sugar,” Lark yells.
Mountain man glances down at me, the smile on his face fading as he takes me in. “Come on, lady.” Without waiting for me to give him a hand, he lifts me up and settles me on my feet.
Out of my fantasy coma, I dust the snow off of me one handed and wince at how wet my butt is.
Lark walks over to grab Cooper from my arms and eyes both of us with scrutiny.
“You’ll discuss the details, I’m sure.” With a raised red brow, she marches through the snow and climbs into the stranger’s truck, slamming the door shut.
“So much for teaching her stranger danger,” I mutter, falling back into myself with a shiver.
“What were you doing in the middle of the road? I almost killed you!” the red flannel beast—because I don’t know his actual name—yells.
“Ah, but you didn’t, so win-win.” I point a finger at him with a wag of my brows.
Unaffected by my girlish charm, he carries on as though I’m a child. “For a skunk? Why didn’t you let the skunk die?” That’s when it hits him, and those baby blue eyes widen as he glances at his tow truck. “There’s a skunk in my truck.”
“He won’t spray. Cooper loves everyone.” I shake my head, dislodging the snow from my curls as I try to assure him.
“You named a skunk you found on the side of the road?” He swings his head back to me, and there’s a little vein pulsating in his forehead.
“Oh no, we’ve had Cooper for years.”
“Let me get this straight—you willingly have a skunk for a pet, and he still sprays.”
I roll my eyes. “Hardly ever.” I shiver, my wet butt causing a bone-deep chill. Coffee and a hot bath are the best remedies for a bone-deep chill.
He looks skyward, his mouth counting down from ten. He’s adorable, and a part of me wonders just how crazy I can drive this man.
His chin falls to his chest, snow fluttering to his cheeks. He towers over me by a good eight inches, and I’m not a small woman at five foot six.
“Let’s go back to why you were in the middle of the road.” He tries so hard to control his voice.
“Cooper ran out, but I was in the road because I saw your headlights.”
“And you thought it was a great idea to what? Step into the middle of the road?”
“How else was I going to get your attention?” I blink up at him. “We had a bit of a spin, and the car won’t start.” I hook a thumb over at my busted up bug.
“Is that a Volkswagen?” he growls. “In New Hampshire? Are you insane?”
My brow furrows. “Oh no.”
“That can’t be good.” He looks around at my panicked voice.
“New Hampshire?”
“You don’t even know where you are?” He throws up his hands and walks away, his boots stomping through the snow.
“Okay, in my defense, I didn’t know that I’d lose service halfway to my destination.”
He stops, his shoulders heaving as he glances back at me. Those blue eyes of his smolder in the fading light. “Don’t you have a map?” His words are slow and controlled.
“Of course I have a map, it’s in the glove box.” I snort in annoyance as I pull my sleeves down over my hands.
“Don’t you have a coat?” He eyes my sweater as though the pink wool offends him.
“Sweater.” I wave my hands all around me. “Driving doesn’t call for a coat. Besides, I have a jacket.”
“A coat,” he grumbles as he continues stalking over to the driver’s side of the bug to pop the hood.
“I have one of those.”
“Put it on.”
“Excuse me?” Propping my hands on my hips, I do my very best to give him the evil eye. High-handed mountain man.
“The sun is dropping, and it’s November, so it’s about to get really cold, really fast. We need to move and get you back on the road.” He props the hood up and hovers over it, scanning the Legos hidden there.
I probably shouldn’t tell him it looks like Legos.
Glancing over at Lark, I find her with her feet on the dash while she naps. Instead of arguing, I march through the snow, the melting slush seeping through the thin material of my boots, wetting my socks. Popping the trunk, I rifle through my suitcases until I find the one with my jacket.
I glance between my jacket and the burly man scanning my engine, and I just know this is going to be another one of those moments where I end up in a verbal spat with this man. Good thing I look forward to it.
I slide on the faux tan leather and zip it up. It’s pointless, really. It’s just a glorified windbreaker that serves no purpose but to look good with the right pair of jeans and heels. Even so, I strut around my car to cock a hip to the side.
Nameless doesn’t even look at me. “I hate this car.”
“Shh, he will hear you.”
“It’s an inanimate object that you animate and drive,” he mutters while hooking up a gadget to some wires. “Doubt this will work.”
“Look at you, being all optimistic.”
He doesn’t even look my way when the little device beeps out an error code.
“Foreign junk.” Finally, he looks up at me.
“Nothing I can do but tow you back to the shop.” I see the moment he takes in my jacket.
Those baby blues darken, and he eyes me as though I’m a child who needs a keeper. It’s delightful. “What is that?”
“What’s what ?” I lean an ear toward him as though I cannot, in fact, hear him. Oh, but I can.
“What are you wearing?”
“A jacket”
“That’s a glorified T-shirt.” He isn’t wrong.
I raise a brow, ready to challenge him, but Lark yells out the window. “I’m hungry!”
“I need to feed the little human,” I tell him, because a hangry Lark terrifies me.
For the first time, the brute’s face softens as he looks back at Lark. “There’s a diner back in town.”
“You’ll tow me?” I ask with hope.
“Yeah, get in.” He slams the hood down and points to the tow truck, which I hop over to, only to stop.
“There it is.” I point to the forest beyond and the moose that started it all.
“What are you—” He stops mid-sentence to stand beside me. “That’s a moose.”
“It’s out for my blood,” I whisper to him.
“That’s impossible.” Shaking his head, he stomps over to the door and pulls it open. “They are more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“Maybe to you, but it wasn’t standing in the middle of the road trying to get your attention.” Or plotting my utter demise.
“That’s how you slid off the road?” His thick brows rise in unison, mirth dancing in his eyes.
“Maybe.” I climb up into the truck and sit beside Lark as he slams the door closed.
“Update.” She pokes my ribs.
“Well, the mountain man plans to tow us into a town, where I’m going to assume he will look at our foreign car and tell me how long it will take to fix it.” I fiddle with the dials and blast hot air on my chilled legs.
“Assume?” Her voice squeaks just a fraction.
“Well, we didn’t exactly hash out the details.” I should have asked these very important questions.
The man in question climbs up into the tow truck, and without a sound, he tugs open his glove box and pulls out a bag of M&M’s, handing them over to Lark with a smile.
“Thank you.” She rips into the pack of chocolate like a gremlin fed after midnight.
I tsk under my breath. “Where’s mine?”
He just glares at me before throwing the tow truck into drive, swinging it around with expert precision, then flinging it right back into park. With one more glare, he climbs out.
“What did you do to him?” Lark questions.
“I spoke to him.”
“That explains it.”
“What are you trying to say, crotch goblin?”
“I’m saying your personality isn’t always happy-go-lucky.” She winces. I wince. It’s very unpleasant. “Mom, you are a special brand of person.”
“Digging a hole here, kid.” I steal a few M&M’s. The tow truck grinds as my car slides up onto the back.
“I’m just saying you like to poke and prod people until they snap.” She snatches the candy back.
“I do not.”
“No?” she smirks with chocolaty teeth. “I double café dare you to be nice the entire way back and give our knight no less than three compliments.”
“What do I get?” I chomp down on my stolen candy. How very Lark-like to get coffee involved.
“Mom, you get the warm feeling of being nice to someone.” She shakes her head at me, and I know she’s already assuming I’m going to fail with that crooked smirk of hers.
I won’t. “Challenge accepted.”
She laughs so hard, chocolate sprays from her lips and onto the dash at the same time our savior climbs back into the truck. Not skipping a beat, he grabs a baby wipe and removes the spray of chocolate and settles back into his seat.