Chapter 9 Andri
Chapter nine
Andri
We leave Gerald gasping on the floor like a deflated accordion as Daphne storms out coatless into the freezing night. I’m right on her heels.
“What the hell just happened back there?” I call, surprised that even my feet are slipping a little on the icy sidewalk.
“What happened? We’re over, that’s what happened!” she snaps, hugging her bare arms as the wind whips her hair around the back of her head. She stomps to the crosswalk like the asphalt personally wronged her.
Holy shit. She’s single.
The thought hits me like a snowball to the dome. I actually bite the inside of my cheek with my fangs to keep from grinning like an idiot. But then she spins around, her mascara streaked from crying, her bottom lip trembling. My stupid grin shrivels. My chest drops.
And then—Daphne drops.
She looks like a baby deer as she flails, her sexy but completely impractical heels skidding across a slick patch of ice. Her ankle twists, and she yelps as her heel snaps clean off.
I lunge forward before she can hit the ground. Her knees never meet the concrete. Instead, she crashes against me, fistful of my chest hair in one hand, her forehead thunking into my pec with the force of a headbutt.
“Uh—ow,” I grunt, but I don’t let her go.
Her face lifts slowly, and I’m braced for a trademark Daphne one-liner. Something self-deprecating about her clumsiness. But instead, she lets out the smallest, most heartbreaking whimper I’ve ever heard.
It just about kills me.
“Hey, hey—it’s okay,” I murmur, steadying her. I pull her up a bit, attempting to set her onto her feet again. But the second she puts pressure on her left foot, she winces.
“Of course I sprained my ankle!” she sobs. “I’ve got nowhere to go, and now I can’t even walk there if I did!”
I don’t think before acting and adjust my hold to swoop the petite human up in my arms bridal style.
“What are you doing?” she gasps, eyes going wide.
“Helping. Obviously.” I hitch her closer as the snowflakes thicken. “You can’t walk, and lucky for you, I happen to own a hotel.”
“Oh, okay.” Her voice wavers a bit.
There’s a quiet between us, the only sounds besides the occasional passing car are my feet compressing the fresh snow.
“But why do you keep helping me?”
“Because you’re a good person. And sometimes good people get steamrolled by the wrong ones. I hate seeing it.” What I don’t add—what I choke down hard—is that I want her for myself.
Am I glad Gerald’s out of the picture? Absolutely. Does it gut me that he broke her in the process? Also yes.
“I don’t have money for a room,” she whispers.
“See those clouds rolling in?” I nod toward the black sky, stormfront spilling toward us. “That storm took out the road into Hallow’s Cove. Half my hotel’s empty. Honestly, you’d be doing me a favor—one snowman can’t keep an eye on all those rooms.”
That earns me a laugh, and it warms me better than any fire ever could.
But Daphne? She’s damn near frozen. So I pick up the pace to get her somewhere warm quick.
By the time I reach the truck, the snow’s coming down thick and fast, stinging against any exposed skin. She’s trembling hard now, despite being pressed tight against me. I open the passenger door and settle her carefully inside.
Her teeth are chattering so loudly it’s cartoonish, almost slapstick, and for a second I can’t help but grin. But then she looks at me, her eyes watery and vulnerable, and the grin slips into something softer.
I drape her coat over her shoulders, and she pulls the collar up tightly around her neck.
“Don’t get used to this, I’m not usually in the business of rescuing damsels in distress.”
Her lips twitch, like she wants to sass me back but her sadness can’t quite get there. Instead, she whispers, “Somehow I doubt that’s true.”
She places her hand on top of my own on the truck’s door frame.
“Thank you, I don’t know what I’d be doing if not for you right now—really, I mean it.”
“No worries,” I chuff as I close the door.
And for the first time in my life, I’m grateful for a snowstorm.
I make my way around the front end to the driver’s side and brush the quickly building snow off the metal handle before climbing in.
I turn the key I pull out of my shorts and fiddle with a few knobs as the heater groans to life.
The air it blows smells a bit mustier than I might want, but to be honest, I don’t ever really turn it on.
“Sorry, doesn’t get used much,” I tell her.
“No it’s fine, why would a yeti worry about heat?” she says, shivering.
“Also, don’t judge the mess.” I stuff a few empty bags of beef jerky into the side door quickly. “I don’t really shuttle too many people around in this old thing.”
She peeks sideways at me over the lifted collar of her coat. “You should have seen our family car growing up, you’ve got nothing on my mom.”
“Must have been bad,” I survey my own interior, and every piece of trash that I’ve managed to ignore for the past two years seems to be lit under flashing lights now.
“Well, when you live in it, there’s not much chance for it to stay clean.” She jokes as if that’s something that everyone would understand.
“That must’ve been hard—” I start, not knowing how to respond.
“Oh, no sympathy please. I limit myself to sharing one sob story a day, and you’ve already seen me break up with my fiance, so you’ll have to pity me another time,” she says sarcastically.
I don’t know what to say, so I just start driving over to the gondola stand, and I let the grumble of the vintage Ford’s engine and the pelting of snow on the windshield be our soundtrack.
I park the car in the lot and turn off the engine just as it finally warms. The windows are starting to fog near the edges, and Daphne has dropped her shoulders a bit further away from her ears than before.
“But I’m serious, you don’t have to do this,” she says softly.
“Too late now.” I wink.
“You know I’ll be honest, I’m not even sure Gerald could carry me across the street physically. Let alone have the motivation to do it out of the kindness of his heart,” she mutters, maybe almost to herself.
“Well, that’s because Gerald is a mean idiot.” I pocket the keys as I exit the car.
I can hear her guffaw right before I open the door to her side and pull her up into my arms again. When she’s this close, her scent, the same one I’ve been picking up everywhere, is enough to give me a contact high.
What is it about Daphne that’s making me feel this way?
“You know, you can’t just keep carrying me around like some kind of—”
“Knight in shining armor?” I offer cheekily.
“I was going to say, like a one-man sled team.”
“Close enough.”
She wraps her arms around my neck despite her grumbling and lets me carry her back to the gondola so that we can make our way back up the mountain before the snow gets too bad.
“Last ride of the night,” I announce, unlocking the cab and stepping inside.
“Does that mean Gerald will be stuck here tonight?” she asks, mouth drawn tight.
“I already saved his life, do I have to give him a ride too? I’m sure the inn could take him in.” I wait before pressing the lever that will let us ascend back up the mountain.
She chews her lip for a moment before a look of determination crosses her face.
“Fuck ’em, let’s go!”