Chapter Two
Cooper Stone had loaded the last of the groceries into the trunk of his tiny Mitsubishi. He’d bought it just before moving back to Snowy Ridge so that he’d have something to run errands in. He tended to keep the trailer on the back of his truck for hauling snowmobiles back and forth so having something to easily tool around town in was a must.
Cooper had a lot on his mind those days. Work had slowed down for him and his brothers at their shop, Triple C Snowmobile Repair, as summer set in. The last of the snowmobiles had been prepped and put away for off-season storage. He knew the summer months would be hard, so they’d stashed away as much money as possible during their busy season. Still, he and his brothers, Cash and Cade, couldn’t sit idle all summer. Moving to Snowy Ridge and launching the business together had been his idea and he felt responsible to not only keep him and his brothers afloat, but to make it a success. And so far, it had been. They’d established themselves in the community and kept a steady business throughout the snowmobiling season. Cooper had been tossing around ideas for what the brothers could do in the off-season and he had scheduled a meeting with them for that afternoon. As he slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car’s ignition, he rehearsed what he would say to them in his mind.
Cooper checked the rearview mirror and glanced over his shoulder before slowly pulling out of his parking spot. A moment later he heard a crash and felt himself fling forward, his chest strained against his seatbelt.
“Shit. What the hell?” he said out loud. He reached his right hand to his left shoulder and rubbed where the seatbelt had tightened on him. He’d likely have a bruise later on that evening he’d bet.
Cooper pulled back into his parking spot and turned off the engine. He climbed out of the car and walked around the back, spotting what had just plowed into him. A powder blue Volkswagon Beetle convertible. Completely impractical for winters in Snowy Ridge so he assumed the owner wasn’t a local. There was probably some little old lady behind the wheel, he thought to himself. He noticed her bumper was now hanging off the back at a precarious angle. Cooper bent down at the rear of his car and examined the damage. There was a one-foot by one-foot dent over the rear quarter panel. He ran his hand over it and shook his head. “Damn.”
Cooper stood up and looked at the Beetle, wondering why the owner hadn’t yet emerged to check her car’s damage and check on him. Maybe she was hurt, he thought to himself. He mentally struggled with whether or not he should approach the car or stay with his vehicle and wait for her to come out. But what if she really was injured? He had to check. He made his way to the driver’s side of the car and knocked on the window. He peered inside and could see a woman with long dark hair, her forehead laid against the steering wheel. Shit. She really was hurt. He knocked harder and tried to open the door but it was locked. He saw her reach her left hand up and lower the window, still not lifting her head.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to call someone?” he asked with urgency.
She lifted her head and whipped it toward him. “No. Don’t call anyone.”
She seemed more angry than hurt, which surprised him.
“So, you’re okay?” he asked again, cautiously.
The woman leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. She put both of her hands to her forehead and rubbed her temples. “Yes, physically I’m fine. The jury is out on mentally.”
It wasn’t a funny situation at all but a small smile crept over Cooper’s face. He couldn’t help it. She looked so distressed but was cracking a joke. And she was pretty cute. She had big brown eyes and long silky brown hair. She looked petite sitting in the car and he noticed her left wrist had a watch on it. He wore a watch, too. Not many people did anymore seeing that the time was easily accessible on everyone’s smart phone, so it always caught his eye when another person wore one. He hadn’t seen the woman around Snowy Ridge and he wondered again if she was just there on vacation. Maybe spending a week at the lake. They’d have to exchange information and file a police report. He hoped he was wrong with his assumption and that she was local to the area. He didn’t want to have to chase her down later when it came time to pay for his damages.
“Why’d you slam into me?” she asked, turning her face up to him.
Cooper’s mouth dropped open and he took a step backward. “Me? You’re kidding, right?”
The woman pursed her lips and shot him an irritated look. “No, I’m not kidding. You should look before racing out of a parking spot like that.”
“What?” was all Cooper could get out. He was completely blown away. The chick was hot, but she was nuts. There was no way that accident was his fault. He knew he checked his mirrors and the area carefully before he pulled out slowly. She was the one who had pulled out so fast that she’d probably left skid marks on the pavement.
She climbed out of the car and walked around to look at the backside of her vehicle. “No, no, no,” she moaned. She put a hand back up to her forehead. “I can’t believe this.”
Cooper had watched her as she walked and noticed she had a nice body. She was likely in her twenties and he didn’t spot a ring on her left hand. He briefly closed his eyes and shook his head, silently scolding himself for thinking about anything other than the problem at hand. Cooper took a deep breath and followed her to the back of her car. “Listen, I checked my mirrors and turned around,” he said when he reached her. “You weren’t pulling out. You must have laid on the gas to screech out of your space like that. What were you thinking about?”
“Me?” she whirled around to face him, eyes blazing. She put her hands firmly on her hips in defiance.
It reminded Cooper of his brother Cade when he was a kid. He did the same move when he was getting ready to lie through his teeth. Cade thought it gave him credibility but it was a tell-tale sign to Cooper that Cade was lying each time that he did it. It almost made Cooper crack a smile that this woman was trying it on him now. Almost.
“I can’t believe you’re going to try and pin this on me,” she continued. “I’m the innocent party here.”
“That’s debatable,” Cooper said.
“You’re just trying to take advantage of me because I’m a female.”
“I’m not. I wouldn’t do that…” he trailed off. Cooper sighed and looked downward. “This is the last thing I needed today,” he said more to himself than anyone else.
The woman made an exasperated, angry sound and Cooper’s eyes flicked up to meet hers.
“Oh, really? Because I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought was, who am I going to smash into today?” She rolled her eyes.
“So, you admit you hit me then?” Gotcha, he thought.
Panic crossed her face. “You hit me!” she screeched.
He wasn’t going to get anywhere with her. Not right then, at least. “All right, listen. Let’s exchange information, take pictures of our damage, and go. I don’t want to stand here arguing with you all day.”
“Fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “Give me your phone.”
He held his phone out to her.
She snatched it and begun furiously typing on it.
“There. Send me a text and I’ll have your info too.”
“Will do. Drive carefully,” he said and started to move away.
She shot him an annoyed look. “Really?”
Cooper smirked to himself as he climbed back into his car. She sure had an attitude. He looked at his screen, ready to text her and get it out of the way, and he had to laugh. She had entered her phone number in his contacts as, “Girl I slammed my car into.” Cooper shook his head and chuckled.