Chapter Four
“So you’re not going to help me because I wouldn’t go out to lunch with you?” I folded my arms across my chest and tried not to glare at him.
“Good to know you think I’m that much of a creep.” He laughed, opening his door as I hopped out of the way. “I wouldn’t leave you stranded out here.”
“I didn’t mean it like that . . . exactly.” I drew a breath. “And besides, I’m not stranded.” I wiped the melting snowflakes off my cheeks and stared up at him through my lashes as he glanced at my wounded Subaru.
He patted my shoulder and motioned for me to follow him to my car.
“Of course you’re not stranded.” The crunch of the snow under his feet was the only sound cutting through the air. There were no other cars, no emergency vehicles or plows.
I was definitely stranded, so why wouldn’t I just admit it?
Because I didn’t want to feel beholden to a McAlister. That’s why.
“I’m just reevaluating.” I followed him over to my car, and he opened the driver’s door, sticking his head inside. “Thinking about how best to navigate through the storm.”
“Well, the first rule of thumb might be to stay out of snow banks and ditches.” He slid inside the car and turned the ignition, only to have the engine not even attempt to turn over.
I laughed and nodded in agreement. “You have a point, but what did you do to my car?” I asked teasingly. “It started a minute ago.”
“Me?” His brow arched, and he tried turning over the ignition again to the sound of a thud and a click.
“I think you jinxed it.” I let out a sigh, realizing I might not get to Grandma’s.
He smiled and tugged his knit hat down over his ears.
“I think you have a bad battery, and the cold weather just zapped the last little bit of life out of it.”
I let out a small groan of frustration. I didn’t have time for a dead battery. My grandma was probably waiting for me and worried sick since I was late.
“I’ve got some jumper cables. I’ll give you a jump and you should be good as new.” He climbed out of my Subaru, and I couldn’t help but soften toward him slightly.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” He winked, and I felt the buzz that was becoming all too familiar around him zip around me.
Colton walked over to his SUV, and it was hard not to notice how well his jeans fit him, which made me wonder what he did for a living to look so fit. I let out a silent groan. I shouldn’t be wondering anything about him at all. He pulled his SUV closer to my car before jumping out with a set of cables.
“Pop the hood.” He hooked up the cables to his own battery as I did as instructed and watched him attach the cables under my hood.
“Okay. Give it a go.” He peeked around the hood and smiled.
I nodded and turned the key, only to hear the muffled silence of the snowy night.
“Well, that’s not a good sign.” He scratched his jaw and glanced at me.
I tried again and still nothing.
“So, where are you headed?” He shut the hood and walked over to me, sitting in the driver’s seat and feeling very dismal about my Christmas Eve.
“I was on my way to pick up my grandma and drive her back to my parents’ for Christmas Eve dinner.” I let out a sigh. “She’s probably worried sick about me. I was supposed to be there a couple of hours ago.”
“Well, with the storm coming in, I’m not sure if you’d be able to take her back to your parents’ anyway.” He chewed his lip slightly and glanced toward the hood of my car. “And even if we get your car started, who knows if it’s drivable. The bumper looks pretty bad off.”
My heart slumped. I hadn’t even paid attention to what kind of damage might have happened to my car.
“I’m headed that way anyway.” He clapped his hands together and blew into them. “Why don’t you let me pull your car off the road a little more and then I’ll take you to your grandma’s? We can call a tow truck from there.”
My shoulders sank in defeat. What options did I really have? While I never wanted to owe a McAlister a thing in life, I didn’t want my grandmother to worry herself into a stroke.
“I don’t want to hold you up.” I shook my head and drew in a heavy breath. “You’ve got places to be.”
“Just headed up to the cabin where my family is probably already arguing about what kind of potatoes to make.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“Well, I can’t let you freeze to death on the side of the road. Either you come with me to your grandma’s or you come with me to my home.”
All the blood drained from my face and his smile widened.
“I—”
“It’s your call. Your grandma’s house or mine.” He folded his arms over his chest and I pressed my lips together.
“I owe you a lot.” I pressed my lips together, hating that I even had to utter those words to him.
“You owe me nothing, but just give me a second and I’ll tow you out.”
Without giving me a chance to protest again, he turned on his heels and made his way over to the back of his SUV where he brought out cables and chains and began hooking them up to the back of my car.
He certainly was a man who was prepared for all things in life. I glanced at my cellphone and held it up to the night sky, wishing there’d be a miraculous moment where I’d get reception.
But I wasn’t that lucky this Christmas Eve.
“Okay, we’re all set.”
I zipped up my jacket the last few notches and grabbed everything out of my car. I hated just leaving it here, but there really wasn’t any other choice. I still wasn’t sure how I thought I’d get Grandma back down the mountain. The thought of my poor parents having to drive up here tonight after they closed the hardware store was really unappealing, but it was about the only option if we wanted to spend Christmas together as a family.
“Hop in.” He smiled the moment he saw me freeze in place. “You do realize you’ll have to ride in the car with me, right? I promise I won’t bite, at least too hard.”
My eyes flashed to his and my entire body responded way too eagerly for its own good.
“You didn’t just say that.” I couldn’t help but smile as I opened the door and piled me and everything else into the front seat.
“Sorry. I couldn’t resist. I’ve never met someone so . . .” He turned down the radio and let his voice trail off without answering.
“So what?” I prompted.
“Conflicted.”
“I’m not conflicted.” I buckled up as he put his SUV in reverse and began pulling my Subaru out of the snow bank. “I’m just hesitant. It’s not every day I have to hop into the car of a complete stranger and be driven deeper into a snowstorm.”
He maneuvered the two vehicles until my Subaru rolled to a slow stop in front of us—tucked as far off the road as possible—and hopped out of the SUV.
The snow was really coming down now, and I felt guilty that he was outside on his hands and knees unhooking the chains from my car while I was sitting in the toasty warm car.
By the time he climbed back in his vehicle, he looked like an icicle.
A really attractive icicle.
He slid off his now damp knit hat, and his hair stuck up all over before he smoothed the strands back down with his hand.
“Sorry about all this,” I told him. “If it hadn’t been for you, I would have frozen to death. Instead, it’s you freezing to death.”
“It’s not so bad out there.” He gave me a sideways glance and cleared his throat. “You’re going to have to give me directions to Grandma’s house.”
“I will.” I reached over to turn the heat up and his fingers moved to do the same, grazing mine and sending a pulse of electricity through me. “Sorry. Just wanted to get the heat going more for you.”
“Great minds.” He didn’t move his hand away, and I wondered if he felt the same spark I did. “But I’m certainly no stranger to you. We went to school together since kindergarten.”
“Right, but you’ve grown up. Obviously.” I pulled my hands away and looked out the window. The snow was piling up all around the SUV in the short time we’d been stopped. “How do I know what you do in your off-hours? You could be a serial killer, for all I know.”
He let out a low chuckle and pulled onto the main highway. “I suppose that’s true.”
“I haven’t seen you since my graduation.” My cheeks reddened immediately, realizing I’d confessed to noticing him at my graduation.
“Or I’d imagine you were there with your brother and all.” I blew out a sigh and stared straight ahead.
“You’re not into letting people see you as vulnerable.” He said it so matter-of-factly I couldn’t help but answer honestly.
“Not if I can help it.” I pressed my lips together and wondered how else I’d make it to my grandma’s.
“Well, I remember you that day.” He glanced at me and returned his gaze to the snowy highway. “You were beautiful, just like you always were.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere, McAlister.”
“I’m only being honest, and if I were being even more honest, I’d tell you that you’re even more gorgeous than that day.” He turned the heater down and slowed as a sign blinked ahead.
“The pass is closed,” I groaned, reading the blinking lights.
“Not for seventeen miles. That should get us to the exit for your grandma.”
“But what about you? Don’t you need to go farther?”
“That had been the plan.” He nodded. “But plans were made to be broken.”
“So I’ve heard.” I sucked on my bottom lip a second. “If you hadn’t stopped to help me, you’d already be over the pass.”
He shrugged. “No big deal. I’m sure they’ll have it back open in a few hours, and it’s not like I don’t see my family on a nearly daily basis anyway.”
“Thanks for being so gracious.” I smiled and slid another look in his direction.
“It’s not graciousness. It’s the truth.”
I felt another piece of stone around my heart get chiseled away, but I wasn’t going to fall for his one-liners. That was how the McAlisters always operated.
They were smooth, vindictive, manipulative, only out for themselves, and completely—
“It seems to me that fate wanted us together before you left town,” he said firmly. “And I don’t intend to waste that time.”
“How so?”
“I know there’s a lot of bad blood between our families and—”
“We don’t spend time giving the McAlisters a thought. I assure you.” I eyed him directly and noticed his jaw tighten. “But what you’ve done tonight is really appreciated.”
“Tell me this, Gina. If you don’t give us any thought, then why do you look at me like you’ve spent the last twenty years trying to come up with a way to push me off a cliff?”
“First of all, it wouldn’t be over a cliff.”
He laughed as I turned in my seat to get a better look at him. I caught a glint of remorse behind his gaze, and I wondered if it was genuine or if I just wanted to see it.
“And I’m fully aware that people change.” I highly doubted any McAlister would. Why would they when the world bowed down to them?
“You know, I can tell that while you may have stopped speaking, your mind hasn’t stopped spinning with reasons you’re supposed to hate me.” He shrugged. “But that’s okay. I get it.”
I didn’t like that he could read anything about me.
“Do you, though?” My brow arched and he let out a sigh.
“Believe it or not, yeah.” He put the blinker on and slowed to move into the far lane closest to the exit. “I know my family has a reputation and—”
“You did your best to uphold it,” I interrupted.
“I suppose I did.” He nodded in agreement.
“Suppose?”
“I know it doesn’t change things, but I’m sorry. I’m sorry for that night. I was young and dumb and—”
“It’s this exit.” Just because he wanted to apologize didn’t mean I wanted to hear it.
He drove the car onto the short off ramp that had already filled up with a foot of snow. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to navigate even if my Subaru were still running.
As he wound deeper into the heavily forested area, I gave him directions to my grandmother’s home.
The moment I saw her house, my entire body warmed with love. It was like time stood still here and all the happy memories flooded through me.
All the windows were glowing, and the Christmas tree stood proudly in the living room window with hundreds of red and white twinkle lights. It looked like an oversized candy cane. A large wreath hung on her front door and a garland with white lights wrapped around the outdoor banister. She’d kept herself busy.
“Here it is.” I let out a blissful sigh as he pulled into her short driveway. “Thank you again for doing all of this.”
He parked the car and turned off the engine. “My pleasure.”
“Merry Christmas.” I grabbed everything out of his car and slid out the door, landing on the fresh snow.
Before I had a chance to object, he was around the SUV and taking things away from me so I could walk easier to the door.
“The pass is closed. It’s not like I have to hurry.”
“Well, thank you.” We walked in silence to the house and I rang the doorbell.
It took a few minutes for my grandma to open the door.
“Gina?” Her eyes sparkled with surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“Merry Christmas.” I smiled. “I was worried you’d be scared I didn’t get here on time, and I wondered if I’d ever get here.”
“Oh, honey. I actually forgot you were coming, but I’m glad you’re here now.”
Colton snickered behind me, and I turned to glare at him despite all he’d done for me.
“Well, I’m in a bit of a pickle. My Subaru died on the mountain so we might be here for the night.”
“Then how’d you get here the rest of the way?”
I pointed behind me. “He’s an old friend from school, and he happened to be driving over the pass and saw me stranded.”
“How nice of him.” She smiled and exchanged an odd look between the two of us. “Does he have a name?”
He stepped forward and took my grandmother’s hand. “Colton McAlister.”
“McAlister? Isn’t that the family that chased your dad’s hardware business out of town?”