Chapter 19
THE FIRST MAJOR snowstorm of the season raged around Allie as she stood over her car engine, cursing. It was just past nine in the evening, freezing, and Allie wished for the millionth time that she’d left work before the storm hit, but with half her staff gone for Thanksgiving, she’d stayed late to help.
I could be back in New York right now.
But even surviving a blizzard was better than taking snide comments from her mother and long-winded lectures from her father for four days. No. Allie had decided to weather the storm from the warmth of her cabin. Instead, her car wouldn’t start and the cold was eating through her clothes, numbing her skin painfully.
Out of the darkness and swirling snow, a buzzing engine and single headlight zoomed into the parking lot. The snowmobile stopped behind her car, and the bundled-up driver got up, making his way toward her.
She recognized his strut before he even took off his helmet. Dex. She’d actually managed to avoid him for the past two weeks, even the few times she’d gone out with Penny or Hunter and a few other people from the hospital. She hadn’t asked Hunter if the two of them were talking, because she didn’t think it was her place.
“Are you all right?” Dex asked loudly. His deep baritone swirled around her in the wind, and she shivered, a reflex she swore was from the cold and not because she’d missed the sound of his voice.
“I’m fine.” This was the first conversation they’d had in weeks, and she still wasn’t ready for it.
“Sure you are. That’s why you’re standing outside, staring under your hood in a blizzard, right?”
He had a point. “My car won’t start.”
Dex ducked inside, flipping on a flashlight she hadn’t seen in his other hand. “Your battery is probably frozen. Have you checked it lately?”
“No, I’ve been busy.”
“Well, NAPA is closed by now. Here”—he handed her his helmet—“hop on the back and I’ll give you a ride home.”
She shoved the helmet back at him, a little harder than necessary. “Thanks, but I’ll get a ride from someone inside.”
Even in the dark storm, the parking-lot light showed that his green eyes were blazing. “Are you seriously going to make someone drive out of their way in a snowstorm just to spite me?”
“I’ll stay with Penny, then.”
With a shake of his head that sent snow flying off his hair, he said, “Suit yourself.”
But as he walked back to his snowmobile, Allie reconsidered her options. Penny had left Allie’s place before the storm hit, meaning Kermit had been locked in his cage for at least four hours. There was no way in hell she was going to ask Dex to check in on him. She didn’t need to owe him any more favors.
Thinking about Kermit’s adorable, lonely face as he lay locked in his cage, though …
“Wait!” Slamming the hood of her car down and grabbing her purse off the front seat, she trudged through the snow to catch up.
He paused, straddling the snowmobile and watching her with one raised eyebrow.
“Can you please give me a ride home?”
Folding his arms, the helmet still dangling from his hand, he seemed to be considering. Unlike her shivering body, he appeared oblivious to the cold, and it made her hate him more than she already did.
If I really hated him, then I wouldn’t think about him a hundred times a day.
“Say ‘I’m sorry, Dex, for being rude’ first,” he said.
“What are you, five?” she asked.
He didn’t respond, just sat there with that annoying eyebrow arched, waiting expectantly.
She decided she could still despise someone and be attracted to them. Through gritted teeth, she muttered, “I’m sorry, Dex, for being rude.”
Giving her the helmet, he waited until she was on the back of the snowmobile with her arms wrapped around him before he started the engine. As he blazed out of the parking lot and up the road toward home, she held on tight, the wind in her face like a thousand needles piercing her skin. Finally, she laid her cheek against Dex’s back and closed her eyes. The ride was bumpy and long, and by the time he pulled into his garage, she was shaking so badly she could hardly stand.
“Why don’t you come inside and get warmed up?” he asked.
“No, thanks, I’ve got to let Kermit out.”
“I can get Kermit—”
“It’s not going to happen,” she said harshly. Taking a deep breath, she tried again with a little less bite to it. “Thank you very much for the ride. Good night.”
She turned and made her way out of the warm garage and up the hill toward the cabin, the snow blinding her. Finally, she burst inside and flipped on the light so she could see Kermit, but nothing happened. She continued fiddling with the switch, and finally groaned in frustration. She could hear Kermit whimpering and realized how frigid it was inside.
As if the heat had been off for hours.
The dark and the cold were beginning to cause a claustrophobic tightness to wrap around her. She had always hated the dark, because her imagination always went to what might be lurking there. Fumbling in her purse for her phone, she called Dex, trying to make her way toward Kermit’s cage by feel.
“Change your mind about coming over?”
“No, but my power is out and I can’t see anything. Can you bring a flashlight and flip the breakers for me?”
She could hear his heavy sigh through the phone. “Why don’t you bring Kermit and wait out the storm with me? I have a backup generator and a fireplace—”
“God, can’t you just, for once, do something nice without acting like it is an inconvenience to you?” Her voice came out shrill and panicked. Silence on the other end had her checking to see if the call had dropped, but no, he was still there.
Way to go. Insult the only person who can help.
“I didn’t mean that, I just … I don’t like the dark.”
After what seemed like forever, he finally spoke. “I’ll be right there.”
As Dex came through the door, the snow slid down his neck and under his collar, making him shiver. Or maybe it was the freezing, dark room. No wonder Allie hadn’t wanted to go searching for the breaker box.
Turning on the flashlight, he shone it around the room until he found her sitting on the couch, holding Kermit.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I couldn’t find my flashlight or I would have gone out and tried to flip them myself,” she said.
“Well, come stand at the door and let me know if anything happens when I try the breakers. The less time I stay out in the cold, the better.”
Allie stood up and he could hear the tread of her feet behind him as she followed him to the door. He went around the side of the cabin and yanked the box open. He started pushing the breakers back and forth. “Anything?”
“No, nothing.”
“Shit.” Closing the box, he hurried back into the house, as if it would be any warmer there than outside.
“You can’t fix it?”
“No, not in this weather. You’re going to have to stay at my place tonight, so why don’t you go grab a few things—”
“Honestly, I’ll be fine. I’ll build a fire and add some extra blankets to my bed.”
He tried to hang on to his temper, but she was being so pigheaded it wasn’t easy. “Damnit, woman! It’s only going to get colder out there, which means the temperature is going to drop considerably in here as the night goes on. So, why don’t you stop being stubborn and make this easy on all of us, including Kermit. You don’t want him to freeze just because you don’t like me, do you?”
He could tell she was fighting the urge to tell him to go to hell, just from the expression on her face.
“I appreciate your concern, but I’ll let him snuggle with me. We’ll be good.”
Running a hand over his face, he made the decision that was going to piss her off the most.
Taking Kermit from her, he ignored her protests. “If you want to freeze to death, fine, but he’s coming with me.”
He marched toward the door as she hurled curses at his back.
“You’re a jackass, you know that?”
Pausing at the door, he tossed her an exasperated look over his shoulder. “I’m not the one sitting in a dark, cold room because she doesn’t want to accept help. I hope you and your wounded pride are happy together.”
He stormed out of the cabin, waiting for a moment to see if she would follow, but she didn’t.
To hell with her, then. He’d tried to be a good guy, and she’d thrown it back in his face.
He was done.