Tyler
I DROVE AS fast as I could.
The two-lane country road was dark and nearly washed out. I peered forward in my windshield to get a better view.
Rain poured down in buckets and I almost missed the flickering taillights on the other side of the road.
I slowed down and turned on my high beams to get a better view. Not only were the Rover’s wheels sunk deep into the mud, like she’d pressed the gas all the way to floor repeatedly, but Paris Fairchild wasn’t in the Rover. She was walking along the edge of the road about fifty yards ahead.
Motherfucker.
Beep. Beep.
I honked my horn, and she turned to face me. In the haze of my headlights, she looked like a drowned rat.
What the fuck?
Her long, wet, red hair was whipping around her shoulders and her clothes were drenched.
Pissed that she wasn’t just sitting in her car, dry and warm, and safe, and waiting for me to come save her, I slammed on the brakes, put the car in park, and bolted out of the Tesla.
She was running my way.
“Are you hurt?” I called from a distance.
With one hand holding her forehead, she shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Something, that felt like relief, clenched tightly in my heart. I moved closer and when I was right up on her, I framed her face with my hands to get a better look. “What the hell are you doing out here? Why didn’t you stay in the Rover?”
Her teeth were chattering when she spoke. “I wasn’t sure you’d find me and I thought I saw a gas station a couple of miles back that I could use as a landmark.”
The temperature was dropping fast, and the rain was rapidly turning into hard balls of ice. “I’m a knight in shining armor, remember?” I smirked. “And I always find a damsel in distress.”
Slowly, she shook her head in amusement, but said nothing about my being her savior. Instead, she said, “I’m sorry about your car. I’ll pay for any of the damage.”
A grin flitted at the corners of my mouth when I spoke. “It’s fine. There doesn’t appear to be any damage. I think it’s just stuck.”
She nodded.
“But, you know,” I paused for effect, “your I.O.U. is growing by the day. You might want to consider those fringe benefits as an alternate means of payment.”
Biting her lips, she scrunched her nose, while at the same time, she brought her hand up and her fingers touched the gash on her forehead. “You don’t ever stop. Do you?”
“Never.” I pulled her closer, examining her wound. The cut didn’t appear deep, and as far as I could tell in the rain, it had already stopped bleeding. “Does it hurt?”
Wind pounded at our faces and the sudden band of rain that accompanied it caused her teeth to start to chatter. “Not really.”
Over the sound of the storm, I shouted, “We should probably get it checked out.”
As if I’d insulted her, she stepped back. “I’m fine, Tyler. Stop acting like a mother hen.”
And . . . the smartass comments were back.
A lightning bolt streaked across the sky and I swore it landed so close, I could hear a tree cracking in half. I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Get in the car.”
Looking toward the sound, she folded her arms like a stubborn child. I wasn’t quite sure, but I thought she might have muttered, “Arrogant prick.”
In the distance, I could see smoke and knew that tree that had been struck was toast. We could be next. We needed to get out of the fucking rainstorm before another bolt crashed through the sky. “Paris, I swear,” I threatened and then I just fucking did it. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her thighs, hoisting her tight little body right over my shoulder.
Kicking and screaming the entire way, she didn’t even stop when I tossed her in the front seat of the Tesla. Water and mud slid down the seat and dripped onto the floor. Fuck, I knew Gray was going to blow a gasket when he saw it, but I couldn’t give a shit about the car right then.
Shivering, Paris clutched her purse tight in her lap and glared at me with those pouty lips that were begging to be kissed.
Reaching over her, I started the car and cranked the heat all the way up.
Her glare triggered something inside me.
I yanked her seat belt over her lap. “You know what, Paris, you could show just an ounce of appreciation once in a while instead of always busting my balls for something that happened ten years. Something that wasn’t even completely my fault, I might add.”
Her mouth fell open into that perfect “O”. Fuck, why did that always make my dick instantly hard? She stared at me for a long beat and then her gaze softened and she gave me the slightest nod. Maybe, just maybe, if there wasn’t already water dripping down her face, I could have said I saw regret pooling in her eyes.
Fuck, she was like a wild stallion. Taming her was going to take a shit-ton of patience on my side.
“Give me the keys,” I told her gruffly.
Opening her purse with the contract I’d given her soaking wet and unreadable, she dug inside and handed them to me.
Another heavy gust of wind blew, and she blinked a few times. I swore those hypnotizing green eyes filled with so much anguish. I wanted to reach out and touch her cheek, reassure her everything would be okay, but this wasn’t the time or the place and she wasn’t the kind of girl who needed that.
“Stay here,” I barked, slamming the door.
My feet pounded against the road as I tore over to the Rover and jerked the door open.
Hail crashed down on the windshield as I cranked the engine and shifted into four-wheel drive. Rocking the SUV back and forth, I tried to back her out, but after five minutes, I knew it useless. Paris had dug the tires in so deep, the only thing budging this piece of metal was a wench.
After calling for a tow, and directing the company where to leave the vehicle, I shot out of the Rover and jetted over to the driver’s side of the Tesla. Jumping in behind the wheel, I took a moment to wipe the rain from my brow.
Fuck, I was wet.
Before putting the car in drive, I glanced over at her and said, “I’m taking you to my apartment in San Francisco for the night. And before you say anything, you don’t have to worry, I’ll sleep on the couch. But this weather is only getting worse and trying to make it all the way back to St. Helena would be a fucking ridiculous move on my part.”
She leaned forward. “That’s fine,” she whispered. “And Tyler, thank you for coming to get me. I really am sorry about your car.”
I nodded with a deep satisfaction and slapped my wet back against the seat. “What are you doing out here, anyway?”
Even soaking wet, her scent was all around me. Sweet. Fruity. Vanilla. Clean. My mouth watered, and I clenched my fists in an effort to keep myself from mounting her right there and fucking her in the front seat of Gray’s car.
Rubbing her hands together close to the heat vents, she looked over at me. “I had to see my father one last time before he goes into the nursing home.”
Steam rose in thick waves from our clothes, and condensation quickly covered the inside of the windows, making the tension feel even thicker in the air. “It’s not a nursing home. It’s a rehabilitation center for the elderly.”
She pushed the wet hair from her eyes. “Call it whatever fancy name you want, it’s a nursing home, and he’s going to die there. You know it and I know it.”
She was right, of course.
“Look,” she said, “you know my father and I never got along, but that doesn’t mean any of this is easy. This town. The winery. The land. The house. I’ve only ever thought about them as places I hated. Then, when I moved back to St. Helena,” she said, “something changed. At first, I had every intention of convincing my father to sell the winery but then I just couldn’t do it.”
I took my foot from the brake and started to drive. “Oh yeah, what changed?”
Her laughter didn’t hold an ounce of humor. “Not him. He was still the same grumpy old man, but the years had slowed him down, and I thought his old age had caused him to be careless. I spent most of the time cleaning up his messes—payroll issues, unpaid bills, debt collectors, meeting with the accountant to make sense of the books, and of course, opening the tasting room with the last of any money I’d saved to try to save what I wasn’t sure could be salvaged.”
“A place to party,” I said low under my breath.
“Sure, at first, yes, it was an outlet from this boring small town. But then, I don’t know. I started to love everything about Highway 128. A sense of pride I’d never felt began flowing in my veins. It was a feeling. A call to my spirit that I heard loud and clear. It was like one day, all of a sudden, I saw the beauty of everything that surrounded me, and not the hatred I’d always felt for it. I fell in love with Highway 128 for the first time, and I wanted it, so I kept doing whatever I had to in order to keep it going.”
The roads were slick, and I accelerated with caution. “Yeah, I know that feeling.”
She smiled then.
Like really smiled.
It was the first genuine one she’d given me in ten years. I wasn’t a dumbass. I wasn’t going to push my luck any further.
Speeding off down the dirt road, I allowed the silence of this reality to sink in.
She was mine.