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“As soon as the snow is gone, I’ll meet you somewhere. Michael won’t be here much longer.”
“Yeah, yeah. Love you. Bye!” I hurried and ended the call.
“Your name is Eugene?” Hudson asked the second I put my phone away, not even trying to hide the fact that he must have heard the entire conversation.
“Yeah. And yes, I’m aware it’s a boy’s name. I’m not a fan of it, so please stick to calling me Genie.”
He flickered his gaze over me, then shook his head. Hudson didn’t say a word, so I was confused as to why he looked put off again.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I’m going to call you Red.”
“Red?”
He pointed at my hair. “Red.And Eugene is nice. Even if you’re the only woman on the planet named that, which I doubt, that means it’s not just a boy’s name. It’s your name. So, if you don’t want me calling you by your name, I’ll call you Red.”
This man.
He decided what to call me as if he had the right to do so?
“First the handholding, now choosing what you call me? Hudson, that can come off rude. What if I call you…” I looked him up and down, trying to figure out what to pick. “Non-book boyfriend material. How would you feel?”
He froze, and the way his nose crinkled was cuter than it should have been for someone of his stature. “Huh?”
“All of the popular male main characters in books have dark hair. You’re a blond, so you’d never be someone’s book boyfriend.”
I realized I was talking to someone who didn’t know a thing about the precious world of romance books. I’d made a mistake. One that left me wide open to being judged.
A slow smile spread over his lips. “I’m going to look up this material. I’ll decide if I am or not. You can’t dislike a man because of his hair color.”
I tried hard not to snicker. “I wouldn’t call you non-book boyfriend material, you know. It’s a mouth full.”
“I know,” he replied. “But I am going to call you Red.”
“Fine.” My smile waned when I got that warm rush of adrenaline in my chest. I didn’t mind the nickname. What I did mind was how okay I was with it.
???
A loud crackingsnapwoke me. Even if it hadn’t, Max would have. The dog started barking as soon as he heard the sound too. Hudson was already up and, on his feet, heading for the front door.
“What was that sound?” I asked as my stomach knotted.
“I’m not sure. I’m going to go check it out.” He turned on his phone’s flashlight before putting on his boots and jacket.
I saw the fire going out. Grabbing a few logs, I put them in, which might not be the best idea since I wouldn’t know what to do if I created a problem. But I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing. Once I got the fire going, I looked out the window. A huge tree lay a mere foot behind my car. A few branches were on top of the vehicle. Everything was so white. The moon illuminated the yard, and it still snowed. I spotted Hudson and Max walking around my vehicle. He checked the back end for something while dipping his head underneath the branches, and my insides got worse.Lord, please don’t let anything be wrong with my vehicle.It was all I had at the moment.
When he headed to the door, I opened it. The snow reached the top of his boots as he stepped onto the porch. He began knocking the snow off as Max jumped up the steps. Even as big as Max was, he was hopping around to move through the storm.
“Is my vehicle all right?” I asked and wrapped my hands around my arms. The air was so cold it stung my skin.
“Yeah. You got lucky. All that hit it were some branches.” I moved back as they came inside. “Probably because it’s so tiny.”
My shoulders sagged. “Luck is not something I usually have.”
“I’ll get the tree moved when the sun comes up, but you aren’t going anywhere. At least not today. I haven’t seen it this bad in a while.”
“Me either.”
