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I don’t have time for this. “Why did you honk your horn?” I demand.
She blinks. “Because there was a giantmoosein the road. I was trying to get it to move.”
“Youneverhonk at an elk. You’ll just end up scaring it.”
“Well, yeah,” she mutters, “that was kind of the point.”
I scowl. “Which do you prefer—a six-hundred-kilogram animal standing still in the road, or running around unpredictably? What are you, fucking stupid?”
Her eyes narrow.
“Cole—” Eli starts.
I ignore him. “Andyou were driving too fast.”
“I was below the speed limit!”
“When there’s moose on the roads, you drive even slower.”
“Well, sorry I don’t know themoose protocol,”she hisses. “This is my first time in the country.” She starts stamping towards me, but just before she reaches me, she loses her footing, swaying precariously on her feet. My hands shoot out and grab her before she smacks into the ground. Jesus. She can’t even stand up straight, for God’s sake.
“How are you this fucking clumsy?” I bark, setting her upright. “Are you drivingdrunk?”
“Can you please stop shouting? My head is killing me.” She snatches back her keys and leans heavily against the hood of her car, rubbing her eyes. All the colour is drained out of her face.
Shit. She’s not just clumsy. She’s dizzy. “You hit your head, didn’t you?” I say flatly.
Fucking great. Now, even if I can get her car to start, she wouldn’t be able to drive it.
“Sorry to inconvenience you,” she mutters.
I sigh, reaching for her face. She jerks away from my hands. “What are you doing?”
“Seeing if you’re bleeding.” I tug her fluffy hood down, freezing when I get a good look at her face.
Oh.
She’s beautiful. Really, really beautiful. Soft cheeks, massive brown eyes, and a little pink-valentine mouth. She shakes her head, and long, thick, chocolate-brown curls unravel from under her hood, falling all the way to her waist. Next to me, I see Eli twitch with interest.
“She’s not bleeding,” I tell him, my voice gruffer than usual. “But she’s dizzy, and her car won’t start.”
He glances warily up at the sky. “We should head back to the town before the storm hits, then. Get her put up in a hotel and call her a doctor. She says she’s staying in Kiruna.”
I snort. “Of course, she is.”
We’ve spent all day in Kiruna, stocking up on supplies. I fucking hate it down there. It’s swarming with tourists at this time of year, who all want to dog-sled and pet reindeer and put the Northern Lights on their Instagram stories. They look at the natives like we’re a bloody museum exhibit.
Eli sighs. “Dude. Come on. The drive to the cabin could take almost an hour if the snow starts coming down hard. We might not make it.”
“We’ll make it,” I say, with complete certainty.
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“Yes. I do.” I open the boot of our truck, pulling out a tow strap. “If we go back to town, we’ll get snowed in. I’m not spendingweeksin that tourist trap.” I strap up the girl’s car, giving the cord a tug to make sure it’s solid, then turn to her. “Keys.”
“What?”
“Give me back your keys.”
