AllFreeNovel
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What a shitty day.
Sighing, I ignore the man’s descent into the ditch and toward me as I walk to the driver’s side to figure out why I couldn’t open the door. The browning snow pile is quite literally the thing that saved me, and when I lift my foot to push at the top of the three foot mound, I realize it’s frozen solid.
“You were pretty lucky,” the man says, his voice closer now. When I look over my shoulder, he’s nearly to us. Err. Me and the car.
When my eyes meet his, he tips his head in the direction the front of Geraldine is facing. “One more spin and you’d have hit that power line.”
Following his gaze, I see the large wooden utility pole. I don’t even want to imagine that being the hard place that stopped me…
“I have a chain,” he continues. “I can get you out of the field.”
“Is that what this is?” I ask, looking around at the desolate ground that has a sprinkling of old snow throughout.
He chuckles. “Yes, ma’am. Give it six months and life starts again. It doesn’t look like much…”
It takes me a moment to realize he’s no longer talking about the field but the car. “I don’t suppose AAA comes out this way?”
The man continues to walk around Geraldine, bending and kneeling at different points. “I’m sure you could get a tow from a place in Billings, but I have a buddy only five minutes away. The car not starting?”
“No.”
He stands tall again and adjusts his cowboy hat. “Yeah. A tow from the city will take easily an hour to get out here. Ben’ll be faster.”
That name causes my breath to hiccup.
Ben…
I’m instantly taken back to my last trip to Montana and the night I brazenly took a stranger to bed. I was feeling great about the interview, about the direction life was going, and was on top of the world.
I’m not a one night stand kind of girl but I bent my rules with him.
And what a great few hours it had been.
Well-worth the rule-breaking.
But I gave him a semi-fictitious name. It’s just as likely that Ben isn’t actually a Ben.
“Especially considering they’d probably take you to his shop, anyway. Guessing you don’t have a local mechanic to tow to?” he continues, and when I snap back to attention, he lifts his brows. “You need a paramedic?”
Blinking rapidly, I shake my head. “Oh. No, sorry. I was just…” I uncross my arms and swirl a finger around my temple. “Lost in my head. It’s been a long day.”
“Not the end cap you wanted?” he jokes, pulling a phone from his back pocket.
“I’m supposed to be heading home. I was here for…business. But,” shaking my head, I wave him off, “none of it matters. I appreciate you stopping to help.”
“Of course.” Both thumbs fly over the screen and then he brings the phone to his ear. “I’m Max, by the way.”
“Nellie.”
“Nice to meet you, Nel–Hey, Ben. It’s Max.” He turns his back and I pretend to look at the car like I know what I’m looking for while he has his conversation. “Yep. I’m helping a lady who spun out. Car won’t start… Sure. Yeah. Okay, yeah, I can grab it. Thanks. See you in a minute.” After a pause, he continues, talking to me this time so I face him once again. “I’ll have to grab the truck. He’s at the shop alone and in the middle of an oil change. I’ll get you pulled out and head to his shop. I can bring you with, if you’d rather hang out in a warm vehicle. It’s actually a pretty nice day but I’m guessing your blood is thinner.”
With a self-deprecating laugh, I shake my head. “What gave that away?” Out of habit, I cross my arms again.
Max points to me. “You keep hugging yourself. You got a jacket?”
Well, I’m not hugging myself to stay warm, but he doesn’t need to know that.
Itskmy tongue. “I do not.”
