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Over my dead fucking body.
“You even look at her wrong, and I’ll gut you like a fucking fish,” I warn him, still remembering the aggressive way he tried to pick up girls in high school. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
Throwing myself into the cab of my truck, I take off, not sparing a moment to even bother telling the staff at the Inn that I will be back tomorrow. All I can seem to do is imagine Blair running off the road over and over again inside my head, and the more it plays on repeat, the faster I drive.
It’s usually a good forty-minute drive from the town center, but from the Inn, I should be able to get there in twenty minutes, twenty-five at most, though I’m certainly creeping well over the speed limit.
The whole drive, my mind whirls with the worst-case scenario, and despite Billy telling me that she’s absolutely fine, I can’t possibly believe it until I’ve seen her with my own eyes. Hell, what the fuck is she even doing trying to get a Christmas tree?
I get halfway to the farm when my phone blares to life, and I find Oxley’s name flashing on the screen. “What’s up?” I say, not in the mood for pleasantries.
“I just got a call from Blair. Apparently, she had some kind of accident and ended up in a ditch—”
“Yeah, I—”
“I won’t be coming past there for another few hours,” he continues, not bothering to hear what I have to say. “She sounded desperate, man. I know you’re having a hard time with her being back and all, but I think you’re gonna have to head out and help her.”
I let out a heavy sigh, gripping the steering wheel just a little too tight as jealousy tears through me like the blade of a rusted knife. She called him. Not me. “I’m already on my way,” I say, just as I reach the portion of the highway that gets shitty cell service. “I gotta go, but I’m taking care of it.”
“Thank fuck,” he says, his voice crackling through the poor connection. “Let me know if you need a hand with the truck.”
I end the call, not bothering with a goodbye as the crackling gets worse, and within the space of thirty seconds, I lose service altogether. It’s not until I pull into the parking lot of Old McDonald’s Farm that my service returns, but I couldn’t care less as I see the tail end of her truck sticking up out of a ditch, not a fucking tire chain in sight.
“Fuck me,” I mutter, pulling to a stop across the lot, already trying to figure out a game plan. I should have figured out a way to put those damn chains on her tires, then none of this would have happened.
So much for my mantra—she’s not my problem.
I should have known I was full of shit the second I started telling myself that. In reality, whether Blair considers herself mine or not, to me, she’ll always belong right by my side.
Getting out of my truck, I lean up against the hood as I scan the farm, looking for the woman who’s been the center of my whole fucking world since I was sixteen years old. I find her only a moment later and fury instantly ripples through me.
She’s not wearing a damn coat. What kind of self-respecting adult goes out in the middle of winter without a fucking coat? Blair fucking Wilder, that’s who.
I arch a brow, watching as she drags the biggest fucking tree she could possibly find through the snow, heaving it inch by inch. I have to admit, I would have loved to stand back and watch as she cut that bastard down. That would have been the best entertainment Blushing could ever offer, but I’ll have to settle with just the thought of it.
Blair pauses a moment, dropping the base of the tree and stretching out her back as she takes a second to catch her breath before bending back down and picking it up again. Bits of the tree are left behind as she drags it through the snow, and as she inches it closer and closer to the back of her pop’s truck, it occurs to me that she thinks she’s somehow getting that truck out of the ditch.
Is she in-fucking-sane? Does she think she’ll just drop back down into the ditch, wade through the knee-high snow, wrestle her way inside the cab, and reverse it out of there?
Fuck me.
I shift on my feet, crossing my arms over my chest as I watch her, and within the blink of an eye, her whole body stiffens, realizing she’s not alone. And judging by the way she doesn’t immediately snap back into action, she knows damn well it’s me.
Blair huffs and puffs as she gets back to work, dragging the tree just a little bit faster, but the deeper into the snow she gets, the harder it becomes, and it’s clear from the strain in her eyes that she’s more than struggling.
“What’s wrong? No counters to throw yourself behind this time?” I ask, slowly striding toward her, almost terrified of getting too close. But damn it, I need to be close, need to feel the warmth of her skin against mine, need to breathe in that sweet scent. “We can go inside and you can dive behind Billy’s counter if it’ll help.”
Out of all the things I could have said to her, that’s the fresh bullshit I chose to go with? Just fucking great. Though, I never claimed to have my shit together, especially when it comes to Blair Wilder.
“What do you want, Nick?” she throws over her shoulder. “I’m busy, and I sure as hell don’t need your help.”
Okay. So apparently neither of us is capable of being mature adults about this. Fine by me.
I let out a frustrated scoff and continue toward her, not sure what the fuck I’m feeling. Anger pulses through my veins at the same time that adoration and pure want overwhelm my system. I need to be close to her, if only for a second.
Making my way across the lot, I move in beside her, and she tenses, releasing her hold on the tree as she whips around to fix me with a heavy stare, only I ignore it as I dive for the stupid tree. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Blair seethes as I haul the fucker over my shoulder and make my way back toward my truck. “Hey. I’m talking to you.”
I scoff again, rolling my eyes simply because I know how much it gets under her skin. I don’t respond as I reach my truck and settle the tree into the back as Blair finally finds the courage to storm after me. “I don’t need your help,” she spits, crossing her arms over her chest, unaware of the way the movement pushes her full tits together.
