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Maybe the two of them could figure out where she’d gone wrong. And there was this supposed family announcement that her mother wanted everyone to hear.
In the white glare of her headlights, her brain realized an elk stood in the middle of the road like the king of the mountains. His size was intimidating and no match for her little car. The damn animal was staring her down, not moving. Her foot immediately moved to the brakes and when she hit them, her car began to spin on the snowy road.
Mistake number three. Don’t slam on the brakes on ice and snow.
With a scream, she turned the wheel in the opposite direction and when she finally gained control, she saw the snow bank just as her car slammed into it.
Maybe this day could get worse. Her head smashed into the driver’s door window and blackness came rushing toward her. Why had she waited on the big jerk? Why?
CHAPTER2
Lucas Peterson watched the little car spin on the road trying to avoid the elk that had decided it was in his best interest to finish crossing the snowy road. What the car was doing out on a night like this, he had no idea, but when it landed in the snowbank, he knew they were in trouble.
After pulling his four-wheel drive to the side of the road, he hopped out into the cold, sinking to his ankles in snow. The flakes blasted him in the face and he was thankful he wasn’t far from home. Pulling his cowboy hat down over his eyes, he approached the semi-buried car.
Yanking open the door, he realized a woman was slumped forward.
“Are you all right?”
She sat back and he saw the blood on her forehead. Glancing at the driver’s window, he noted a spider web of cracked glass that had probably been spun when her head connected with the pane. For the first time, he considered she could be seriously hurt.
The woman was beautiful, her sapphire eyes dazed. He wasn’t about to move her until he was certain she had mobility in all her limbs.
If she needed an ambulance, it would take hours for them to reach her. Long, cold hours of them trying to stay warm while the storm raged on.
“What a fucking spectacular day,” she gasped as she gazed at him, her eyes unfocused.
That was an odd statement.
“Move your fingers and toes,” he commanded.
When her eyes teared up, it was all he could do to keep from pulling her into his arms and comforting her. She looked so vulnerable sitting there with her seat belt fastened securely and a trickle of blood on her face.
There was something about her that made him want to console her and tell her everything was going to be all right. That he would not let anything bad happen to her after this moment.
“I’m all right,” she said. “Everything is working.”
“Show me,” he commanded and she moved her fingers and her limbs.
“I just need to get home,” she said sniffling.
Sadly, he didn’t think she was going to make it tonight. In fact, he didn’t know what he was going to do with her. But he couldn’t leave her out here in the blizzard.
“Do you need an ambulance?” he asked still wanting to make certain she was unharmed.
“No, just a minor headache,” she said, glancing out at her car. “Now what do I do? Can I get out of this mess and continue on?”
“No,” he said. “I think your radiator is busted. I smell antifreeze.”
He knew what he wanted to do. An air of fragility about her urged him to protect her, keep her safe.
“Noooo,” she cried. “My car. My beautiful little car. What else can go wrong today?”
That was a question he couldn’t answer because he didn’t know what had happened to her. But he could tell she’d been crying.
“I live right down the road,” he said. “No one will come out during the storm to tow your car into town. Come with me and you can stay until a tow truck can get you out of the ditch or I can pull you out once it stops snowing. Maybe it will be all right.”
That last statement was doubtful, but he wanted to make her feel better. She looked so dejected, completely spent.
