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After they finished their wine and popcorn, they cuddled with each other, the rain still pouring down outside, thankfully no more hail though. “I need to get your bag out of your car once the movie ends.”
“Good. I don’t want to see what my car looks like. My bag is in the trunk.”
He pulled her closer. “You can borrow my car if yours needs to be repaired. I can walk to the office.”
“Thanks, but I’ll just have Roxie come get me and take me to the lodge tomorrow. I have a much shorter walk to the lodge from our home than you do to work. And to do your job, you need a vehicle. I usually don’t.”
“All right. I’ll take you to the lodge in the morning though.”
“Oh shoot, after all the excitement tonight on our run, I forgot to call Roxie to let her know I’m not coming home tonight. She might worry I’m trying to make it home in this awful storm.” Kayla grabbed her phone and called her sister while Nate paused the movie. “Hey, we’re watching a movie, and I’m staying the night.”
“Oh, good, I didn’t want you coming home in this weather.”
“We’re good. But… Well, my car might be a little worse for wear. So depending on what it looks like, I might need to borrow your car or Blake’s sometimes.”
“Oh, sure. I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about that with you being at Nate’s apartment.”
“He’s going to drive me to the lodge tomorrow.”
“Are you sure? I can pick you up.” Roxie sounded like she wanted to ensure Kayla wasn’t too upset over her car.
Kayla glanced at Nate and smiled. “He wants totake me in.” She knew he’d be disappointed if he didn’t have the opportunity. It would be out of his way, but it would be for Roxie too, if she came into town to pick Kayla up and take her back out to the ski resort. Not that it was all that far from town.
“Okay, well, that sounds good. See you tomorrow. No rush though. We have it covered,” Roxie said.
“I’ll be in.” Kayla didn’t want her family thinking that she was coming in late because she and Nate were getting it on. She had really loved the dinner, the wolf run, even the misadventure with taking refuge under a rock ledge and ending up in the swollen creek, and a movie—in bed, no less. So, yeah, it had been fun. And if she had time, she’d love to do it again, minus the part about running in a hailstorm and swimming for their lives in the creek.
After she ended the call, they watched the rest of the movie, and then Nate kissed her, knowing with Kayla, he could literally weather any storm. “I’ll get your bag and be right back with it.” He hated to see what shape her car was in. He left the bedroom and put on the clothes that he’d left in the living room before they had shifted to run as wolves. Grabbing her keys off the coffee table, he headed outside into the now-light rain with a flashlight, hoping her car was all right.
As soon as he saw it, he realized it was beyond repair. Golf-ball-sized hail had smashed the windshield, breaking it, and the rainwater was still pouring in. The whole car was dented with small and large pellets of ice that had ruined it. A few dents could have been cosmetically patched, but this was a disaster. The age of her car, the salvage value, the cost of repairs—it just wouldn’t be worth trying to have it fixed.
He took pictures of the vehicle, hoping the car didn’t have any sentimental value for her and figuring she would want to report it to her insurance agency right away to get a jump on having an agent out to document her claim. No doubt others who had vehicles out in this weather had the same issues as Kayla.
He noticed a couple of other cars parked at the apartment complex that were not in covered spaces with the same kind of damage. He wished he’d known how bad it was going to be. He would have given Kayla his covered parking space instead or even picked her up to bring her here instead of having her drive here. Though he knew she wouldn’t have wanted to impose.
When they’d been out in the hail, his heart had nearly given out as soon as he fell into the creek and doubly so once he realized she had too. He kept wanting to ensure she was behind him, not going under until he finally could manage to climb onto the bank. But he could tell she couldn’t make it on her own despite how hard she’d tried. He’d thoughtabout grabbing her by the ruff of her neck as a wolf and pulling her out of the water, but he had been afraid he might lose her. Shifting into his human form hadn’t made the job any easier, but at least he had succeeded in getting Kayla to safety. He noted she hadn’t told her sister about all that they’d experienced. Maybe she was afraid of how Roxie and their brothers would react and that they’d want to see for themselves that Kayla was okay.
He got her bag out of the trunk, which was thankfully dry, and headed back inside. He set the bag on the floor in his bedroom and went to enjoy the rest of the night with Kayla.
“Don’t tell me. How bad is it?” she asked, looking so beautiful in his bed, her head against his pillow, her dark hair spread across it.
He chuckled. “You don’t want me to tell you or you do?”
“I don’t. And I do.”
“It’s totaled.”
“Good. I can get a new car then.”
He chuckled and removed his clothes, then joined her in bed. “Here I was afraid you would be upset to hear the news.”
“Only that I will have to pay for a new one, but no. No real sentimental value.”
“Good. You didn’t tell Roxie about our swim in the creek.”
“No. She and my brothers would come here tocheck me out. We can tell everyone about your heroics after I return home tomorrow.”
He smiled. “Okay. I just wanted to know if it was okay to tell my sister about what happened.”
