Page 59 of Snowed In with the Rancher

He nodded. “More than a fling.”

“Can you move your legs?”

“I’m sorry I sent you away. I shouldn’t have. You’re the best thing that’s ever … happened … to me.”

“Asher, you need to conserve your energy. No unnecessary talking, okay? Can you move your legs?”

He shook his head. “They’re frozen.”

“They’re not frozen. If anything, Dare’s body heat has kept them from freezing. But they might be broken. He’s a big boy.”

She scanned the situation.

When she found the flashlight in the glove box, she saw a number of other tools in there, too. Like bolt cutters and wire cutters. There was also a shovel behind the passenger seat.

Leaning down, she pressed her lips to his, they were ice-cold. “I’ll be right back. Okay? I’m going to get you out of this. Both of you. This isn’t your ending, I swear it.”

All he did was smile and close his eyes.

She pulled the buff back over his mouth and nose, then ran to the truck.

Just as she heaved open the back passenger door, her phone started to ring in her back pocket.

She glanced at it and it was Hannah.

“Hannah!” she exclaimed, answering the phone and balancing it between her cheek and shoulder as she grabbed the shovel and wire cutters. “Where are you?”

“Like twenty minutes from the house. Tell me you’re not in the Denver airport heading home. My uncle is an idiot.”

“Agreed and I’m not. I came back but Asher wasn’t at the house. He went and rode the fence, Dare fell and now Asher is trapped under Dare and they’re tangled in the fence wire. I’m here trying to dig him out.”

She heard Nate curse in the background.

“We’re twenty minutes away,” Hannah repeated. “Where in the field are you?”

“Where those hillbilly motherfuckers keep cutting the fence to do donuts in the field.”

“Got it,” Hannah said. “We’re on our way. And Triss?”

“Yeah?” Triss said, making her way back to Asher and Dare.

“I’m glad you didn’t give up on him.”

“Me, too,” she said.

She disconnected the call and shoved the phone back into her pocket just as she got to Asher and Dare.

“Asher!”

No response.

Oh no!

“Asher!” she said louder, sliding down to her knees and shaking him. “Asher, you can’t fall asleep. Nate and Hannah are twenty minutes away. I’m going to dig you out from under Dare and get you to the truck, okay? But you have to wake up. I can’t carry you and I don’t want to drag you.”

She patted his cheeks.

Nothing.

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