Page 26 of When We Met

The woman stares at him, handing me her suitcase in the process. “You’re welcome.”

Setting her bag on the floor, I yank on the door only to have it groan in the process. The woman manages to get out, and I notice the inside of her car before I look at her. Amongst the glass and blood from the deer are clothes and candy wrappers. “How’d you end up out here? You’re a ways from the highway.”

“I was planning to stop in Amarillo for the night and had to pee.” She frowns, wiping the blood from her face with the sleeve of her sweater. I hand her a rag from my workbench. She takes it and presses it to her head. “Then I couldn’t find my way back, and this jerk was standing in the road. Staring at me. I freaked out and now I’m here.” Rubbing her hands together, she shivers. “Goddamn, it’s cold here.”

I peel my jacket off and hand it to her. “Here, put this on so you don’t go into shock.”

“Gentleman. Wow. Didn’t think they still existed in this world.”

Winking, I take a look at her more closely as she shoves her arms into my jacket that’s three times too big for her. She’s tall, slender, bright blue eyes with thick dark lashes framing them, and despite the spark in her words, I can tell she’s in shock.

I move around the car to see my kids standing in front of us. Sev eyes the deer. “Can I have his spiky things?” she asks, a mouthful of potato chips.

I don’t even want to know why this kid would want antlers. Probably to cast a spell of someone.

“I thought I told you guys to stay in the office.”

Camdyn digs through her own bag of chips. “We’re bored.”

Morgan yanks the deer carcass off the hood and onto a tarp he’s laid out. Camdyn frowns at the smear of blood on the hood. Camdyn looks up at the woman wearing my jacket and sniffing the sleeves. “Why you kill him?”

Why is she smelling my jacket? Maybe it stinks? I try to remember the last time I wore it. Today. All day pretty much.

“He killed himself,” the woman tells Camdyn, smiling at her kindly.

Sev reaches for the hood to touch the blood, and I have to grab her. “Don’t touch that, girly.”

“Why not?”

“Because.” I haul her into my arms and glance at the woman. “This is going to take some time to get out of here, and with the snow, that’s not happening tonight.”

“Is there Uber or something out here where I can get a ride into town?”

I laugh. “Not out here, honey. There’s no getting out of here tonight.”

“Oh, uh.” Her eyes dart around, her entire body shivering. “I can sleep in here then, if that’s okay.”

Morgan smirks. I hand him a “shut the fuck up” look. “We’re gonna get this buck out of here, and then we’ll figure out what to do.” I pull out a stool from near my toolbox. “Here, sit down.”

She does, staring down at her cell phone in her hand that’s useless out here. There’s sadness on her face. Probably because she smashed into the side of a building, and she’s scared, but it’s more than that. A protectiveness stirs inside me, and I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything’s going to be okay. I itch to move closer, envelope her in a hug, or more. A draw I hadn’t expected pierces through me, and I step back, away, unprepared for it.

The girls return to the office, and I help Morgan load the buck into the back of the side by side. He grins. “Where’s she going to go?”

My throat feels dry. “I don’t know.”

“She can’t stay with me.” He bites back laughter, lifting the buck into the back and squinting into the falling snow.

I stare at him, shivering in the cold and wishing heat into my hands. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t want Carly taking me for everything I have, and if I bringherhome, she will.”

I shut the tailgate of the side by side. “Where are your balls?”

“Shut the fuck up.” He scowls at me, knowing he only has one. “Why can’t she stay with you?”

“I have kids,” I point out, as if this shouldn’t have been obvious already.

“So?”

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