Page 3 of Wish For Me

Then a fluffy beige puffball exploded from the snow next to me.

“Yip! Yip! Yip!”

The dog barked so hard its whole body shook, snow shaking off its body like powdered sugar.

“Floof!” a voice called.

Floof?

The dog looked up over my back and barked again.

A moment later, a man appeared.

Well, his boots appeared.

“Oh shit! Miss?!”

The man dropped to his knees next to me.

I looked up, still struggling to get a full lungful of air. The man’s face was framed by a fur-trimmed hood. He looked young. In his twenties, maybe, like me. Rich brown hair, dark slanted brows, sexy scruff on slightly tanned skin, like he lived somewhere warmer than here. Even on his knees I could tell he was tall and slim, but still broad in the shoulders, though it was hard to tell for sure in the big coat.

His eyes were big and chocolate brown, with unfairly long, thick black lashes.

Damn it, he was handsome. Extremely handsome, but in a kind of reserved way I could tell meant he didn’t look at himself like that.

His dark eyebrows slanted with concern. “Miss, are you hurt?”

I tried to tell him I was fine. That he could go away. But I couldn’t quite form any words yet.

And I wasn’t fine. My life was in shambles, and I’d failed at even trying to forget that.

The dog pressed its little paws on my arm and barked furiously.

“Floof, get down!” The man said, lifting the dog off me.

Guffaws sounded from across the street and the man looked up. His expression darkened.

They were probably laughing at me.

He leaned in, his voice low, anger swirling in those beautiful eyes. “Did someone hurt you?”

But it was those words that unhinged me. Did someone hurt me?

I pictured Patrick with his ridiculous pantaloons around his ankles.

All I could say was, “Yes.”

Then I burst into maniacal laughter.

CHAPTER2

Leif

Irealized as I knelt next to the woman with my grandparents’ dog losing their shit that I wasn’t prepared for a situation like this. Did I run over there and beat those assholes up? My dad had taught me martial arts as a kid, but I don’t think I could take on six drunken bros at once.

Besides, she was hurt.

She saw me looking across the street.

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