Page 4 of Girl in the Snow
Then he made a noise in the back of his throat like,hmnphand turned away.He gave the car a thorough inspection on the outside, bending to prod her wheels.Probably checking for a flat.She should have done that.But the noise she heard when the car stopped wasn’t a flat tyre.Deanna was almost certain it was engine trouble.
Now Mr Winterbourne, orCal, stalked around to the front of the car and patted the hood.“Open her up.”
Deanna jogged around to where he was standing, keys in hand.She opened up as instructed.God, he was bossy.But for some reason she was complying with his commands.She stepped back a pace and left him to it.
Cal stared inside the engine bay, brow furrowed, leaning on both hands on the chassis.“Could be the battery.Fanbelt looks okay.”He murmured something else too low for her to decipher.
“If it’s the battery, could we jumpstart it?”Deanna was proud of herself for this idea, rudimentary though it may be.Cars were not exactly her area of expertise.
Turning to her, then tipping his head up to the sky, Cal sighed with a weariness that told of undue hardship.“I was going to suggest that, but I don’t have leads and the storm is coming sooner than I’d like.It could be an engine fault.A tow truck will take hours if it even responds at all.I’d suggest you leave it until tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
Deanna was already regretting asking him for any sort of help.He wasn’t the kindly older gentleman she’d had in mind.No, he was cranky and probably a loner, but definitely hot.Not that his hotness was in any way relevant to her situation.
“I can take you back to the lodge with me.Only problem is power outages.The larger cabins are okay for now.”
Nodding, Deanna considered her options.She figured she only had two.Go with Cal to the lodge and stay overnight, even though she was grudgingly invited.Or walk into town and hope to find a B&B or a bar or someplace she could sit and hide out from the weather.She didn’t like her chances.Power outages were likely to hit there too.
“Thanks.If I can stay at the lodge that’s my preference.”
Cal closed the hood of the car.When he stretched out his spine and stood up tall, he towered over her own five foot eight inches.He shot her a glance with his dark, mysterious eyes.“Luggage?”
Deanna didn’t want him to catch her staring, so she fixed her gaze on the back of the car.“I just have a couple of suitcases.”
He marched towards her car, rounding the back of it.“Pop the trunk.”
No please or thank you, she noted.Well, she would be polite even if he seemed to be constitutionally incapable.
“No worries!”She beamed at him as she passed him by.
Once she’d used the key tag to open the trunk, she watched him.He stared at the inside of the trunk, housing both her extra-large suitcase and smaller cabin bag that she had jammed full to bursting with clothes.
Deanna could feel the judgement in his dark gaze.“I can travel light, honestly.Only I cleared out my wardrobe in Dubai, and I don’t know what to do with all my stuff yet.I’m a flight attendant, by the way.”Or rather, shewasa flight attendant.Past tense.Too soon to say what she was going to do next or where all her stuff, or her actual self, would be residing.
She reached forward and began the laborious process of shifting the large suitcase to get it out of the car, trying to wiggle it from side to side so she wouldn’t accidentally drop it on her foot.
“Grrr.”That noise, like a sub-vocal growl, and gruff words came from behind her.“Give me that.”
Cal almost elbowed her out of the way to grab her suitcase.He loosened it from her grip, prying her gloved fingers from the case’s handle.
Despite the cold, her half-dead fingers tingled with warmth at the slight contact.He wore tight-fitting black leather gloves, and they had no business being sexy, but they were.The gloves, combined with the hat pulled low over his eyebrows, made him look like a mastermind jewel thief from a heist movie.She was totally down with being his beautiful yet bubbly co-star.
“Thank you.You’re being extremely helpful.”Her comment didn’t receive a response.
He hauled the case down from the trunk with one hand and deposited it on the ground as easily as if she’d flung a dress from her wardrobe onto a bed.
Now why was she suddenly thinking about beds?Most likely, she was worried about where she was going to sleep.That was all.
Cal grabbed the smaller case and plonked it on the ground beside the other one.Then he tipped his chin up at her defiantly.“Any more cases or paraphernalia I should retrieve for you, miss?Travelling trunks?Maybe an entourage of servants with hat boxes and accessories?Or can we get going?”
Rude.But she would rise above it.“We can go.I’m travelling light today.Thanks.”She fluttered her eyelashes at him like she was flirting.Maybe she was, just a little.
Cal must have expected a verbal clapback, so he went still, then nodded once.He grabbed the two suitcases, rolling his eyes at her feeble attempt to grab them first.
Before she knew it, Deanna was sitting in the passenger seat of the truck beside Cal, who was firmly in the driver’s seat in every possible way.It occurred to her that she’d usually panic, even if rather late in the piece, about going back to a strange man’s house.It was a bit late for panic.She was in the middle of nowhere, on her own, with no way to get home, and no help on the horizon except from a complete stranger.A big, grumpy man who may have wished her ill.And she was in his car, going back to his house… Though it was in fact not a house but a boutique accommodation with a four-point-two-star average rating on the hotel booking site.
Deanna willed herself to be calm and unclenched her fists in her lap.No panic attacks rose to choke her.She relaxed into her seat, stretching out her neck.
