Page 32 of Snowed In With the Maverick
The mere idea of caring this deeply for a woman would have had his old self running in the other direction, but all Seth felt in the moment was an undercurrent of peace that pulsed in tandem with his overwhelming feelings for her.
And so, he would wait.
“You all set?” Andrea asked.
“Ready if you are,” Seth said, swallowing hard as he held her coat open for her to slide into. Her hair got tucked under the collar, so he slid his hand along her neck, extracting her thick mane and letting it cascade over her shoulders. Seth could feel the silky tresses running through his fingertips, and how it would feel to nudge them away with his face to kiss the skin on her face again.
“Ready,” she said.
First things first. He had to focus on getting her home in one piece, even though every iota of his attention would be fixated on her instead of the dark country highways.
He gestured toward the door, and had to pry his eyes away from her to take one last look at the dance floor to see if he could catch his brother’s eye to let him know that he was leaving, but the two lovebirds were too muddled up in one another’s gaze to even notice. He’d call Daniel in the morning.
The holiday lights twinkled above Central Avenue, which was much quieter than earlier with most people inside at the dance, and parents with children at home getting ready for bed.
The flurries that were falling earlier had sometime during the evening turned into a steady snow, so when they returned to his car, Seth started up the engine to heat it up and took the snowbrush from the trunk to clean off the windows. What he needed was a handful of that snow on his face, to cool down the heat of the attraction boiling deep inside him.
Seth was always a careful driver, but with Andrea sitting in the front seat, he found himself being even more meticulous, ensuring every inch of the windows was wiped clean for perfect visibility. Something about her presence heightened his awareness, made him want to do everything just a little better, just for her.
He slid into the driver’s seat and glanced at Andrea as he buckled his seat belt. She gave him a slight smile, then looked through the side-view mirror at her car parked behind his.
“Sure it’ll be okay here overnight?” she asked. “In Denver, it would definitely get towed.”
“I’m pretty sure that every last resident of Tenacity is at that party tonight,” Seth said. “And if they started towing the cars of people who were just being responsible, they’d have to tow Mayor Moore’s truck too.” He nodded across the street, where Marty’s vehicle sat collecting snow under a streetlight. “I’ll come back in the morning and take you to get your car.”
“That’s a lot of driving for you,” Andrea said.
“It’s not a problem.” Seth said, starting the engine. Coming back to town to bring Andrea to her car was the smallest price he could pay for the promise of seeing her again tomorrow. It might even make saying goodbye at her doorstep later on a little less painful.
In the fifteen minutes it took to drive from downtown to Andrea’s ranch, the snow began to fall more heavily, and by the time Seth approached the ranch, it was almost impossible to see ten meters ahead. Blowing snow covered the road, moving across the pavement like a ghostly apparition.
“Yikes,” Andrea said. “I didn’t see this coming in the forecast.”
“Happens sometimes around here,” said Seth, guiding his vehicle around the bend leading to the ranch. His SUV did well in the snow, but the visibility was basically nil, and even if other vehicles were staying off the road, the deer and caribou that often wandered onto the roads could be a deadly hazard. “Shouldn’t last too long.”
Even through the snow, the ranch glowed from the road, and the farther he drove up the driveway, he could see that it was all lit up with white Christmas lights. It was so inviting, it felt like…coming home.
Andrea had woven boughs of evergreen along the front porch, which were already dusted in a thick coating of white. A wreath with small red berries hung from the front door. They exited his car, dipping their faces into the collars of their jackets to guard against the blustery snow.
Seth trailed Andrea to the entrance, where she fished her keys from her purse. He stomped his boots off before escaping the blowing snow into the warmth of Andrea’s home.
The entrance to the ranch had undergone a complete transformation since the first time he’d visited, only weeks earlier.
“Wow,” he said, taking in the warm, welcoming foyer. There were sconce lights on the wall that lit up the space in golden richness, and the sight of the thick knit rugs made it easy to kick off boots, even with cold feet. The idea to open up the space had been a great one. In the living room, a giant fir tree was standing waiting to be decorated, and when it was gone, the view of the artwork behind it would be an inviting sight.
“Still needs trimming,” Andrea said, following his gaze. She removed her boots, and he watched as she approached the tree and extracted the crystal star ornament he’d bought her from her pocket, and hung it from a branch at eye level. “Perfect,” she said.
It did look pretty perfect. And standing next to the tree, in the warm and beautifully decorated space that she’d so impressively put together, if there was a word beyondperfect, she would be it.
“Coffee? Tea?” she asked. “I can make decaf, although if you’re going to be driving…”
“Decaf coffee is great,” Seth said. There was no amount of late-night driving that was going to put him to sleep, not with how awake and alive he felt near this magnetic woman.
“Have a seat,” Andrea offered. “I’ll be right back.”
Seth settled into the couch facing the fireplace and the tree, then gazed out the window at what looked to be near-blizzard conditions. Hopefully someone down at the hoedown had alerted the townspeople about the snow and everyone was getting home safely.
Daniel wouldn’t have to drive far to get to Mike’s cabin at the Cooper Ranch, or if the almost whiteout conditions kept them in town, Mike’s godmother worked at the Tenacity Inn and could arrange a room for them.
