Page 5 of Her Mountain Christmas
“Where are you headed, Ella?”
She takes another breath and then shrugs, looking out the window. “I don’t know. I just…” She bites her lip. “I needed to get away.”
I instantly go on high alert. “Are you in danger, sweetheart?” Whoops. There’s that term of endearment again, the one I really, really shouldn’t be using.
She shakes her head, then grimaces. “No. I don’t think…no. But I had a fight with my family and I needed some space.”
“Where are you from?”
“Edmonton.”
My eyebrows shoot up. She’s been driving for hundreds of kilometers in the snow without a destination in mind. Something must’ve happened. People don’t just drive off into a snowstorm at random. Something pushed her to run.
She says she’s not in danger, but something bad happened tonight. I know it in my bones, and it makes my stomach churn with acid.
She slumps back in her seat and I peer out through the windshield, taking in the onslaught of snowflakes and the rapidly deteriorating roads.
“There’s an inn in Honey Ridge, the town just up ahead. I could drive you there.” Her brows knit together as she frowns. And then her eyes meet mine, and the next sentence falls out of my mouth. “Or you could stay with me.”
I’m not in the habit of offering strangers accommodation, and yet I can’t deny that with Ella, it feels like the right thing to do.
Her lips part in a cute little o and my dick grows thick and heavy at the sight of it. Christ, I’m probably the last thing she needs right now. If she asks me to take her to the inn, I will. It’s what I should do, regardless.
“Really? You’d let me stay with you?” Her eyes are brighter than I’ve seen them, shining at me so sweetly that it makes my chest tight. I’ll do anything to keep her looking at me like that. Like I’m her hero. Her savior. Her protector.
“Of course.”
She sighs, and I can see the relief on her pretty face. For the first time, I wonder if all of these chaotic feelings I’m having towards her aren’t one sided.
Three
Jack
“Is there anything you need from your car?” I ask.
“My purse is in the front seat—or at least, it was—and I have a suitcase in the trunk.”
I nod. “Be right back.”
I find her purse easily, and I make sure the essentials are still in it—phone, wallet, keys. But the trunk is another story. It’s too mangled to open, trapping her suitcase inside. After trying for a few minutes to get it open, I head back to the truck and slide in behind the wheel, handing her her purse.
“The trunk’s jammed shut. As soon as the storm clears, I’ll have your car towed and we’ll be able to get it then.”
“Oh.” She lets out a shaky breath. “Okay.”
I wrap my hands around the steering wheel, gripping it tightly as I ease my truck back onto the road. I feel unsettled, like I could come out of my skin, with how badly I want to protect Ella. Keep her safe. Comfort her. Care for her.
I’ve known her for all of ten minutes and I’m already envisioning how I could wrap my life around hers.
“Something happened tonight,” I say as neutrally as possible as we head towards my house. I sneak glances at her out of the corner of my eye, both because I need to keep my focus on the snowy road and because every time I look at her, I feel like I’m on the verge of a heart attack.
She twists her fingers together in her lap. “I…I had a disagreement with my family about my future.” She glances over at me. “I really don’t want to talk about it.”
I nod, and the knowledge that something supremely shitty happened tonight settles in my gut.
We drive in silence the rest of the way to my house, the snow pelting the windshield. I pull smoothly into the driveway in front of my small but cozy house I’ve lived in for the past ten years, framed in reclaimed timber, the exterior done in river rock and cedar shingles. Lights glow softly from inside, and I glance over at Ella, trying to gauge her reaction, but her expression is impossible to read.
I cut the ignition and jog around to her side of the truck, opening the door to help her down. Without hesitating, I circle my hands around her waist, heat pulsing through me when I realize that she’s so tiny and my hands are so big that my fingertips almost touch. Her eyes meet mine, and she blinks slowly, her breath fogging the air between us.
