Nick should keep that up. Even if she wasn’t…coming back, people loved the donuts. And he needed to paint that damn wall. Maybe a light green, or a happy yellow. Anything to get rid of the dour air in here.
When the bell rang to announce Rachel’s second departure from his life, he looked up and felt nothing. It wasn’t the real woman he’d been aching for all these years, but a version of her that’d lived inside his head. Even that was finally gone, erased by the tender fingers, the big brown eyes, and the gentle gasp of another.
Damn it.Nick swiped at his eye with his shirt, acting like he’d gotten coffee grounds in it. “Here you go. One mistletoe latte. Who’s next?”
“Storm’s really picking up out there, eh?” Sam asked, needing conversation. He kept fiddling with his scanner, finding nothing but static.
As Nick waited for the customer to decide, his gaze drifted to the wash bin. Mugs and spoons floated in the soapy water, but a single one hovered on the top. White as cream, it still bore the pink kiss from her lips.
“Reports of a crashed SUV on highway thirty-eight.”
Nick wrenched away from Emma’s mug to stare at Sam. “Thirty-eight? That’s the one that head’s east.”
The old man waved a hand to get him to shut up. He fiddled with the knob and the police blotter continued. “Caller said it was a gray Kia.”
“Hey, isn’t that…?”
“Emma!”
NICK SPUN HIS truck around, nearly smashing into a tree. He’d been watching the side of the road leaving town and almost missed the tracks trailing off into the ditch. Snow blew in, wiping away any hint of the blacktop below. He took it easy for fear of hidden ice, but his heart would not stop pounding. Oregon license plate, a gray car nearly camouflaged in the sleet. It was hers.
“Emma?” he shouted. Leaping to the freezing ground, Nick shook off the shock of cold and ran for her. As he drew closer to the SUV, the front came into view. It was pulverized like a crushed pop can.Fuck.
“Emma!” he cried, running hell-bent to the driver’s side. What if she was hunched over? What if she was hurt? What if she…?
The driver’s side door was open, light streaming from the overhead bulb ripped off the roof. But there was no one inside. Okay, she may have gotten a ride. Except he hadn’t seen anyone on the road. And, for as bad as he’d fucked up, he knew she’d call him first.
There, in the snow.Footprints led away from the crash. Nick followed them down the ditch and into a field. She must be trying to get back to town. Why didn’t she call for a tow or the cops?
How long had she been out in this? He shivered under his wool jacket. No chance her puffy coat would last long in this freezing wet storm. His jeans were already soaked through, then hardening to ice as he struggled through the snow drifts. What if she was hurt in that? What if she wasn’t thinking clearly?
“Emma!” he tried again. “Please be okay.” The wind battered at the prints, wiping them away at the top of the hill. His trail was gone.
Ahead was a stand of trees, but she might have veered to the right where a single light burned in the distance.Damn it.Nick cupped a hand to his mouth and shouted for her again. “Emma!” he tried to the right and struggled to see through the icy sleet stabbing his eyes. There was no sign of her, but she could already be farther on.
“Emma!” he called to the trees. Movement. A brown shape darted between the black and white trunks. It had to be all of her chestnut hair swaying in the wind. Turning his back on the farmhouse, Nick trudged after the momentary flit of brown in the sea of white.
The wind picked up, nearly tossing him back. He flung his hands out to keep from falling and snatched onto a branch. It shattered in his hands, and a brown head popped up from the snowy underbrush. Doe eyes stared at him all right, the kind that came with a white tail and antlers.
He’d followed a deer into cover. The creature shifted its ears, then darted away as Nick folded his hand into a fist and slammed it against the tree. “Damn it!” He couldn’t stop now. He had to keep trying, to look in every drop-off and turn she might have taken.
And if he was too late?
Nick opened his mouth to shout her name, but the pain clogged his throat. All his mind could conjure was her tiny body curled up in the snow, frozen and unmoving. Gulping in air, he coughed out the only thing that would get free. “Cream and sugar.”
“Nick?”
It was the wind. He told himself that even as he turned around to find the sound. Then it grew stronger. “Nick?”
“Holy shit.”
She raised her head, and he almost crumbled to his knees in prayer. Somehow, she’d wound up next to a tree, her small body blending in with the brush. Nick took her hand, wincing at how cold it felt even in his frozen mitts. She reached for him, patting his cheek, and he nearly burst into tears.
“I crashed my car,” Emma said plainly, and he laughed. Not at her, but from the joy of finding her.
“Here.” He scooped her up off the ground, his heart throbbing as he held her safe in his arms. She wrapped her hands around the back of his neck and snuggled her cheek to his chest. Fighting against the wind, he carried her back to his truck.
“How did you find me?” she asked, her voice soft and rippling in pain.
