Page 4 of Losing Hope

“Oh my God! Thank you!” Snagging it from her, he tore the wrapper off and inhaled half the bar in one bite as a groan rolled out of his mouth.

Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, she noticed how his hair was starting to curl up a bit on the edges as it was drying. “Okay, so I don’t think there’s going to be anywhere between here and where I live that will be open. We are in Vermont, afterall.”

He looked over at her and gave her a look that basically said, noshit.

“We have a landline at my house, so we’ll give Triple A a call when we get there and see what they say about getting you a tow. Okay?”

“Sounds perfect. Really, I can’t thank you enough.” Reaching over, he grasped her forearm in a quick squeeze of thanks. His touch felt hot and electric, causing her to jump in surprise.

“Sorry, did I hurt you?” His eyes squinted as his brow furrowed again.

She laughed lightly. ‘No, no. Sorry, just jumpy.” She could still feel tingles on her arm where he had touched her. When was the last time a man gave her tingles from a single touch?

“Are you getting warmer yet?” Her trench coat was still on, and even though she had only turned the heat up on his side, a bead of sweat trickled slowly down herback.

“It feels amazing.” He looked over and must have realized she looked a little flushed. “Too warm for you, though?”

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. Keep it on. Let’s see if we can dry you off a littlebit.”

“You’re just worried about these leather seats, aren’tyou?”

Looking over at him, she feigned a shocked expression. “The thought never even crossed mymind!”

Laughing loudly, he joked, “Come on! I saw the horror on your face when I first jumped in. What’s this sucker run, a hundred grand?”

“What? Isn’t that kind of rude to ask someone?” She laughed nervously. What if this was actually a setup and he knew she was rich? “Besides, I didn’t pay for it. My father did. I’m more worried about his reaction to the water stains and how I’m going to explainthem.”

His expression darkened a bit at the mention of her father. “Oh, I get it now. You’re a daddy’sgirl.”

“Excuse me?” Her eyes wentwide.

He just shook his head. “Never mind. Sorry I said anything. Really, I’m just hungry and cranky.”

She turned off the main road and started down the dirt road that led to the house. The drive was only about half a mile long, but it wasn’t lit, and it was lined with trees, so she drove slowly.

“We’re almost there.” No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, she was slamming on the brakes again. A tree had fallen in the road, right in theirpath.

“Shit.” She turned and looked at him. “Nowwhat?”

“We move it. That’swhat.”

Brows shot up over her weary eyes. “How in the world do we move that? It’s too big for us to push out of theway.”

He smiled wide, eyes crinkling again. “Not too big for this fancy Range Rover, though.”

She looked at him again questioningly. “What?”

He shook his head. “You didn’t notice it has a wench on the front ofit?”

“Awhat?”

Laughing, he reached for the door handle. “Yep, you’re a city girl, all right.” He opened the door and jumped out. “Just stay put, but leave it running and the lights on forme.”

She watched as he moved in front of the Rover and began pulling on something before climbing up and over the tree, wrapping some kind of wire around it as he went. Curiosity got the best of her, and even though the rain was still pouring down, she opened the door and stepped outside. Her heels immediately sunk in the mud of the dirt driveway, and she cursed the fact that another pair of her beautiful shoes were getting ruined in one day. She pulled her heels up and walked on the balls of her feet over to the tree to see what he was doing.

“Gage!” she yelled at the tree because she could only see the wire. His head popped up from behind thetree.

“What are you doing? I told you to stay put.” He jumped back over the tree and walked over to her. “Now, you’re soaking wet, too. Get back inside!” He grasped her arm and starting leading her back. When he tried to turn her, he noticed she was walking on her tippy-toes. He looked down in question and pointed to herfeet.

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