Page 16 of His One True Wish

I exhaled and closed my eyes. I needed to beat back visions of that man’s body like a wildfire in danger of spreading. Axl Grey was nothing but an unexpected distraction. He didn’t belong here. I needed to get home, help Mom, and figure out a way to break his lease early. There was no way Mom would be on-board with a tenant at Smoke River.

The truth was that the falling snow outside was a bigger problem than Axl. My hare-brained plan to spend one night at the cabin was falling apart. I needed to focus on getting home, which meant I absolutely needed to unpack tonight and leave early tomorrow morning. I chewed on my fingernail, wondering if Axl would help me.

I needed to see how bad it was outside, but I was afraid to look. Before I opened the shutters, I closed my eyes and made a wish. “Please stop snowing. Please stop snowing.”

“Did you say you need help moving stuff into the barn?” Axl said, walking down the hall. “I’m happy to help.”

“That would be so great,” I said, smiling with relief. Maybe Ihadn’t given him the benefit of the doubt. He was offering to help without me asking. Maybe things were about to go my way after all.

I opened the shutters, and my smile dropped.

No way.

Parked right in front of the house was a bright yellow Jeep with a chrome grill. Axl was Bear Coat’s ex, and the asshole who almost ran me off the road.

CHAPTER 7

AXL

“You asshole,” Billie said, turning to me. A glare replaced her smile.

“What?” I was totally confused. “I thought you wanted me to put on pants. I did.”

“I don’t give a shit about your pants,” she said. She pointed a finger out the shutters at the Jeep. “Youalmost drove me off the road tonight. I can’t believe it was you in that obnoxious yellow car.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Things had taken a turn. I was supposed to charm her with my strong, helpful arms and get her bundled up for the drive home. What was going on?

“You came up on me super-fast, then you swerved a bunch like a maniac.” She held her hands up as if holding a steering wheel.

I thought back through the drive, remembering being stuck behind a slow-ass car on the logging road. “Wait. That was you on the road in front of me? Before Four Clover Farm?”

“Yes!” she shouted. “Yes, it was you!”

“Ahhhhh, okay, yeah,” I said, quickly piecing together how this all went down. After leaving Angel at the rest stop, I stopped at a gas station. I grabbed a Big Gulp and turned on Zeppelin’sHouses of the Holy. I sucked down at least forty ounces of Red Bull on that drive,listening to the sweet crooning of Robert Plant. Zeppelin was one of the only lessons, or gifts, my father gave me that wasn’t total bullshit. “I remember now. I needed to get home. I was in a hurry. I’m sorry.”

“For your bubble bath?” she said.

“No.”

“What, you needed to come home and clean the kitchen? Binge-watch a show? Find your dog?”

“No. Cam was with me in the car. Actually … ” I hesitated and then decided to tell her the truth. What did I care. “I had to pee.”

“Oh.” She looked stunned.

“I knew it was going to snow. I didn’t want to pull over, so I drove with urgency. What do you kids say, TMO?”

“TMI,” she said. “And you aren’t that old.”

“I’m older than you.” I had at least ten years on Billie, maybe more. It was hard to tell.

She exhaled and glared. “You drove like a menace. You could have killed me,” she said, standing with her arms crossed. Anger rolled off her in hot waves. Truth be told, it was more than a little bit of a turn-on. She was like this fiery little bird, and I wondered what else pushed her hot buttons.

I shoved my hands in my jeans to cover my hardening cock.

“You were in no danger,” I said, though my dick was in danger of busting out of my pants. “I am a very disciplined driver. I wasn’t tailgating. I had plenty of room. The margin of error was very small, and my confidence was high. I was nowhere close to hitting you.”

“Is that so? The margin of error foryouwas small? Who talks like that?”

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