Page 8 of Ever With Me

She hadn’t gone far when a loud, hideous screech sounded in the store below her.

Maddie steadied herself onto the wall, yelping.

What the hell was that?

She ran to the small window, heart slamming against her rib cage.

Had something exploded in the store? She could have sworn the floorboards and wall had shaken.

Clutching her towel to her chest, Maddie ran through her apartment and flung open the apartment door. She was down the stairs in a minute, the thought that she should probably get dressed barely registering as she made it to the ground floor. If there had been an explosion, there might be a fire, and she might need to get out immediately. Clothes be damned.

The stairs led to the back hall of the store. Nothing there.

She headed to the door that opened to the main area of the store. Opening it, she threw the lights on and blinked.

Then she gasped.

Where the main display window normally was—the one that faced Main Street—there was a crashed car instead.

4

BROOKS

Brooks blinked dazedly,his eyes adjusting to the harsh glare of electric lights as he pushed back against the steering wheel.

Holy fuck.

His car was sitting in the middle of a store.A store.

Glass shards glittered from his windshield and hood, a metal display rack of handmade cards lying against his driver’s side window.Why didn’t the airbag deploy?

He peeled his hands from the steering wheel.

It had all happened so fast.

One minute, he’d been pulling on Main Street in the sleepy Maryland mountain town Cormac had given him directions to, and the next, a deer had leaped into the road, inches from his bumper. He’d swung out of the way on reflex, hopped the curb, and landed in the store window.

Going through a window was actually lucky. If he’d gone into a wall, who knew what shape he’d be in now?

His legs were stiff as he pushed the door open, the card rack clattering to the floor with a metallic thud. He winced and stepped out onto broken glass and debris, surveying the damage.

“Hey! What the hell?”

Am I seeing things, or is a woman in a towel yelling at me?

He rubbed the back of his neck, hoping to God she wouldn’t recognize him immediately. Or at all. “Uh, deer jumped in front of my car and?—”

“Are you drunk?” The woman marched up to him, fearlessness in her blue eyes, her wet blond hair bouncing on her bare shoulders, then halted. She retreated a step as though thinking better of approaching him.

“No.” Brooks scowled. “And I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

She wrinkled her nose, then scanned the store. Hurrying toward a display of sweatshirts withBrandywood, Marylandemblazoned on the front, she grabbed a pink one and a pair of gray sweatpants, then disappeared into a back door.

She must own the place—which, from the looks of it, meant she was a successful small business owner. His eyes narrowed at a table of beer mugs etched withYardley’s Country Depot.

Why does that name sound familiar?

Before he could figure it out, the woman had returned, wearing the sweats. She hurried toward him. “Sorry about that.Areyou okay? You’re right—I should have asked. Your face looks bruised on one side. Did you hit it on the steering wheel?”

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