Page 39 of The Twelve Dates of Christmas
Kate peered at him through the glass. Dark hair, square jaw; minus the rugby ball, but that was to be expected.
“Richard the rugby player who stood me up?” asked Kate.
“The very same and the very sorry,” said Richard. “I’ve been trying to persuade the Twelve Dates guys to give me your number so I could call you, but it’s against their company policy.”
Kate rolled down the window another two inches and craned her neck to get a better look at him.
“Itisyou,” she said incredulously.
“Listen,” said Richard. “Why don’t you get into my car, which has heating, and I’ll get your car started. It’s the least I can do after shamelessly ditching our afternoon tea date.”
“You had me atheating,” said Kate. With the tartan blanket still wrapped round her, Kate extricated herself from the Mini and climbed up into Richard’s SUV.
“Do not murder me,” Kate warned him once she’d gotten settled in her seat.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” said Richard, smiling.
He shut the passenger door, went around to the driver’s side, and started the engine. It purred and immediately warm air began to fill the car. Richard tapped his finger to the touchscreen dashboard and the heaters began to roar.
“Sit tight and warm up,” he said. “I’ll get the jump leads and see if I can get your engine started.”
Kate was only too pleased to do as she was told, while Richard set about manhandling Kate’s car so that their bumpers were almost nose to nose. Richard’s car smelled of man: a mixture of aftershave and deodorant. It was quite intoxicating, sort of woody notes and black pepper; Kate found herself strangely aroused, but she put this down to gratitude and relief.
She watched as he attached the red and black lead clamps to her car battery. Then he doubled back around and opened the driver’s door of the SUV and switched the engine off. As he did so, a flurry of snowflakes swept into the car; they perched delicately on the seat like resting butterflies before the heat from the car disappeared them.
Richard deftly attached the remaining leads to his battery and then climbed in beside Kate and switched the engine and the heaters back on.
“I should explain,” Richard began. “My son, Nathanial, was rushed into hospital the night before our date and, I’ll be honest, I forgot all about it. It just went out of my head. I remembered about two days later, when everything had calmed back down. I called Lightning Strikes to see if I could get your number, but they couldn’t let me have it because of data protection.”
“Is he all right?” Kate asked. “Nathanial?” Kate recalled Richard’sprofile: two children, a boy and a girl. Richard had joint custody with his ex-wife.
“He’s fine,” said Richard. “Thank God! He made a full recovery. It started off as an ear infection. The doctor said it was viral and would go away on its own, but then when he was at my place his temperature spiked and I... well, I just panicked.”
“Of course,” said Kate. “You must have been terrified.”
“I was beside myself,” said Richard. “Not very manly, I know.”
“More manly than not being worried,” said Kate. “Men seem to have this idea that showing emotion is a sign of weakness, when really, the opposite is true.”
As her bones warmed in the heat of the car, so did her feelings toward Richard.
“Huh,” said Richard. “A wise woman indeed! Anyway, they put him on some strong antibiotics and kept him in overnight. I stayed up there with him. I know I should have emailed the rep to let them know I couldn’t make it, but it just went out of my head.”
“Honestly,” said Kate. “Don’t give it a second thought. You’ve more than made up for it by rescuing me from a night in my car.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” said Richard. “I haven’t got it started yet. In fact, I’ll give it a try now.”
Richard climbed out of the SUV, and Kate watched him crunch through the snow and round to her Mini, which was accumulating quite a head of snow on its roof. She smiled to herself as Richard folded his enormous frame almost in half to crush himself into Kate’s tiny car. Next to him it looked like a child’s toy.
She heard her engine turn over a couple of times and then wheeze to a stop once more. Richard got out and came back to sit with Kate. Snow had settled on his black hair.
“We’ll give it another few minutes,” he said. “I’m not ready to give up on it yet.”
“It’s not really built for someone as big as you,” joked Kate.
“You’re not kidding,” said Richard. “I thought I was going to need a shoehorn to get me out of it!”
Kate laughed.
