Page 31 of Hot Winter Nights (Bear Mountain Rescue 1)

Sitting on the couch, he rubbed his hands over his face, breathing deep. When Bluebell stuck her wet nose under his chin and nuzzled him, he let his hands drop to stroke her soft ears.

“I guess I really screwed up this time, huh, girl?”

Chapter 19

The first major snowstorm of the season raged around Allie as she stood over her car engine, cursing. It was just past nine in the evening, freezing, and Allie wished for the millionth time that she’d left work before the storm hit, but with half her staff gone for Thanksgiving, she’d stayed late to help.

I could be back in New York right now.

But even surviving a blizzard was better than taking snide comments from her mother and long-winded lectures from her father for four days. No. Allie had decided to weather the storm from the warmth of her cabin. Instead, her car wouldn’t start and the cold was eating through her clothes, numbing her skin painfully.

Out of the darkness and swirling snow, a buzzing engine and single headlight zoomed into the parking lot. The snowmobile stopped behind her car, and the bundled-up driver got up, making his way toward her.

She recognized his strut before he even took off his helmet. Dex. She’d actually managed to avoid him for the past two weeks, even the few times she’d gone out with Penny or Hunter and a few other people from the hospital. She hadn’t asked Hunter if the two of them were talking, because she didn’t think it was her place.

“Are you all right?” Dex asked loudly. His deep baritone swirled around her in the wind, and she shivered, a reflex she swore was from the cold and not because she’d missed the sound of his voice.

“I’m fine.” This was the first conversation they’d had in weeks, and she still wasn’t ready for it.

“Sure you are. That’s why you’re standing outside, staring under your hood in a blizzard, right?”

He had a point. “My car won’t start.”

Dex ducked inside, flipping on a flashlight she hadn’t seen in his other hand. “Your battery is probably frozen. Have you checked it lately?”

“No, I’ve been busy.”

“Well, NAPA is closed by now. Here”—he handed her his helmet—“hop on the back and I’ll give you a ride home.”

She shoved the helmet back at him, a little harder than necessary. “Thanks, but I’ll get a ride from someone inside.”

Even in the dark storm, the parking-lot light showed that his green eyes were blazing. “Are you seriously going to make someone drive out of their way in a snowstorm just to spite me?”

“I’ll stay with Penny, then.”

With a shake of his head that sent snow flying off his hair, he said, “Suit yourself.”

But as he walked back to his snowmobile, Allie reconsidered her options. Penny had left Allie’s place before the storm hit, meaning Kermit had been locked in his cage for at least four hours. There was no way in hell she was going to ask Dex to check in on him. She didn’t need to owe him any more favors.

Thinking about Kermit’s adorable, lonely face as he lay locked in his cage, though…

“Wait!” Slamming the hood of her car down and grabbing her purse off the front seat, she trudged through the snow to catch up.

He paused, straddling the snowmobile and watching her with one raised eyebrow.

“Can you please give me a ride home?”

Folding his arms, the helmet still dangling from his hand, he seemed to be considering. Unlike her shivering body, he appeared oblivious to the cold, and it made her hate him more than she already did.

If I really hated him, then I wouldn’t think about him a hundred times a day.

“Say ‘I’m sorry, Dex, for being rude’ first,” he said.

“What are you, five?” she asked.

He didn’t respond, just sat there with that annoying eyebrow arched, waiting expectantly.

She decided she could still despise someone and be attracted to them. Through gritted teeth, she muttered, “I’m sorry, Dex, for being rude.”

---