Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 122216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122216 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 611(@200wpm)___ 489(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
“One thing’s for sure.” She sighs. “I’ve missed this. The way the air is so crisp, the snowy woods, everything that feels like home.”
“The city not living up to expectations?”
“It’s fine,” she replies quickly. Too quickly. And I don’t miss the furtive glance she sends my way.
“Just ‘fine’?”
She wrinkles her nose. “It’s not really your business, is it?”
Everything to do with her is my business, but I don’t want to push. Not yet, anyway.
“Grams told me you never left the Valley.” She cuts me a sly look. “But I guess you wouldn’t have to go anywhere. I mean, you’re already king of the town. You’ve got your mansion up on the hill where you can lord it over the rest of us. Must be nice to have everything laid out for you like a little prince.”
Shots fired. “I get it.” I shrug. “My family has a reputation, and I let that go to my head when I was younger. They had me later in life, and I guess that meant they were already set in their ways and their opinions. My mother was a big fan of telling me how superior I was to everyone else in town. And I believed her for a while. I really did.”
“I …” She finally looks at me again, compassion in her eyes. “I heard about your mom’s passing. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks.” I meet her gaze for a moment before returning to the road. “That’s kind of you. She wasn’t an easy woman to love, but she was my mom. I’ve still got Dad raising hell up at the house. I visit as much as I can.”
“Oh.” She looks ahead as we crest a hill and Reindeer Valley comes into view. “You don’t live up there?”
“Nah. I moved out and got a nice little cottage off Main Street. I updated it, but it’s still cozy. And the best part is, I can walk to the shop.”
“You really work as a mechanic?” Her eyebrow lifts again, skepticism written all over her.
“Yep.”
“You. Prom king. Valedictorian. Ivy League material. Instead of heading to Harvard, you grabbed a wrench? I really can’t picture it.” Her gaze strays to one of my hands on the steering wheel.
“All true. Here.” I reach out and take her hand. Just touching her sends a singing jolt of heat through my blood.
She swallows hard. “What are you—“
“Feel my palm.” I open my hand, and she runs her small fingers along my skin. Each touch is like a little lick of fire. Even though I try to keep myself calm, I wonder if she can hear my raging heartbeat.
“Calluses.” She feels the spots along my fingers hardened from the touch of a wrench. “You really do the work, don’t you? I’m surprised and sort of … I feel sort of…” She puts her palm to mine, now comparing hand sizes. Mine dwarfs hers. When she moves her fingers higher, straying to my wrist, I fight the urge to slam on the brakes and pull her against me.
“You feel sort of what?” I ask.
It seems to break her out of her reverie, and when she pulls her hands away, I silently curse myself for speaking.
“Nothing.” She faces forward and folds her hands in her lap. “I feel nothing at all.”
6
RUBY
The questions never end. Knox asks me one after another as we make our way to town. He’s acting like I have the most interesting life and he wants to know all about it. Back in school we barely talked.
Hell, he didn’t really talk to anyone that wasn’t in his circle, but now he won’t shut up. Worse, I find myself enjoying his attention way more than I should be. I should know better.
“Is your boss going to be pissed that I cleared his call?” He smirks as he asks this question.
“He’s already pissed so what does it matter?” I shrug it off.
“Because you took some time off? Everyone is entitled to have some time off.”
“Something like that.” I sigh. My eyes once again linger on Knox’s hands on the steering wheel. God, the way his palm felt against mine—I want to feel it again. It’s such a weird thing to want, but something about his rough hands made him even sexier than he already is. I didn’t think Knox Lovejoy could get more attractive than he already was, but damn was I wrong.
“Tell me.”
“Tell you what?” I pretend to be confused. I really don’t want to talk about my boss's unsolicited advances with my old high school crush/enemy/hottie.
“He did something.” It’s not a question, and I can almost feel him go tense beside me.
I try to relax, realizing I’d frozen up when he asked about my boss.
“Tell me.” His words come out seeming a bit like a growl. That same sweet thrill I’d felt when I touched his palm rolls through my body at the sound. I’m obviously going to have to give him an answer, because it doesn’t seem as though he’s going to let this go without one.