it takes.”
“Thanks,” Landon said. “This actually helped a lot.”
“I’m sure it’s hard for you to believe I’m actually smarter than you are when it comes to love,” Lucas said before Dani’s hand covered his mouth to thankfully shut him up.
“You need to learn to quit while you’re ahead,” Dani said as Lucas’s eyes danced with mirth.
“Take him home and muzzle him,” Landon said. “I’ll be over in the morning to delouse him before the wedding.”
“We’ll see you then,” Dani said. “Have a good night at work and be safe.”
“Will do.” When they were both in the car, Landon shut the passenger door and waved as they drove off. Leave it to Lucas to make even falling in love into a competition between them. But that didn’t surprise Landon. They’d been trying to outdo each other in just about everything since the day they were born. Everything was a competition, so why not love, too?
As much as it pained him to admit, Lucas was right about being patient. Just because Amanda hadn’t opened a vein to profess her love for him didn’t mean she wasn’t feeling the same way he was. Maybe she just wasn’t ready to say the words.
Fair enough. He could wait, as long as he had to, for her to catch up to him. Like Lucas had said, when it mattered, you did whatever it took to make it work.
After tonight, he had four whole days—and nights—to show her what it meant to be loved by Landon Abbott.
He couldn’t wait for the morning.
From the minute Landon left for work, Amanda had been beating herself up for so spectacularly blowing one of the most important moments of her life. He’d basically put his heart in her hands, and what had she done?
Thanked him for helping her after the fire.
Nothing says “I love you” like gratitude.
She cringed recalling his sweet words and how she’d failed to give him even the slightest bit of what he’d so willingly given her. “God, I suck. How could I not tell him how much he means to me?”
Despite her ankle aching after a busy day, she paced the length of the small house, feeling confined and anxious that she’d made a huge mistake by acting like a fool after he poured his heart out to her. What he’d said about feeling the same way she did about Stella—no hesitation—she’d thanked him for all he’d done for her.
“Ugh!” She’d planned to spend tonight finishing her profiles of Mildred and Elmer, but how could she concentrate on anything else while this awful unfinished business with Landon hung over her?
She couldn’t. Making a snap decision, she put her shoes on, grabbed her keys and purse and was out the door a minute later, before she could talk herself out of taking care of this right now, rather than letting it fester overnight.
They were all looking forward to the weekend in Boston, and the last thing she wanted was tension with Landon or him thinking he was out on the proverbial limb by himself when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Amanda navigated dark, winding roads, hoping she’d remembered the way to the fire station correctly. She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn’t see the gigantic moose in the road until it was nearly too late. Screaming, she slammed on the brakes, and the car fishtailed wildly thanks to the mud still on the road. In the flash of a second, she slammed into the guardrail, and the car pitched forward into darkness, teetering precariously.
In the time it took her brain to catch up with what’d happened, she remembered Landon telling her that at least once a year, someone went off the side of the road into the ravine forty feet below that very spot. Even though she couldn’t see the drop, she knew it was there and couldn’t bring herself to so much as breathe out of fear of the car falling into the abyss. Blinded by tears, all she could think about was dying before she got to meet Stella.
“Please don’t let that happen. Please.”
She had no idea how long she was there, fighting to stay calm, before another car came along. Afraid to so much as turn her head to see if the car had stopped, Amanda stayed perfectly still and prayed furiously that the other driver saw her.
Then a man was outside her window. “Don’t move,” he yelled. “I’m going to get help.”
She gave the slightest nod to let