Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,6

tried to start the engine. Nothing. He kept trying, hoping it would just miraculously start. He didn’t need this kind of trouble for so many reasons, his fiancée’s worry for one. “I’m going to have to call someone,” he told Kate.

“Is it that bad?” she asked, sounding scared.

He had no idea. “I’m sure it’s just something simple.” He pulled out his phone. He’d seen a cell phone tower a few miles back. Fortunately, he had a couple of bars. When the call went through to a local towing garage, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Twenty minutes? Sure. Thanks.” He disconnected and looked over at her. She was beautiful, he reminded himself, and soon she was going to be his wife—unless he did something stupid and messed this up like losing his temper with her.

“I’m sorry,” he told her. “You’d expect a rental to be in tip-top shape.”

“I was surprised when the agency gave us an older model,” she said. “I thought all rental cars were new.”

He didn’t know what to say to that since he’d asked for this year and model on purpose. Of course she would have chosen a more expensive, newer one. He smiled even though her words were a direct hit to his ego. He reminded himself that she had no idea what was really going on. Nor did she know anything about his financial situation. He had led her believe he was as set in life as she was, but he knew that unless this trip went well and didn’t cost too much, it was only a matter of time before she found out.

Feeling that he wasn’t good enough was something that had shamed him since he was a boy. He hated that other people always had more than he did—even though his parents were rich by most people’s standards. Just not rich enough to put him in a league where he wanted to be. It’s why he’d promised himself that he was going to have enough money—no matter what he had to do to get it. So far, even that plan hadn’t been successful.

He told himself that his luck was going to change, and Kate proved that. “It’s fine,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. “The tow truck will be here soon. There’s a town up ahead, Buckhorn, the driver said. We can stay there. They’ll fix the car, and we’ll be on our way. This is just another adventure, right?”

She nodded and smiled, but he worried she was having second thoughts and not just about this trip. “You promised adventure. You’re certainly true to your word.”

“Aren’t I, though?” He could see that she’d lost some of her confidence in him. Not that he suspected she’d ever had much. It was getting cold in the car. He looked out and saw nothing but falling snow and hoped he could turn this situation around. If he didn’t, he could lose her, and that was the last thing he wanted. Kate was the gift he’d always thought he couldn’t have. To lose her over something this stupid... He shook his head and grinned at her. “You still want to make a snow angel?”

She laughed. “Surely you aren’t suggesting—”

“Not now,” he said as he pulled her close to keep her warm. “But maybe before we leave Montana. Wait until Mia and Danielle see the photo I’m going to take of you.”

* * *

KATE STOOD IN the middle of the motel room unable to move. She could see her breath in the frigid air. Her teeth were chattering. She hugged herself, but her thin Texas winter coat made her feel ill prepared.

Behind her, she heard Collin come in with their suitcases but was too cold to turn around. “The tow-truck driver turns out to be the mechanic, so that’s lucky. Fred said he’ll take a look at the car in the morning. I’m sure it’s nothing. If not, the rental car agency will see that we get another car, so don’t worry.”

He stepped around her to put the suitcases down on one of the sagging double beds. The clerk at the desk had called this room a suite. Probably, Kate thought, because it had an apartment-sized kitchen against the far wall next to a two-chaired dinette set from the fifties.

It wasn’t that Kate hadn’t roughed it before. The worst part was that this room, this motel, this town reminded her of the short honeymoon she and Danny had taken in East Texas. She remembered the two of