All I Want For Christmas Is You - Penelope Ward Page 0,66

a pep talk. I take a deep breath and open the door in a rush. I climb out and look around at my surroundings. The car is on a gentle slope. It’s not as bad as I first thought. I walk around the car, inspecting the damage; only one back tire is buried in mud.

Yes, maybe I could get out of here.

Sticks, I need all the sticks. I begin to scrounge around on the ground, feeling around with my feet. The rain is hammering down, and I look up at the sky. “Are you kidding me?” I cry to the heavens. I find a branch and I drag it around and put it behind the back wheel. I find another and another. I’m saturated.

I put them on the ground as I scrounge around on the ground. And as I stand and step back, I roll my ankle, fall and slide down the hill and end up on my back in the mud.

“Oww.”

“Easy, Miss,” I hear a deep voice.

Huh?

I look up through the rain to see man in a raincoat with a flashlight. “Are you hurt?” he calls.

I shake my head. “No, but I crashed my car.”

“I saw you go off the road from my place, so I came looking for you,” he calls.

“Oh,” I pant in relief. “Thank God.”

He walks over and holds his hand out to help me up. I take it and he pulls me to my feet. I put pressure down on my foot and wince.

“You are hurt.”

“It’s just my ankle.” I try to put it down again and pain shoots through my foot. He picks me up and opens the car door and places me on the seat. “Stay in here while I check on your car.” He slams the door shut and he walks around and looks over the car with the flashlight. He gets down on his knees and looks underneath the car and then comes back and opens the door. “You aren’t going anywhere; the axle is broken.”

“Oh.” My face falls.

“I can take you into town if you want?” he asks. His voice is deep and I can hardly see his face. His huge raincoat with his hood is hard to see through the rain.

“Thank you. That would be...” I shrug as I try to search for the right word. “Great.”

I grab my handbag and he holds out his hand and I take it and step out of the car. I wince again when I put pressure on my foot and without warning, he bends and picks me up like a bride.

He begins to march up the hill toward the road as if I’m light as a feather.

The rain is really coming down and his step doesn’t falter as he navigates where to walk. I cling to him, my two arms around his neck.

This is hellish.

We get to the road and I see a large SUV parked at the side of the road. Jeez, his car is nearly a truck it’s so big.

He opens the passenger side door and places me on the seat. “You okay?” he asks as he does the seatbelt up around me as if I’m a child.

“Yes.” I give him a lops sided smile. “Thank you.”

I watch him walk around to his side of the car and get behind the wheel. He starts the car and pulls out onto the road.

“Thank you so much.”

He nods and keeps his eyes on the road. I don’t think he’s made eye contact with me at all.

“I missed my flight and I had to drive to Anchorage and then my navigation system wouldn’t work and, oh my God, it’s raining so hard,” I stammer.

He nods but stays silent. His focus remains on the task of driving. I look between him and the road. He’s not very friendly...is he? Why would he be? God, poor bastard, I bet this is the very last thing he wants to be doing on a night like this.

“You saw my car crash?” I ask.

“I saw your headlights veer off the road.”

“Oh.” I watch him. “It was really scary, could have been a lot worse though.”

He nods once.

I twist my hands in my lap as I think of the right thing to say. “How far away is town?”

“About twenty miles.”

I nod as I listen. “And you live out here?”

“Yep.” His eyes stay on the road.

Okay, it’s quite clear he doesn’t want to talk, but for some reason I feel like I need to. “Thank you again, I don’t know