3. Reese

CHAPTER 3

Reese

W hat the hell was I thinking? I watch out the window and fight the urge to plunge into the freezing black snowglobe.

I should have told her I’d meet her. Or at least checked out the damn weather forecast before I invited her to my mountain for a date that looks like it’s been planned in hell.

A really icy hell.

The snowflakes are coming harder and bigger now and I growl under my breath.

Surely she’d be here by now if she was coming? She’s probably backed out. That’s actually probably smart of her. Lord knows this is not the way to start a new relationship. Trapped for days. Over Christmas.

Because I can tell from the way this is coming down that it’s not going to stop anytime soon and we’re going to be trapped up here for a significant amount of time. Days if not weeks.

So it’s probably better if she backs out. I’m a terrible host. Exhibit A…check the damn weather, dumbass!

But what if she started up the mountain? What kind of vehicle does she have? Is it one of those froufrou little foreign jobs? Because up here you need four-wheel drive and a high ground clearance. Anything else is going to get stuck and then you’re gonna be sitting there freezing to death and waiting for help that doesn’t come because up here in a storm is a dead zone. No cell service. Everyone around here knows it but not strangers to the mountain.

I pace back and forth and drive my fingers into my hair and tug harder and harder, a driving force arguing with my common sense and telling me that I need to get the hell out that door and find her.

With a muttered curse I grab my outer gear and quickly throw it all in. A deep breath and I step out the door into a wild, angry, cold version of hell. I can barely see in front of me when I step off the porch. I grabbed my gun and I sling it over my shoulder in case I run into something big and bad.

I snort. As if. Nothing else but dumbasses like me are going to be out on a night like tonight.

The wind whips around me and I hold the battery-operated lantern high, sweeping it around me as I walk along the road I know she’ll have to use to come up the mountain.

At first all I see is the wind swirling snow into my face and driving it so hard that I can’t see more than a foot beyond my face.

But then I finally feel shapes starting to make sense. The trees bend around me and creaking, groaning cracks fill the air. I swear under my breath.

I’m an idiot. There’s no way that anyone would come out in this for a damn date. Gimme a break.

But I plunge into the wall of white anyway. Because if I don’t check and she ends up freezing to death, broke down in a ditch somewhere I’m gonna kick myself until the day I die.

“Hello? Is anybody out here? Hello?” I holler into the wind. I’d be amazed if anybody hears it. My ears are burning from the icy wind, my eyes are tearing up so bad I can’t see more than rudimentary shapes. I can’t breathe from sucking in air that’s so damn cold that it burns my lungs.

In short, I’m in hell and there’s no way that anybody else is up here with me. I feel even more alone than I usually do.

But nothing’s going to stop me. I need to make sure that nobody else is out here.

As soon as I think that…a huge, dark shape looms up alongside the road and I groan when I see the edges of the froufrou car that is already getting buried under the frosty white stuff.

There’s no way that this isn’t her. I growl and then pull the door but it doesn’t open.

Locked.

I lift my hand up and knock on the window. “Hello? Ashleigh? Is that you? I’m here to help if that’s you. Actually even if it’s not you I’m here to help you.” I pause for breath, feeling like my brains are frozen solid.

Tapping at the window, I hold one hand over my eyebrow, peering inside. “Hello? Are you in there?”

But there’s no answer and the door stays locked.

Peering around, I finally notice the tiny set of footprints that are heading into the woods. They’re partially covered by snow but there’s no doubting that those are a woman’s tiny boot prints. And she’s heading away from the road and my house.

She’s going the wrong way! What the hell is she thinking!

But I already know. She doesn’t know this mountain and she’s walking into a raging snowstorm blind.

Hell, if I didn’t know this place backwards and forwards and upside down, I might get lost in a storm this bad.

Sighing, I plunge into the woods and at least in here I’m not bombarded by the wind. That slight relief is outweighed by the fact that she’s running into even more danger than she already was in.

I’m an idiot. I kick myself the whole way, feeling the bare tree limbs scraping at my coat and hat, dragging at me.

But I keep going. Because I need to find her. It’s a song in my blood right now. A feeling that something special is coming if only I can find her.

I don’t know what the hell’s wrong with me. I’m not a fanciful guy. That’s one of the things that Angie didn’t like about me. I am just a plain guy with plain feelings. I’m not romantic or fussy. I’m just me.

And that wasn’t enough for her.

Will it be enough for another woman? I don’t know. But I just want someone to come along and realize that I’m a loyal, loving man and I’m desperate to find a woman who’s basically a damn golden retriever like me.

Minutes pass into what feels like hours and then finally I see a shadow leaning against a tree in front of me. I push forward even faster, practically jogging through the snowy mess around us.

“Hey! Ashleigh is that you? Are you alright? Hello?”

She whips around and my breath catches in my throat when I catch my first face to face with her.

“Holy shit!” I breathe. She’s more beautiful than any woman I’ve ever met in my life. She’s got a face like a goddess. Full pink lips, rose red cheeks and dark eyes that I can’t quite see in the dark. But I see enough to know that she’s got perfectly-arched brows and her long silken hair tumbles down her back in a curtain of brown.

Her body is so damn tiny that I can’t help but think she’s a fucking doll. So tiny and beautiful. So perfectly-proportioned.

“Hello, Ashleigh,” I murmur softly. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

Truer words have never been spoken. I just didn’t know what or who I was looking for. Now I do.

Her. It’s always been her.