I glance between my jacket and the burly man scanning my engine, and I just know this is going to be another one of those moments where I end up in a verbal spat with this man. Good thing I look forward to it.
I slide on the faux tan leather and zip it up. It’s pointless, really. It’s just a glorified windbreaker that serves no purposebut to look good with the right pair of jeans and heels. Even so, I strut around my car to cock a hip to the side.
Nameless doesn’t even look at me. “I hate this car.”
“Shh, he will hear you.”
“It’s an inanimate object that you animate and drive,” he mutters while hooking up a gadget to some wires. “Doubt this will work.”
“Look at you, being all optimistic.”
He doesn’t even look my way when the little device beeps out an error code. “Foreign junk.” Finally, he looks up at me. “Nothing I can do but tow you back to the shop.” I see the moment he takes in my jacket. Those baby blues darken, and he eyes me as though I’m a child who needs a keeper. It’s delightful. “What is that?”
“What’s what ?” I lean an ear toward him as though I cannot, in fact, hear him. Oh, but I can.
“What are you wearing?”
“A jacket”
“That’s a glorified T-shirt.” He isn’t wrong.
I raise a brow, ready to challenge him, but Lark yells out the window. “I’m hungry!”
“I need to feed the little human,” I tell him, because a hangry Lark terrifies me.
For the first time, the brute’s face softens as he looks back at Lark. “There’s a diner back in town.”
“You’ll tow me?” I ask with hope.
“Yeah, get in.” He slams the hood down and points to the tow truck, which I hop over to, only to stop.
“There it is.” I point to the forest beyond and the moose that started it all.
“What are you—” He stops mid-sentence to stand beside me. “That’s a moose.”
“It’s out for my blood,” I whisper to him.
“That’s impossible.” Shaking his head, he stomps over to the door and pulls it open. “They are more afraid of you than you are of them.”
“Maybe to you, but it wasn’t standing in the middle of the road trying to get your attention.” Or plotting my utter demise.
“That’s how you slid off the road?” His thick brows rise in unison, mirth dancing in his eyes.
“Maybe.” I climb up into the truck and sit beside Lark as he slams the door closed.
“Update.” She pokes my ribs.
“Well, the mountain man plans to tow us into a town, where I’m going to assume he will look at our foreign car and tell me how long it will take to fix it.” I fiddle with the dials and blast hot air on my chilled legs.
“Assume?” Her voice squeaks just a fraction.
“Well, we didn’t exactly hash out the details.” I should have asked these very important questions.
The man in question climbs up into the tow truck, and without a sound, he tugs open his glove box and pulls out a bag of M&M’s, handing them over to Lark with a smile.
“Thank you.” She rips into the pack of chocolate like a gremlin fed after midnight.
I tsk under my breath. “Where’s mine?”
