CHAPTER ONE
Wesley
Lovely Disaster
“Ihate theholidays,” Wesley Hart said, grunting and trying to walk through a foot of snow to a truck that had run off the road.It was already twenty degrees and expected to get colder.But every year on New Year’s Day, he and his deputies would be fishing drunks out of their cars, and their cars out of trees, or embankments.Without fail.Sandy Point might be a quaint southern beach town, where he grew up, but there were always a handful of people causing trouble.It didn’t help that his town just had an epic snowstorm.They hadn’t seen this much snow in Georgia in over two decades, and they were not equipped.
“Hey, you okay in there?”he called out as he grabbed on to the side of the truck so he wouldn’t fall into the two feet of snow.
The driver’s side door flew open and an arm covered in leather, with a glove, waved him forward.
“Thank God you’re here.Can you take this and then come back for me?”a woman’s voice said, as she held out a red carry-on bag.
He took one more big step closer, his boots and snow pants sinking into the fresh powder pushed up high by the truck’s dive into the embankment at the end of main street.
A young woman with dark hair and red lips stared back at him with a forced smile.
“Please.”She looked him up and down.“Officer.”
“It’s Chief Deputy Sheriff.”
“Okay, Sheriff.”
He sighed.
“Have you been drinking?”Wes said, leaving no doubt with his tone he believed she had.
“What?No, not unless you count coffee at the diner.”She shook the bag.“But if you’re offering me some whiskey, I’ll take it.It’s freezing.”
“Are you injured?”he asked.
“No, thankfully.This road was like a sheet of ice.I thought the town was supposed to treat them?”
“They did, but the wind is just pushing the snow around, and anything that melted today has turned into more ice.There were warnings that everyone should get home before the sun went down, hours ago.”
She huffed.“Great, well I’m not wearing proper shoes to get through this snow.”She held up the bag again.“And you’re huge, so you can easily carry this bag and me out of this snow.”
Wes sighed.The woman looked like she couldn’t weigh more than the training dummy they used to practice rescuing people in real distress.Of course he could carry her, but it was the principle of it.He wasn’t in the business of carrying women out of the snow when they weren’t smart enough to heed the warning of a winter storm and put him and his deputies in danger.
“If you want your bag tonight, you can carry it and walk yourself out of this snow.But I’ll give you a ride back into town,” he said, then turned back toward the street and started to follow his own tracks.With every step his boots sunk to at least his knee in the deep snow.And he could hear the woman huffing, her car door slam shut, and some colorful language.
Once he was back to his truck, he stomped his feet to shake off some of the snow and tucked his chin into his coat.It was below freezing, the wind was howling, and they were under a blizzard warning.Unable to resist, he looked up to watch as she struggled to carry the bag over her head.She had to take big strides to step into his tracks and the snow went up to her thighs.The first time she fell, he tried not to laugh; the second time he felt like a total jerk.In three huge steps he plucked her out of the snow with his hands tucked under her armpits.He carried her like a petulant child and didn’t set her back down until they were up by his truck.
Her teeth were chattering, and she looked like she was trying not to cry.
“That is not a proper winter coat, and this is a blizzard.You put yourself and me in danger coming out on this road, when you knew damn well you shouldn’t.”
“I’m sorry,” she said through her teeth chattering from the cold.
“Get in the truck now,” he ordered, opening the passenger door.
Her entire body seemed stiff from the cold, but she moved toward the heat.He had to give her a boost up into the truck and then leaned over her cold legs in what seemed like woefully inadequate black leggings and cranked the heat on high.Then he closed the door and trekked back to grab her bag, tossed it in the back of his truck and got into the driver’s side.The heat blasted him, and he could feel his own cheeks thaw.
Surprisingly he found her holding his cup of hot chocolate, with rosy cheeks and smiling.
“Thank you.”
“For saving your life or my hot chocolate?”
