I glanced over to see him staring out the front window as his hand softly glided down Ossie’s back.
“Were you, uh, did you play football in high school?”
I laughed. “Not even close. I played because I was big and the coach hounded me, but I wasn’t good enough and hated the game. It wasn’t like I would get a college scholarship or anything. Good guess.”
“Uh, yeah, sure.” He stared at Ossie and grinned as the pup spun onto his back so Avery could scratch his belly. I was jealous of a fucking dog.
We drove in silence for a while and finally I couldn’t take the quiet anymore. “Traffic is surprisingly light for a weekday, though I guess with it being New Year’s Eve, it figures.”
“Do you have plans tonight? I mean, I’m not trying to be nosey, but if you have plans, I can call the tow truck now to get him to meet us. I still haven’t talked to Brooke about the car. She’s going to kill me.” Avery appeared to be quite nervous as I glanced at him.
“Well, it might not be as bad in the light of day as you think. Let’s wait until we get there to see how much damage was done. As far as going out, I’ll be hanging out with Ossie tonight. How about you?”
“No. Not doing anything. My roommates are gone until Sunday, probably. What? I can’t—” He appeared to be confused, but I had no idea why.
For an instant, he frowned. “No. I won’t.”
“Are you okay? You won’twhat?” Suddenly, Ossie started to bark and jumped across the console into my lap, turning toward Avery and growling. “Hey, Ossie. Stop that.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m sure he sensed me getting upset. Anyway, I’ll take your advice and wait to call a tow truck until we get a better look.”
I took the exit beyond the crash site and doubled back on the northbound side of the highway. When I saw the little silver Prius still in the snow to the right of the highway, I turned on my flashers and pulled off the shoulder into the grass.
I moved Ossie into the floor in the back seat and glanced down to see Avery was wearing snow boots. “You ready?”
Avery glanced up to see we’d arrived. “Uh, sure.”
We got out of the truck and walked over to the stranded Prius. The driver’s side was worse than I thought, so I turned to him. “It’s a wonder you’re alive, Avery.”
That semi had sheared the metal on the driver’s side of the car and even cut through the inside of the driver’s door. It was a wonder it hadn’t cut him in half.
“You must have a guardian angel, Avery. This could have been so much worse than I believed when I found you.” God, that was no lie.
Avery’s soft smile would be the death of me. “I’m just glad you found me.”
So was I.
Chapter Eight
Avery
“Don’t be a stick in the mud, Avery! He’s the most amazing man you’ll ever meet. Do not fuck this up.”Happy’s voice in my head was driving me nuts.
When Oscar started barking, I thought Holden would know her spirit was in his truck though I couldn’t see her, but Holden didn’t react. Finally, I responded to his comment. “I’m just glad you found me.”
The words weren’t bullshit. As I looked at the damage done to the Prius, it hit me that I very nearly could have died that night.
It wasn’t the first time death had knocked on my door. When it happened at seventeen, I was so fucking scared I didn’t know what to say or how to feel about the possibility that one day I wouldn’t wake up.
The idea that, through no fault of my own, there was a chance I’d die was almost too much for me to comprehend.
It was the randomness of it that baffled me. I wasn’t a heavy drinker or a drug user. I didn’t drive recklessly or scale buildings. My heart defect was like a sick joke the universe was playing on me.
At the same time, a young woman had been out there living her life and had no idea what fate had in store for her, either. I was sure that woman didn’t wake up that morning and say, “I think I’ll die today,” but that was exactly what happened to my unknown savior, and I got her heart. No way did I want to let her down.
I couldn’t lie and say that goddamn accident hadn’t scared the hell out of me. When that semi-trailer slammed into the driver’s side of Brooke’s car, sending it spinning off the road and into an icy field, I had no idea if I’d make it out of that car alive.
Happy’s voice had been in my head before the accident, but when I woke up from the Christmas accident, I was suddenly able to see her. That was really a mind fuck.
