But his other option wasn’t any better.
He looked out over the railing, his eyes locking in on Faith’s sporty red SUV that had just begun to back out of its space.
He wouldn’t keep her long. Just long enough to ask if he could wait in her apartment until someone could come by to let him back into his own. She’d said herself she wanted to be neighborly. It didn’t get much neighborlier than that.
Even faster than before, he rushed down the stairs again, now winded from the repetition. If he could muster a higher gear, he could catch her in time before she turned out of the apartment complex.
On feet so numb he couldn’t feel them, he sprinted through the lot, heaving big, frosty breaths that made his throat strain and lungs ache.
The blinker on the back of Faith’s vehicle illuminated, her wheels angling to make a right turn onto the two-lane road.
“Faith!” Arms flapping like he was attempting to land a plane, Mitch made an absurd commotion. “Faith, wait!”
She began to accelerate.
“Faith!”
Just when he thought it was a lost—and exhausting—cause, her reverse lights lit up and the SUV slowly moved backward until Mitch was lined up with the driver’s side window. He was folded in half, hands on his knees, heaving for breath, and his head lifted just as he heard her window roll down.
“Mitch? What on earth is going on?”
“I locked myself out.”
“I don’t have a spare key to your place.”
“I know. I’m going to call our landlord. But I was hoping I could hang out in your apartment until she gets here. It’s really cold.”
“I know it is,” Faith said with a little snicker. “I’mcold, and I’m wearing a weather-appropriate jacket.”
“You know what?” He clapped his hands on the frame of her car. “Never mind. I’ll come up with something else.”
“No.” The whites of her knuckles protruded when she gripped the steering wheel tightly. “It’s fine. Just let me park and I’ll be right there.”
“Or you could just give me your key.” He didn’t think it was necessary for Faith to be there while he waited. He knew she had a bakery to get to. But then again, he wasn’t much more than a stranger, and he could understand why she might not want him in her home unsupervised.
“I only have the one key, and since you’re currently locked out of your own apartment, I don’t think I want to run the risk of you losing mine, too.”
“I didn’t lose my key. I simply locked myself out.”
She continued reversing, and Mitch had to step back into a pile of slush to avoid getting his foot rolled over with a tire.
“Either way, I’m not taking my chances,” she called out through the window.
Mitch backed all the way up to allow Faith room to maneuver her vehicle into her designated parking space. His feet were red, the tips of his toes turning white.
He could not possibly feel more stupid. Or freezing.
She gave her car door a bump with her hip to close it shut. “Alright, Mr. March, let’s get you warmed up, shall we?”
Mitch was wrong. That right there definitely made him feel more stupid. Was Faith seriously referring to him as a calendar pinup? She didn’t seem that bold, but then again, they hardly knew each other. And he was a firefighter without a shirt. The jab was a fair one.
“I’m really sorry about this.” Mitch trailed her like a sad puppy dog with its tail between its legs. “I recognize you have other places to be and work to do.”
“It’s fine.” She fluttered a hand over her shoulder, dismissing his statement. “Don’t you have work, too?”
“Not today. I get time off between shifts. It’s called a California swing shift. Work twenty-four hours every other day for five days, then you get four days off. Today’s the start of that.”
“Oh. That’s actually really nice.” Once at the top of the stairs, Faith fit her key into the lock. The sound of it rotating and clicking open was sweet music to Mitch’s chilly ears. “I’ll get a pot of tea going to help you warm up. Unfortunately, I don’t have any sweatshirts in your size, but I’ve got a throw blanket in my closet that should do the trick. Let me grab that.” Faith placed her tote bag on her counter, an unsteady, forced grin on her lips. “Go ahead and make yourself at home.”
