Besides, I can’t in good conscience leave her alone in the middle of the woods during a storm.
At least that’s what I tell myself.
For now.
The truth is, the longer she sits beside me, the more I want her there. Within reach. Where I can see her and keep her safe.
None of that should make me feel any kind of way. But I don’t examine that too closely. Not yet.
Right now, I need to focus on getting her safely to the house.
My hands tighten their grip on the wheel. It’s dark now, the mud getting deeper in sections, and right where I was worried it would be, a washout.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath, but she hears.
“What’s… oh.”
She sees the stream that’s crested the banks and flows over the road. “Can we get across?”
I nod, tensing my jaw, and put the truck into four-wheel drive. “Hold on. It’ll be a bit wild.”
Tessa braces herself on the dash as I navigate the truck through what could easily become an impassable river within the hour. The rear tire catches and pulls to the side, trying to pull the truck over, but I’m ready for it, and with a quick maneuver, I guide the truck up and over the side.
“You weren’t kidding when you said the road would get bad.” Next to me, Tessa shakes her head, but she doesn’t remove her grip on the dash.
“It’s just going to get worse,” I tell her. “But we’re almost there.”
By the time my cabin comes into view,the trees are swaying in the wind, the rain coming down in sheets, making visibility almost nonexistent.
I pull up as close as I can to the porch and kill the engine. “I’ll grab your bags, just get up to the porch as—” I stop when I look down and see the little white runners on her feet. “You’ll sink,” I tell her, changing my mind. “Wait there. I’ll help you.”
She hesitates for half a second, then nods and stays put while I grab her bags, depositing them on the porch before going back for her. The rain has already soaked through my shirt by the time I open her door.
“Okay,” I say, “arms around my neck.”
Her eyes widen. “I can?—”
“I’m sure you can,” I interrupt. “But you won’t.”
Remarkably, she listens and leans toward me.
I lift her easily, the weight of her settling into my arms, warm and solid. She’s lighter than expected. Softer, too. And she smells fucking good. Like strawberries, of all goddamn things.
Her hands tighten at the back of my neck as the wind gusts over us. Instinctively, she snuggles into my chest, and for onedangerous second, all I can think about is how easily I could keep her right here in my arms.
I don’t.
Instead, I move fast. My boots sink into the mud as I carry her toward the house and up the stairs to the covered porch, doing my best to shield her from the worst of the rain.
I set her down gently, my hands lingering for a beat too long at her waist before I step back, putting some much-needed distance between us.
Tessa looks up at me like she wants to say something, but I don’t give her the chance.
I reach past her and open the door to the cabin.
I wait for her to step inside, grab her bags, and follow her in.
The cabin is warm and quiet. The faint scent of pine that follows me everywhere mingles with the smell of my coffee from earlier.
