Page 17 of A Prince for Christmas

We fell into a companionable silence, which was interrupted by a bang, followed by a few bumps as I put on the brakes. Damn. A flat tire.

Nick and I climbed out of the car and stared at the driver’s front tire. Completely flat, which meant something must have punctured it. With the temperature hovering in the single digits, it was not my favorite time for changing tires.

“Oh, good grief,” Nick said, looking positively stricken.

“Damn. I wanted to get home clean and cute,” I said with a sigh. “Not today.”

I headed for the back of the Blazer, opened it up, and began moving suitcases. Nick joined me immediately. “What do we do now?” he asked.

That seemed like such a strange question to me that I straightened up from rearranging the luggage. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know.” This time he sounded a bit defensive. “Call someone to fetch us?”

I couldn’t help but laugh as I shook my head. It was impossible to even imagine a towing company servicing this gravel road, and I couldn’t just leave my car here. “No, silly,” I said, swatting Nick’s arm. “We change the tire.”

CHAPTER 7

I couldn’t help but laugh at Nick’s dubious expression when he realized I meant to change the tire myself.

“It’s not that big a deal,” I assured him. “Easy peasy. My dad insists I keep a real spare in the car, not one of those little donuts, and he taught me how to do this when I was ten years old. Living on dirt, you gotta know how to change a tire.”

Nick didn’t seem to have any idea about the whole process, so I finished moving the suitcases and uncovered the spare tire. When I started to unscrew the screw that held it in place, he took over with that, so I dug out the jack and assembled it.

“What’s that contraption?” he asked, examining it suspiciously.

“This is the jack,” I said. “It lifts the car so you can get the flat off.” I demonstrated, and he nodded.

“Do you think I could give it a go?” he asked when I crouched to slide the jack under the car. “Might come in handy some day. You never know.”

“Sure,” I said, nodding. “I’ll walk you through it.”

“You’re a gem,” he said, taking over when I moved aside. Although he had clearly never changed a tire, he worked at it valiantly, and I let him follow my instructions, even though I could have done the work far more quickly. I was thankful to keep my fingers warm in my pockets, and he seemed determined to finish the job.

He had a few smudges of tire dirt on his expensive sweater when we finished, but he didn’t seem to notice. He beamed proudly as he stood from the successful operation.

“What do we do with the old tire?” he asked, his brow furrowing in concern.

“We toss it in the back and take it with us,” I said, gesturing with my thumb. “Dad will put a plug in the hole, and it’ll be good as new.”

Nick looked startled. I guess he’d never thought of re-using an item after it broke. That was rich folks for you.

Once we were back in the car and on the way, Nick asked, “How much farther to your parents farm?”

“About an hour and a half,” I replied. “There’s a shorter route, but with the stops, this is the best way overall.”

“I don’t mind the drive.” He scooted the seat back to make more room for his long legs and stared out the window. “This is lovely. I can see why you never left Montana.”

I couldn’t help glowing a bit, as if I was responsible for the wild landscape. “Thanks.”

“We don’t have anything like this in England or even on the continent.”

Obviously his family had enough money to travel some. “But England is so green,” I protested. “And there are amazing mountains in Europe—the Alps, the Basque country…”

“Those are indeed beautiful, but for the most part, they’re not that wild. All this open space is…” His voice trailed off. “I really don’t have the words to express it.”

We didn’t talk much until we reached Sheridan, but at some point, Nick’s hand ended up resting comfortably on the back of my neck. I said nothing for fear he would move it.

The stop in Snowy Hollow was shorter than the Norris visit. I’d been saving since last Christmas and had ordered some leather goods for all of the family—a jacket for Mom, new gloves for Dad, and matching hats for the girls. It was only recently that I had made an addition to my order: a rawhide vest for Nick. Sizes could be hard to judge, but he was obviously a x-large shirt, and a vest could be adjusted. Because I couldn’t help myself, I had asked Evan to do some leather fringe on the vest. It was a little expensive for a “might be” boyfriend, but I figured the look on Nick’s face when he opened it would be worth the expense.