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She couldn’t believe she was thinking about that now. What was wrong with her?

She turned to him, teeth chattering. Even after only a couple of minutes out there, he was coated with snow. “Well? Give me the good news.”

“It seems we hit another car.”

“That’s the good news?”

He shrugged. “At least it was an inanimate object. No injuries.”

“What is a car doing on the road? Was it parked?”

“Presumably. Hard to tell. I can’t make out where the road begins and ends. But we’re definitely stuck. We won’t be going anywhere in a hurry.”

“What are we going to do?”

Before he could answer a figure loomed out of the snow and hammered on their window.

Izzy gave a small scream.

“It’s a man!”

“Well, who were you expecting,” Jason drawled, “the Abominable Snowman? I’m relieved to see another life form. Let’s hope he lives near here and isn’t lost like us.” He stepped out of the car again and this time, Izzy joined him.

She clutched the door of the car as the wind buffeted her and snow stung like razor blades. It was unbelievably cold. She grabbed her coat and held it closed. It was designed for fashion and clients, not a blizzard.

“Where have you come from?” Jason yelled to make himself heard above the wind. “Is there shelter near here?”

“Yes.” The man gestured, his arm covered in snow. “It’s not far, although the snow is deep. But you’re tall. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Izzy reached Jason’s shoulder. Did that mean she was going to be swallowed up in a snowdrift?

They’d been standing outside for less than a minute and already she could feel the trickle of ice water seeping through her clothes. She couldn’t feel her fingers or her toes. Never again was she agreeing to go to a client when a storm was forecast.

“We need to get inside,” the man said. “Grab all the warm layers you can find from your car and follow me. The house is this way.” He turned away and Izzy grabbed an extra scarf, pulled a hat onto her head and squinted after him.

House? She couldn’t see a house. She couldn’t see anything except snowflakes.

She glanced at Jason but he simply shrugged and followed the man into the frozen white.

Now what? Part of her had been looking forward to getting back to Boston so she could leave this horrible awkwardness behind her, but if she didn’t die in a snowdrift, it seemed that she was going to be trapped with Jason for a bit longer. Maybe a lot longer.

She trudged through the deep snow wondering how long it took for frostbite to take hold, and then saw a flicker of light and caught a brief glimpse of a house with turrets.

Recognition was instant. It was her house! Well, not her house exactly, but the house she’d been admiring for the past few weeks.

She couldn’t believe she was going to take shelter here.

The relief was enormous. Her natural positivity started to reassert itself even though her teeth were chattering and her eyelashes were coated in snow.

The snow was so deep she stumbled twice, and on the third occasion Jason grabbed her arm and steadied her.

Somehow, they reached the door and the man hammered hard with his fist.

It opened a crack and Izzy saw a woman peering cautiously at her.

Izzy was hopeless at guessing ages but she would have said the woman was probably late sixties. She was elegantly dressed in a navy wool dress and looking at her made Izzy even more conscious of her bedraggled, frozen appearance.

She tried to give what was intended to be an apologetic smile, but her face was frozen and her whole body was shuddering with cold. She couldn’t imagine ever being warm again.