Thrill Seeker (Sinful in Seattle)

“You don’t say?”

I ignored his sarcasm and lifted my voice to speak over the growing wind. The darker it got, the more frigid it was growing outside. But I’d be damned if I shivered. If he could seem impervious to the weather, so could I. “If you’re not using a national company and instead supporting a local business, it’s not surprising. This is a holiday. Therefore, holiday hours.”

“Thank you, Miss Know-It-All, but I’m well aware of this particular company’s hours. It’s a family business.”

“Your family? Yet you don’t own a truck hoist?” I cocked my head. “Seems fishy.”

“I said family business, not my business.”

“Ah, like your dad? Or your brother?”

“Look, they aren’t answering, so we’ll have to just wait.” He glanced around at the gathering snow as if he planned for us to wait at the edge of the road.

If that was the case, I was definitely going to try to get back into my car. As much as I loved Mrs. Pringle, I knew my stomach was on the verge of roaring. That bread was going to be mine. I’d skipped lunch, and boy oh boy, I knew better than to take shortcuts. They never paid off.

“Okay. Well, thanks.” Even if he couldn’t be polite, I could. “I appreciate your…” But I wasn’t a liar. “Conversation.”

I couldn’t be certain in the near darkness, but I was almost sure his lips twitched. “Conversation, is it?”

I shrugged.

“Come on,” he said, indicating with his chin for me to head up the short incline to a dark, forbidding, tiny house.

Immediately, my back went up. And my spidey senses started to tingle.

Or that might have been my extremities due to frostbite setting in.

“No, thank you. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll just stay here and call AAA.”

“You have AAA?”

“Of course I do.” I bit my lip, vividly picturing the expired notice on my desk at home. I’d paid that, right? It had been at the top of my To Do list, but with the holidays…

Okay, maybe not.

“You seem uncertain.”

“Not really.”

He gusted out a sigh. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go inside and get warm. I’ll call the towing company again later.”

“If they’re not answering now,” I shouted over the wind, moving closer when my voice seemed to get sucked away, “what makes you think they will later? It’s a holiday. People are out celebrating.”

“Are you?” He pointed at himself. “Am I? No. Not everyone is in a fucking party mood. Now come on.”

When I didn’t budge, he gave me a stern look that made me half expect him to haul me over his shoulder like a sack of Maggie. Then he let out another of those windy breaths. “Please?”

My frozen face cracked into a smile. “Did that hurt?”

“A little. Not as much as my nuts shriveling up into my spine though.”

I swallowed. Along with not hearing a ton of swear words on a daily basis, I also wasn’t privy to men referring to their nuts as if that counted as ordinary conversation.

Hi, my nuts hurt. Pass the crackers.

“You, um, should definitely go inside then. That sounds painful.”