Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Just fucking great.
I give Billy and his father a forced smile. “Yeah, I’ll figure out a way home,” I tell them, wondering how Sarah would feel about giving me Oxley’s number. “In the meantime, are there any good trees left?”
“Sure thing,” Billy’s father says, waving a hand toward the main entrance of the farm as I really start to shiver, cursing myself for not remembering my damn coat. “Follow me, darlin’.”
9
NICK
The drywall at the Inn looks fucking perfect as I stand back, surveying my work for the day. I’ll have to come back tomorrow to sand it and put a coat of paint over it, but for now—fucking perfect. I pride myself on offering a high standard to my customers, and so far, there hasn’t been a job that I haven’t been able to ace.
I pack up my tools, walking in and out of the Inn as I load my truck with all of my shit. I’m just about done when my phone rings, and for just a moment, I consider letting it go to voicemail. After the shitty morning I had when Blair dove over the coffee house counter just to avoid me, I really can’t be fucked to deal with someone else’s emergency.
Seeing Billy McDonald’s name flash across my screen, my brows furrow. I was never close with Billy in high school and never had anything to do with him after it either. We’ve run into each other occasionally at the local Bar & Grill and had a drink together, but as far as friendship goes, that’s about it. Billy considers himself a bit of a handyman, so he’s never needed my help or input, so the fact he’s calling now is more than suspicious.
After accepting the call, I lift my phone to my ear, hoping like fuck he doesn’t have an emergency that will keep me from going straight home to crash. “Hey, Billy. What’s up?”
“Hey man. Look, I ummm . . . I know it’s none of my business and that your girl said she could figure something out, but she’s been walking up and down the farm for twenty minutes and hasn’t even looked at a damn tree. And considering the way she’s talking to herself, I’m pretty sure she’s having a psychotic break.”
My brows furrow, and I pause on the bottom step of the porch that leads to the grand entrance of Blushing’s one and only inn. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Oh . . . you don’t know?” he questions. “She said she’d call someone to help. I just figured she was talking about you.”
“The fuck is going on, Billy?”
“Blair,” he states. “She’s down at the farm. She hit a patch of black ice and her truck is buried in a ditch. She really should have chains on her tires, man.”
My eyes widen, my heart racing as I launch myself toward my truck, desperate to get to her. “Is she alright?” I rush out. “Is she hurt?”
“Nah, she’s fine. Maybe a little shaken, but she seemed more interested in picking a fucking tree. I mean, shit. This girl’s priorities are out of whack,” he laughs to himself. “As for your girl’s truck, I don’t know what you wanna do with it. I don’t think it’s damaged, but there’s no telling until we get it out of the ditch. You’ll probably need to call a tow.”
Fucking hell. This bastard seems to be putting a lot of responsibility for Blair’s truck on me. “She’s not my girl.”
“Wait. What?” Billy says. “You’re not together? I figured you two were doing the whole long-distance thing. But she’s single? Fuck. Why didn’t you start with that? Listen, don’t worry about coming out here. I’ll get it sorted out for her.”
Over my dead fucking body.
“You even look at her wrong, and I’ll gut you like a fucking fish,” I warn him, still remembering the aggressive way he tried to pick up girls in high school. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
Throwing myself into the cab of my truck, I take off, not sparing a moment to even bother telling the staff at the Inn that I will be back tomorrow. All I can seem to do is imagine Blair running off the road over and over again inside my head, and the more it plays on repeat, the faster I drive.
It’s usually a good forty-minute drive from the town center, but from the Inn, I should be able to get there in twenty minutes, twenty-five at most, though I’m certainly creeping well over the speed limit.
The whole drive, my mind whirls with the worst-case scenario, and despite Billy telling me that she’s absolutely fine, I can’t possibly believe it until I’ve seen her with my own eyes. Hell, what the fuck is she even doing trying to get a Christmas tree?