The Road Not Taken

Caro wasn’t sure how long she’d sat there, only that the last of the heat had leaked from the inside of the car. She could see her breath each time she exhaled and, even through her cashmere-lined leather gloves, her fingertips pinched and prickled from the cold. She fished her cell phone from her purse. Eventually, she would have to call her husband to report her delay and, if need be, beg him for more time. She wasn’t above begging when it came to her son. First, she needed a wrecker for her car and someplace warm for her to wait for repairs.

She flipped open her phone and stared for a moment at the photo of her son on the display. He was smiling, happy and free of cares, just as every toddler should be. She ran the tip of her index finger over his cherubic face and then frowned as she realized that her phone had no service.

After forcing open the car door and stepping into the knee-deep snow, she raised the cell high in the air and turned in a semicircle.

Still nothing.

She stuffed the phone into the pocket of her parka and cursed. The mild oath floated away on a puff of white air.

She could wait for help, she supposed. Although it was doubtful another driver would be foolish enough to be out in these conditions. Only desperation had forced her to be. She glanced down the road in the direction she’d come. She’d passed a gas station when she’d unwisely decided to leave the interstate, as road conditions there had worsened. That was three miles back or maybe four. She was wearing boots, but the supple leather and three-inch heels weren’t meant for this kind of weather, much less a rigorous hike in it.

She gazed in the opposite direction. What lay ahead on the road she’d been traveling?

Her luck it would be miles of nothing but more maple trees and snowdrifts. She’d survived the accident but, quite literally, she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Tears stung her eyes and her breathing grew labored as panic kicked into high gear. What was she going to do? She had a deadline to meet.

Caro thought she heard bells, a rhythmic jangling from off in the distance. She dismissed the sound as the product of the wind and her own imagination. A moment later, though, a man on horseback appeared at the bend in the road. The rim of his hat was covered in snow, as were the broad shoulders stuffed inside a tan shearling coat. He looked like something out of a dream. A fantasy, she amended, as he drew closer and his ruggedly handsome features came into focus: deep-set eyes of an indiscernible color, angular cheekbones and a shadow of a beard on the lower half of his face.

Caroline’s heart knocked out an extra beat at the same time her knees gave way, and she sank into the snow.

Clearly, she had died.

Jake wiped a gloved hand over his eyes after he spotted the woman. She was a vision. Had to be. No one in her right mind would be out in this godforsaken weather. The only reason he was out was to work off the worst of his temper. And he’d had the good sense to tramp about on horseback. The big animal knew her way back to home and shelter even better than he did.

When he saw the woman collapse, he was out of the saddle before his horse came to a stop, trudging the half-dozen steps through a knee-deep drift to reach her. He crouched beside her, resisting the urge to scoop her up in his arms.

Protect and serve.

A lifetime ago, those words had been part of his daily mantra. No longer.

“Lady, hey, lady!” His words sawed gruffly through the wind. “Are you okay?”

She gazed at him with glazed eyes and a look of terror and revulsion. He wasn’t insulted. He’d had that effect on people before.

But then she did something that shocked him to his core. She raised one shaky hand to the side of his face and asked, “Are you an angel?”

The question took him by surprise. Jake had been called a lot of things during the past year. Angel wasn’t among them.

“Not even close.”

“I thought …”

“Are you hurt?”

She blinked, frowned. “I guess not.”

“You’re sure you didn’t hit your head or anything?” He glanced past her into the car and noted the deflated air bag. It had saved her from greater impact, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t sustained injury.

“I’m okay,” she insisted. As if to prove the point, she struggled to her feet.

Jake rose with her. The woman was taller than he’d first thought she would be, given her otherwise delicate appearance. Not delicate, he decided. Fragile. There was a difference.

The top of her head came even with the bridge of his twice-busted nose. He couldn’t see her feet through the snow, but he’d bet she was wearing heels, something high and impractical to go along with the rest of her fashionable, if nonfunctional, wardrobe. It was a good thing he’d come along. She wouldn’t have lasted another hour out here on her own.

People need you, Jake.

“My car is another matter,” she was saying. “I’m not sure the extent of the damage, but it will need to be towed to a garage for a look.”

People are counting on you, Jake.

He banished the words as he surveyed the small vehicle. It probably got great gas mileage, but that was about all it had to recommend it. His tone was more gruff than he intended when he said, “You call that a car? It looks more like a toy.”

The woman laughed, but the sound verged on hysteria rather than mirth. Make that half an hour that she would have survived without his intervention.

“Yes, well, do you know if there is a garage nearby? And a working phone? My cell isn’t getting a signal out here. I need to call for a wrecker.”

“You can call from the inn.”

“Inn?” She sighed and her expression turned hopeful. “There’s an inn nearby?”

He nodded. “It’s about a half mile up the road.”

“Do you know if it has a vacancy?” She grabbed his arm. “Please tell me yes.”

Jake swallowed and for just a moment found himself lost in a pair of wide hazel eyes. “I’m sure there’s something available.”

In truth, the inn was a broken-down husk of its former self, much like the man who’d purchased it a while back. It was closed to the public, but he did have guests this Easter weekend. He was, begrudgingly, entertaining his entire family, a fact that explained why he could be found out in a snowstorm at the moment.

His parents, brother, sister-in-law and their kids had arrived unannounced the day before. Already he and his younger sibling were at odds. He’d left to avoid saying something he was bound to regret. Well, regret more than what had already passed through his lips.

“Thank God,” the woman was saying. “I … I don’t suppose you could take me there?” Her gaze cut to his horse. Despite the nasty conditions, Bess stood patiently a few feet away. The Clydesdale normally pulled the inn’s sleigh and she’d been thrown in with the sale. As angry as Jake had been when he stomped out of the inn, he’d had the presence of mind to take the big animal rather than stalk off on his own.

“Be happy to.”

He didn’t sound happy, a fact that wasn’t lost on her if her expression was any indication.

“You said it’s only half a mile. I … I can walk.” She took an awkward step forward in the snow.

“Right.” He snorted and motioned with one gloved hand. “In those impractical clothes? Hell, lady, you’d be lucky if you didn’t freeze to death before you made it ten yards.”

She whirled back to face him. Those hazel eyes snapped with heat now, and the color in her cheeks wasn’t all the result of the bitter wind. “I’m not helpless! I refuse to be helpless!”

The shouted words echoed off the maple trees, sending some snow down from their branches. Not helpless maybe, Jake thought. But she was desperate. He’d seen that look in the faces of people whose loved ones were caught up in the drug trade. In their cases, he knew exactly what had put it there. But what did a woman who looked like a walking advertisement for the life of the idle rich have to make her desperate?

He dismissed the question, squelched the old urge to offer to help. Not my problem. Jake was officially out of the hero business … not that he’d had much choice in the matter.

Even so, he heard himself saying, “Come on. I’ll give you a boost into the saddle.”

The woman eyed the big animal. This time it was fear rather than pride he heard when she said, “I really don’t mind walking.”