Page 20 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“I shouldn’t have stayed so long in Asheville.”

Learning forward in his seat, Matt stared ahead and realized his were the only wheels breaking through the several inches of snow on the road in front of him. Even if someone had come before him, the rate at which the snow was falling covered everything very quickly. They sure weren’t used to snow like this here, and he worried about drivers not knowing how to handle this kind of weather.

The sun had set as he approached Falls Mountain on the southern side. Wet and heavy, the white stuff was piling up. A quick glance to the trees showed weighty branches thick with snow. At least there was no ice. Yet.

“Hope the power holds out,”

he muttered.

“I’ve got too much to do tonight.”

Thankful for his four-wheel drive, he leaned into the steering wheel and concentrated on driving. Soon though, he was mentally ticking off the tasks to do before he could finally relax and get some sleep. He was no Santa, to be sure, but it seemed this night, he might be up all night long. With the back of his Jeep full of presents, he had a couple of hours to get home, wrap some, put together others, and get them all back in the Jeep before heading into Harbor Falls for the midnight candlelight ceremony. If he was lucky, he’d find time for a shower.

He’d tried all day to get his mind off Shelley and his stupid reaction to her at the store. He supposed he’d apologize, eventually, but he didn’t want to. He’d put up this stout wall of protection about him for years. He didn’t talk about it to anyone, and if someone was insane enough to bring it up, he set them straight right away. The subject of Shelley was off limits. He dealt with it in his own way.

Yeah, by hiding out, you bastard. Is that really dealing?

“Shut up,”

he said aloud. Chastising himself wasn’t going to do any good, either.

Thing was, he didn’t know if he wanted to come to terms with the hurt Shelley dealt him. It had dulled, of course, but no one—not one woman he’d encountered since then—had been able to replace her.

That’s what scared the hell out of him. He was a strong man, physically, but if he let himself succumb to Shelley, would he survive if she dumped him again? If it somehow didn’t work out?

He honestly didn’t know.

But no time to dwell on that tonight. He took another hard look at the road before him.

His two older sisters were supposed to be home in time for church. The roads all over were getting icy and slick. That worried him. Could take them longer than expected. It was tradition that if humanly possible, the four of them—his two siblings and his mama—would spend Christmas Eve together at the service. They’d done it since they were kids and their daddy were alive. They’d miss him as always, although he’d been gone for a while.

Once the ceremony was over and the kids were all tucked into bed at his mama’s, he’d unload the Jeep, put some things under the tree and hide others, then hightail it back home for a few hours rest. He knew that his oldest nephew, Brian, nearly ten now, would be calling and waking him way before daylight.

Those plans might have to change. Would he be able to make it back up the mountain to his place after the service?

Hell, it was likely he might not make it back down to the service. Maybe he should turn around and go back to his mother’s while he could.

Squinting, he peered through the windshield and increased the rate of swipes his wipers were making.

“Seems worse up here,”

he muttered and frowned while turning onto Lake Road, determined to move forward. His home sat a few miles past old Fall’s Lodge and off a dirt road further up. Suited him fine. The more difficult it was to get there, the harder for someone to make the effort.

For good measure, he turned on the radio to the local station. Having spent his afternoon in Asheville, he’d not paid a lot of attention to what was happening in the foothills.

“Three more inches in the last hour, folks, so we’re up to seven here in downtown Harbor Falls and it’s just six-thirty. I’ve heard it’s worse in higher country. This stuff is coming down fast, furious, and wet. Forecast says we’re not finished yet. Stay in, stay warm, and stay off the roads.”

“Great.”

Matt glanced to his cell phone. No calls. He frowned, picked up his radio, patched into the station, and asked for the Chief.

He waited, turned his lights on low beam, and slowed.

The snow shifted into a sleeting mass of ice that blanketed his windshield all too quickly. As he followed the road, now significantly narrowed because of the snow, he began to think that his plans, so thoroughly laid out in his head, were likely to change.

“Matthews?”

The crackle met him from the radio.

“Yeah, Chief. Need me down there? Just checking in.”

“Didn’t want to bother you son, during your time off.”

“Yeah but looks bad up here. I’m heading up Lake Road toward home. How is it there?”

“For the most part, fine, power is on, no accidents, people keeping of the streets, but…”

The thing crackled and sputtered some more.

“are you… lodge?... didn’t get… frantic.”

“You’re breaking up. What?”

He crept along, his gaze fixed ahead of him.

“Are you near the lodge?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Matthews… sister didn’t… home.”

What the hell was he saying? Matthews. Suzie?

Matthew’s sister. Shelley?

“What?”

Squinting, his gaze caught and held onto a flash up ahead. Lights.

Something garbled came back.

“Come again, Chief.”

“Shelley… missing. Might be… lodge. Didn’t make it there.”

Lights. Deeper trenches in the snow heading off the edge of the road.

Shelley?

“You hear me Matthews?”

Shit!

A cold iron fist clutched at his chest and squeezed his heart. The lights. The beam. Casting not at him, but straight up into the trees. He braked as easily as he could without sliding off the road. To his right, he could see down over the embankment.

A small car had slid off the road and practically climbed a tall cedar down the hill. If it weren’t for the lights, he would have passed it by.

“Gotta go.”

Please, Lord, no….

****

Shelley sat with her head against the steering wheel, gripping the thing like her last minute on earth depended on it, and panted out breath after breath after breath. Adrenaline shot through her, throbbing in her veins. Crying, she attempted to control her errant breathing and tried really, really hard not to panic.

She wasn’t going to be successful on that last part.

Her heart pounded, and fear of what to do next raced through her entire body. Oh God! It all happened so fast, the curve, her tire slipped off the pavement—she couldn’t even tell where the freakin’ pavement was!—and she’d tipped, slid, and rolled once.

Flipped! She’d flipped the car!

“I don’t know what to do,”

she whimpered. At least she was now upright.

“I don’t know what to do!”

She was in a tree. A freakin’ tree! But thank God, it stopped her from going further down the mountain.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! She should have picked up Brad’s deposit earlier. She didn’t think about the roads being worse at the higher elevation.

Stupid!

She huffed out one huge breath that thoroughly steamed her windshield. “Okay,”

she whimpered.

“Am I hurt?”

No. She didn’t think so. Her chest ached from where the seat belt grabbed her and something hit her in the head—maybe her purse?—when she’d rolled.

She glanced to her right. Cell phone.

“Where is my…”

She leaned to her right.

The car shifted in the tree and she screamed. “Oh, God!”

Panic raced through her. “Oh, God!”

Thoughts of her girls ran through her head and she teared again and sobbed.

“I want to see my babies!”

Something knocked against her window and she screamed.

“Shelley!”

Someone was out there! “Yes!”

she screamed and frantically reached for the button to roll down the window.

“It won’t work! I can’t get the window down!”

The voice came again from outside.

“Stay calm. Sit still. The windows won’t work when the engine is off. Hold on.”

The voice. “Okay,”

she said and slumped into her seat.

“Calm, he said. Stay calm.”

He shouted again.

“I’m trying to see how stable the car is before I try to open the door. Sit still, okay?”

Matt. It was his voice. “Matt?”

she screamed.

“That you?”

Pause.

“Yeah. Just hold on.”

She blew a long, slow breath out of her puffed cheeks. Of all people… “Hold on,”

she whispered.

“God, please let him not be so mad at me that he lets me slip on down this mountain…”

Closing her eyes, she tried to breathe evenly, to still her panicky heart. She prayed this would all be over soon.

She heard the latch on the door and risked a glimpse to her left. Slowly the door opened, and framed there in the moonlight, sleet slanting over his face, was Matt. He’d never looked so damn good to her in all her life.

Leaning in, he reached across her—his face way too close to hers—and pushed the latch on her seat belt. She got a whiff of Old Spice. Funny how that scent made tingles shoot through her. He’d been the youngest man she had ever known to wear Old Spice back in high school. She realized she still liked it.

Funny she should think of that now.

He lingered. Looked into her face.

Their gazes caught and every past remembrance of them together shot through her with sudden awareness. At that moment, she realized how much she did not want him to hate her.

“I think your belt is jammed.”

She sniffled and a tear fell.

“Please cut the damn thing off and get me out of here.”

“I don’t have anything to cut it. Have to go back to the jeep.”

She grabbed his arm.

“No! No, please don’t leave me, Matt. Please.”

“Shelley, this car could slide down the mountain at any moment. We have to get you out.”

“I know. I know! But Matt, please don’t leave me. I’m begging you. Please don’t leave me alone. I can’t bear the thought of it.”

****

Matt thought about the irony of that. He didn’t want to leave her. Never, ever wanted to leave her all those years ago. It was she who had left, and he who was left alone.

“I won’t,”

he told her. He knew that should the car shift and start to slide again, he’d be there right alongside her. No way would he leave her alone—no matter what happened in their past.

“Okay, let’s try something.”

Her tears were nearly his undoing, and once again, he was sucked into the overpowering feeling of wanting to protect her. Hell, at this point, he only wanted to save her, get her out of this car. He’d deal with any other emotions later.

Go into cop mode, he told himself. Serve. Protect.

He tried hard not to put any more pressure on the car than he had to, so he didn’t lean too heavily into her. The vehicle was rather precariously perched, and he couldn’t quite tell what was holding it up, so he didn’t want to take any chances and linger.

“Your coat is bulky and you’re small. Let me pull the shoulder strap from around you and see if you can take your coat off. Then maybe that will give us enough room to slip you out of the lap belt.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

He pulled the shoulder belt back and she started peeling out of her coat.

“You’re going to be cold.”

“I don’t care. I’d rather be cold than dead.”

He stifled a grin.

“We’ll get it back on soon as possible.”

She wiggled out of it and he tossed it on the passenger seat.

“Now, I’ll hold the lap belt and you…”

The car did a crazy shift to the right. Shelley clutched at his neck about the same time he grabbed her and tried to jerk her up and out. Somehow, in the commotion, the belt gave way, and Brad tumbled out of the car with Shelley landing on top of him.

With a crack and weird buffered scrape of metal against wood, the car tipped to the right and rolled downward.

Shelley buried her face in his chest and let out a huge sob. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight

“I have you. Don’t worry. You’re okay.”

He heard and felt her crying against his chest.

“Thank you,”

she squeaked out.

“For not letting me die.”

She shook in his arms and he wasn’t sure if it was from the cold, or shock.

Matt titled her face and cradled her cheeks in his hands.

“I would never let you die, Shelley. My God.”

He wrapped his arms around her tighter then and held her close.

“Let’s get out of here,”

he said after a moment.

“You’re freezing.”