Merry and Bright(46)

Danny straightened and met Ben’s steady, even gaze. Yeah. It’d been a helluva wind all right, and its name had been Hope. “Do you happen to know if the roads have been cleared?”

“Yes, but it’s going to be dark soon. You really going to head out?”

“Yeah.” He needed to. Hope was a big girl, she’d made that clear. She didn’t need nor want his help. And though she couldn’t possibly deny the fact that she’d enjoyed their little outside tussle, he knew she was also over it.

Over him.

She’d be okay. She knew what she had to do to keep this place out of the clutches of her brother. He looked out the windows again. He told himself he was tired of wide open skies and no skyline. Tired of the lack of Starbucks and no New York pizzeria.

But the truth was, the place had grown on him.

And so had Hope.

“Roads might be icy,” Lori said gently. “And it’s going to snow some more. We’re awfully short-handed. . . .”

“Well,” he heard himself say. “If you’re short-handed . . .”





When Hope needed to avoid thinking about something, she’d found that nothing beat manual labor. To that end, she stood on the roof of the shed as the sun sank behind the mountains, shoveling the thick snow off the flat roof so it wouldn’t collapse. She had the back floodlights on to see, and brain blessedly blank, was happy in her own little world, where there were no sexy nerds, no evil stepbrothers. . . .

Someone climbed up the ladder. A knit cap-covered head popped up.

Danny.

He tossed up a second shovel. “I know, you don’t want my help. Too bad.” With that, he climbed the rest of the way up, straightening with slow caution as he looked down at the ground. “Huh.”

She raised a brow as he lost some of his color. “Afraid of heights?”

“No, of course not.”

“Of course not,” she repeated wryly when he sank to his knees and closed his eyes. “Okay, big guy. You just stay there, I’m nearly done here anyway.”

“No. I’m going to help.” Resolutely, he used the shovel to pull himself back upright.

Hope stared at him, feeling some more of those unwanted emotions clogging her throat. He was so different from any man she’d ever known. Loyal, intellectual, sharp-witted . . . and strong. So damn strong, from the inside out; strong of mind and character, strong of heart and soul, and that . . .

That was new for her.

He didn’t care what people thought, didn’t care about anything except doing the right thing, and damn if that wasn’t the sexiest thing about him.

It was also more than just a little terrifying given what had happened the last few times she’d opened up and let someone in.

And in any case, she was strong, too. She reminded herself of this very fact as she resumed shoveling snow off the roof. She ran this place on her own and she’d find her own answers, without spending every single breathing moment thinking about what she’d done with Danny in this very shed.

But oh, good sweet Jesus. What they’d done in this shed. She couldn’t help but think about it. Relive it. And think some more. Because . . .

Wow.

Genius Boy really had had the moves.

She tried to shake it off, tried to go back to the blessedly blank state, but she couldn’t. The truth was, she’d managed to avoid thinking too much about her financial situation. She’d avoided thinking about the possibility of something happening to her perfect world out here in the Colorado boonies she loved so much.

But she couldn’t keep that up. Things had to change.

Danny had gotten to his feet and was back to back with her, shoveling snow as steadily as she.

He was a rock.

A solid rock.

And if she followed his business ideas as well as her own, she knew she could make it. “Danny?”

Turning his head, he looked at her. Smiled. “Yeah?”

“You were right.”

A slow smile curved his mouth. “Much as I like hearing that . . .” He straightened, stretched his back, then leaned on his shovel. “What am I right about—” He broke off when the shovel slid out from beneath him.

“Danny!” she cried as he slipped and the ice layered beneath the snow on the roof propelled him toward the edge of the roof.

“No!” Her heart leaped into her throat as she jumped forward to catch him, but the ice caught her, too.

And she went over with him.





9


For the second time that day, Danny braced for his life to flash across his eyes.

It didn’t.

That’s because thanks to the sheer amount of snow they’d shoveled off the sides of the shed, he had a nice, cushy fall.

When he hit the huge berm of snow, he slowly sank in up to his nose. He spit out a mouthful of snow and was trying to figure out how to actually swim out when he was hit in the chest by . . .

Hope. He stared down at the bundle that had landed on him, his amusement at himself vanishing instantly. Heart in his throat, he pulled her in. “Are you—”

“Did I hurt you?” she demanded, getting herself out of the snow pile much faster and surer that he did. She ran her hands up his neck to cup his face. “Danny?”

Maybe it was evil of him but the sheer concern and worry in her eyes alleviated his fear, and in fact warmed him to his very frozen toes. As did the way they kept trying to rescue each other. He had no idea why that struck him so funny, but he loved it.