Santa's Sweetheart (The Christmas Tree Ranch #4)(25)

Her lips would be cold. He could warm them . . .

What was he thinking? Sam jerked himself back to reality. He had a job to do. Releasing her, he slipped out of his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. Again she tried to speak, her chilled mouth trying to form words.

“We need to get you into the Jeep,” he said. “We can talk then.” He put a hand on her shoulder to guide her over the rough sidewalk, but she resisted.

“My . . . glasses.” She gestured toward her eyes.

“You lost them? Here?”

She nodded, her hand sweeping back toward the spot where he’d found her.

“Get in,” he ordered, guiding her toward the Jeep. “While you get warm, I’ll look for them.”

He helped her into the Jeep. He’d left the engine running and the heat on, so it was warm inside, but Grace was still shivering. She settled into the passenger seat with a broken sigh that was almost a sob.

A powerful flashlight was attached to the dashboard. Using it to search for Grace’s glasses, Sam soon found them where they’d fallen into a clump of tall weeds. When he climbed back into the Jeep and handed them to her, he saw that she was quietly weeping.

“It’s all right, Grace.” He reached across the console and circled her shoulders with one arm. Still shivering, she let him. The urge to pull her close and kiss her was almost more than Sam could stand. But that would be a bad move. “You’re one brave lady,” he said, releasing her.

“But I’m not brave at all, or even smart.” Her voice shook as she cleaned her glasses with the hem of her jacket and put them on. “When I realized I was lost, I was scared to death. I’m not cut out for risk-taking, Sam. What made me think I could find my way home in that fog? I could’ve died out there. I should’ve stayed in the blasted car when it broke down.”

“If you had, I’d have found you a few minutes later. But we can’t go back. I’ve learned that the hard way. Anyhow, everything’s all right.” He ached to hold her again, but he’d already crossed that line once. He couldn’t risk it a second time. “Now, if you’ll give me a minute, I need to let folks know you’re safe. Then I’ll drive you home.”

He radioed the dispatcher, who promised to call Grace’s roommates. Then he put the Jeep in gear and turned around at the end of the street. Grace was calm now; she sat quietly, warming her hands in the heat that blew from the vents.

“I feel like I’m the one to blame here,” he said. “If I hadn’t run into your car, or if I’d done a better job of following up on the rental, none of this would have happened.”

“It was just as much my fault for getting out of the car,” she said. “Or maybe it was even Maggie’s fault for pulling the stunt that got you to come to school. Blaming is a waste of time, Sam.”

“Good point.” He chuckled. They were back on Main Street now, the Christmas lights reflecting rainbows through the windshield.

“How did you find me?” she asked. “It couldn’t have been easy.”

He managed a chuckle. “It wasn’t. But I’ve always said that I could find my way around Branding Iron blindfolded. Tonight I pretty well proved it. I drove every street you might have taken, all the way to the last street in town. I was beginning to worry that I’d missed you when, all of a sudden, there you were. I still can’t believe you wandered that far in the fog.”

“You’d believe it if you knew me. I can get lost in parking lots and shopping malls. Tonight I took one wrong turn and my sense of direction was gone. I barely knew which way was up. After I fell and lost my glasses, it was all over.” She paused, gazing out the side window at the fog. “What if you had missed me? Would you have given up?”

Sam shook his head. “I’d have finished the last street, turned around, and retraced every inch of the way I’d come. Then I’d have looked for other ways you might have gone. I wouldn’t have stopped searching until I found you. I would never have given up on you, Grace.”

*

I would never have given up on you. Sam’s words lingered in Grace’s mind. No, Sam wouldn’t have given up. She hadn’t known him long, but she could already recognize the kind of man he was. He was as steadfast as the flow of a river, or the rising of the sun, the kind of man who would never give up on a friend or someone in need—the kind of man who loved once in his life and never again.

And she was the kind of woman who fled like a startled bird at the first sign of doubt—a woman who expected that every man she tried to love would betray her, just as her father had betrayed his family.

She studied Sam’s profile in the darkness of the cab, the rugged features, the dark hair in need of a trim, curling over the edge of his collar, the big, powerful hands, resting on the steering wheel. She remembered how safe she’d felt when he’d wrapped her in his coat and held her against him. She’d been numb with cold; but for that moment, snuggling into his solid warmth had been almost like coming to a new place and knowing it was home.

But even then she’d known better than to trust a fleeting rush of emotion. This was reality. He was taking her home. She would thank him. He would see that her car problem was fixed. Then, except for the Christmas party committee and a few routine parent-teacher conferences, they would become strangers again. End of story.