I grab for my seatbelt and fumble with it. My nervous thumb finds the button and it releases.
I scramble across the seat for the passenger’s side door.
I push. It’s locked!
I pull up on the knob. It’s frozen!
“I don’t want to die.”
I roll over onto my back and kick at the window. Nothing. Again. Nothing. I kick the door and the knob pops up.
I frantically roll back over onto my stomach and scramble upwards as the car continues it’s slide down.
I grab the handle and pull, immediately feeling the cold air on my face.
I grab for the edge of the seat and look down at the road underneath me. I have no choice. I don’t even think.
I dive head first for the pavement keeping my arms extended out in front of my face.
I close my eyes and brace for the impact of my arms hitting the pavement, but instead I feel…snow?
I open my eyes.
I’m at the edge!
I continue sliding and start reaching in every direction trying to grasp something before I go over the edge.
I hear my car tumble down the hill turning into a pile of junk with each bounce.
I hear an explosion and it rattles me even more.
My hands continue grasping. Nothing.
Something strange passes underneath me and as my body slides a few feet more I see it’s a branch.
My hand tries to lock onto it, but I’m moving too fast. I feel the burn through my fingers as I try and tighten my grip.
Finally, my grip catches.
My other hand quickly grabs the branch as well.
My heart is racing. I look over my shoulder and see I’m hanging off the side of the mountain face.
If I lose my grip I’ll fall into the blazing inferno that Bessie has become, not that I’ll even feel the few hundred-foot drop and the resulting impact.
The ledge is a good foot above where the branch begins.
I pull knowing even if I make it to where the root goes into the side of the mountain face I won’t have the length or strength to reach up and pull myself to safety. Not to mention the side is covered in snow and surely just as slick as the road itself.
My life is about to end because of a wild goose chase up a dangerous pass after an even more dangerous man.
I think about my mom and everything she sacrificed for me over the years.
If I go down at least I’m not going down without a fight!
CHAPTER 6
Forrest
I see the car slide off the edge and the body sliding behind it.
I lose sight of it for a few seconds while I come around the curve.
I roll my window down and hear someone yelling, “Help.”
But this isn’t just someone. I recognize that voice.
I throw the truck in park and reach for the chain on the passenger floorboard.
I fasten it around my midsection and hook the other end to the wheel.
My shoulder slams into the door, causing it to fly open and me with it as my body flies out and onto the road.
My shoulder bears the brunt, but I don’t even feel it. My body slides toward the wreck. There’s no time to walk.
I know this turn and if she’s still there screaming she doesn’t have much time.
As I near the edge I roll over onto my butt and lift up my arms and legs like I’m doing a crunch.
It’s a long shot, but if I can change my center of gravity and get my body weight turned I might have a shot.
We might have a shot.
It’s the only chance we’ve got.
My body spins and my feet are now in front as I continue to slide.
Three…two…one!
I bury my heel into the snow and my body pops up sending me into a Superman over the edge of the cliff.
I fly right past her and just then I see her grip give out.
Adrenaline spikes through me and I focus like I’ve never focused before.
She falls a split second and suddenly she’s right in front of me.
I reach out with both hands and grab her, squeezing tight.
My back slams into the mountain face, jarring us both, but no way in hell do I let her go.
She’s screaming and I’m breathing in short staccato breaths.
“Wrap your arms around me and don’t let go!”
I feel her hands try and connect behind me, but I’m way to wide.
“Lock your legs around my waist,” I say.
“You’re too high!”
I lift her up higher onto my frame and feel her legs clamp down on my obliques as I turn my body so my side is against the rock.
“Arms around my neck and don’t let go.”
Her hands clasp behind my neck.
Go time!
I reach up for the chain and pull. I know I’ve got about forty seconds tops before the lactic acid in my muscles builds up to where it’s too much.
I pull again, but I don’t go as high as the last time.
“Uhhh!” I yell as I pull harder.
I can feel her cheek against mine. She’s relying on me to keep her alive and there’s no way in hell I’m letting her down.
I breath out hard and pull one final time.
I feel my abdominals contract, my forearms fire and I lift my legs.
I lift my legs higher getting the chain to foot level and then I wrap my legs into it.
I pause for a quick second to catch my breath.
“Why are we stopping?”
I can’t utilize any excess energy, not even to talk. But I know she’s scared and it’s up to me to fix that.
With my feet now on the chain I can climb it like a rope, taking my upper body mostly out of the equation and doing all the work with my legs.
I begin the process of lifting my quads, adjusting my feet, and sliding higher up the chain.
Five pulls later we’re at the edge and my neck is above the side.
“Don’t let go. Not yet. Not until I tell you. You understand?”
I feel her cheek nod against mine.
I pull again as I rotate over onto my back.
I pull three more times until my entire body is on the road and she’s directly on top of me.
“Keep ahold. We need to get closer to the truck.”
Three minutes later I’m completely exhausted but we’ve reached the truck.
“Give me a second,” I say.
“You. You saved me,” she says.
I feel her hands release from behind my neck and press into the snow beside me as she pushes her upper body away from mine allowing her to look at me.
If I had an ounce of strength left I’d take that beautiful face of hers which is backlit making her look just like the angel she is and I’d kiss her right on the mouth.
She beats me too it.
Suddenly her face comes rushing down towards mine and I feel those soft, feminine lips on mine and I feel like I’ve suddenly been re-energized again.
All it took was her kiss.
CHAPTER 7
Maple
We turn off the road along the driveway that leads to Old Man Farnsworth’s house. As if secluding yourself up at the top of the mountain wasn’t private enough, there’s a driveway that’s barely visible in-between the trees. Blink and you miss it, not that anyone would be up here in the first place.
Forrest’s big truck handled the snow perfectly, but he still drove slow just in case. It seemed slower than normal for him, and I appreciated him keeping the pace down considering everything that just happened. He was looking out for me and my safety. He didn’t need to say it. I knew it.
We didn’t say a word during the drive. I was still in shock from everything that had happened. I was just looking forward to getting to his house and getting inside. It was already starting to snow and at this elevation I imagined it could come down quickly and it would stick.
I also wanted to see what this house looked like after all these
years. The driveway seemed longer than I remembered, but when we turned the last corner it came back to me. I knew we were there.
But we weren’t. What was this?
This wasn’t the house I remembered. Nothing like it.
Instead of an old house built with boards, there now stood a one-story log cabin. It looked like a picture out of a Christmas card, complete with smoke coming out of the chimney.
“You live…here?” I ask.
“Yes,” he says. “And so will you. At least for the next few days.”
“I have to work later.”
“You saw that snow when we were coming in?”
“Yes.”
“The road will be blocked by the time we try and get back down the hill. You’re stuck up here with me.”
“Oh,” I say, realizing that that’s the entire reason I came here in the first place. I wanted to see his domain. And of course to see him.
He puts the truck in park and comes around to my side to open the door.
“Thank you,” I say as he helps me down. His truck is high off the ground and he helped me get in earlier. I’m impressed by how considerate he is. It would seem like he wouldn’t need to be, living up here by himself after all.
“There are some hidden holes in the snow. Better if I take you.”
“Take m—“
He reaches down and scoops me up with a single hand, then closes the door with his other.
I’d think with one hand he’d need to throw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, but he doesn’t. He cradles me like you would a child. Am I that light? There’s no way. Then again we’re not talking about a regular sized guy. This is a one of a kind man who lives off the land and survives with his hands and his wit. At least he does now.
I feel the crunching below his boots as he carries me across the front yard. He doesn’t labor at all. His speed is the same as if he were walking without me. If he can handle me this easily out here I can only imagine how he can handle me in other places.
When we get to the front steps he sets me down and opens the door.
“No key?”
“Nobody’s coming up this way.”
“I did,” I say as I stomp my feet on the mat before entering the house. I recognize the mat from our store, but don’t remember him purchasing it.
“No one in their right mind would,” he says.
I look up at him and see he’s smirking. He does have a sense of humor.
“So you wrestle bears and eat porcupines for lunch?”
“Only on Wednesdays, or when my stock from your store gets too low.”
His face goes back to deadpan. I like that he doesn’t laugh at his own jokes first, not that he actually laughs at all. A smirk doesn’t exactly qualify as a laugh, but it sure does qualify as sexy.
He helps me take off my jacket and then hangs it carefully from a hook by the door.
“This place looks…different,” I say.
“That’s the same thing I said when I got here.”
“What do you mean?”
“The man on the phone described it in a lot better shape than it was. The roof had already collapsed and the basement was flooded.”
“You didn’t sue him or try and get your money back?”
“I expect b.s. these days, and am surprised when I don’t get it. Not the other way around. Unfortunately it’s become the reality of the way things work now. I wouldn’t say it’s your generation’s fault, but it did seem to start around that time. Maybe it’s just that people your age are easier to fool, and since it worked so well it spread more mainstream.”
“I don’t follow you?”
“The internet. Social media. People will believe anything. The cost of college tuition is through the roof these days, indebting not only the student but the parents who put their life savings on the line in the best interest of their children.”
I pause, not really sure what to say. I knew there was more to him than meets the eye, but I didn’t know how much more.
“But now’s not the time to talk about that, and you never seemed like the b.s. type,” he says.
“You figured that out just from coming in the store?”
“You can learn a lot when you watch and listen, and don’t speak.”
I look over at his wall and see a bookshelf covers an entire wall. An entire wall! It’s filled with everything from medical texts to fiction.
“You can read anything you like later. First we need to take a look at you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You may have internal issues from all that bumping and sliding.”
“How did you know I was bumping and sliding?”
“I saw your car just when it started to slide. I got caught in a blind spot in the hills for a couple seconds after, but when I came out I did the mental math and figured out really fast what must have happened.”
“And you decided to rescue me?”
“Anyone would have done the same.”
“That’s not the reality of the way things work these days.”
“I’m not really from these days.”
I pause, taking him in deeply for the first time at this distance.
No, he’s certainly not. Everything about him is so congruent. There are no games or smoke and mirrors. He’s direct, honest, and completely masculine in a way other guys only wished they could be.
There are people paying big money all around the country for gym memberships to get stronger, but here this man is lifting me up like I’m nothing and I’m one hundred percent sure he doesn’t have a pass to 24 Hour Fitness.
His shoulders always looked so broad in the aisles of our store, but even here in his home they seem just as wide.
And there’s no way he has access to steroids or anything like that which are so prevalent and easy to obtain these days. How can he be so naturally buff like that?
And his voice is as deep as that ravine my car tumbled down, yet I don’t see or smell a cigarette anywhere. That’s natural too?
This guy must have broken the genetic mold when he was born. It’s like he got enough testosterone for an entire village and now the result of that biology and years of being on this earth is what’s standing in front of me right here and now.
And biology is the only way you can describe what’s happening now.
I want to kiss him again and to put my hands all over him and more importantly for him to do the same.
But he said nothing after our first kiss. My impromptu kiss that was a lot more than just a thank you, even considering that he saved my life.
“Are you really a doctor?” I blurt out.
“I was. Not anymore.”
His short reply lets me know not to press forward.
“But my skill set hasn’t changed, and doctor or not I need to have a look at you. You can go in the bathroom and take a shower first. Calm down a bit and get your bearings, but when you finish grab a set of my clothes from the storage cabins just next to the shower. They’ll be too big and they’ll fit something like a hospital gown. But at least you’ll be covered enough, then I’ll be able to examine you.”
I freeze in place. Examine me? I don’t even realize how much time is passing as I just stand there staring at him.
I can see in his eyes he wants to kiss me, to touch me, and a whole lot more. I want it too.
They say when you escape a near death experience you feel more alive than ever. Right now I sure know what they’re talking about.
I need a shower, a toothbrush, and a whole lot more. But right now I don’t care. I just want him to take me as I am right here on his cabin floor.
But he doesn’t make a move.
“Okay,” I say. I stand there a second longer, waiting for him to make his move, but he doesn’t.
I turn and walk towards the part of the cabin where the bathroom must be.
When I step inside I see a shower and an absolutely amazing wooden tub. How in the world did he seal it?
Doctor Mountain Man's Special Delivery: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 39) Page 3