Mike Winters.
I used to work rigs with him a while back, but he turned trucker once he had too close a call with some heavy drill equipment. He cashed out and bought a truck, only works the winter season now, living up to his own namesake.
After a few tries, and a few more angry truckers telling me to get off the air, I manage to get a hold of him.
I heave a sigh of relief too, once I find out he’s actually in Vermont.
“I heard you got out of rigging too, and in one piece I hope?” he asks.
We indulge in a little chit-chat, but Mike knows I wouldn’t be hailing him on the truck radio after a blizzard unless I needed help.
“Where are ya, Carter, and what D’ya need?” he finally asks, cutting to the chase.
There’s a long silence after I tell him where I am and that I need myself and Serena, plus the SUV I’m sitting in extracted to the nearest clear road pointing back towards Boston.
“Sounds like you need a fucking magician, Carter,” he finally replies gruffly, and I feel my shoulders sink a little.
“Ah well, it was worth a shot, Mike. You take care-” I start to say.
“Hey! I said you need a magician… now you got one,” he laughs out loud, sounding like a kid who has the biggest secret in the world.
“I’m following the biggest plow this side of Boston, and we’re about fifteen miles out from where you are.”
I feel myself smiling, sitting up straight again as I watch my own brow cock in the rearview mirror before I wink to myself.
“I’ll make it worth your while,” I tell Mike, knowing that favors are favors, but going off-route costs time and money.
And money always talks better than I do.
“I know you will, Carter,” Mike says gratefully. “Gimme five and I’ll get back to ya, just run it past Mr. Plow here and see what he thinks.”
I know it’ll happen, Mike’s as big in the trucking world as he was on the rigs, and in less than a minute he’s telling me to get ready.
“With what we have to go and where you’re at… give it an hour Carter. I can carry your bus on my half-empty trailer and take you back as far as the freeway, which I know is clear now,” he tells me, which is music to my ears.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Serena
Carter wants to go, my dad wants me to go.
But after being carried back to the couch in his arms, having him kiss me and promise to call on him if I need him, do I really want to go anywhere now?
I know I’m Carter’s. Mind, body, and soul and I know he feels the same.
We have tons of food, plenty of firewood…
Apart from spraining my ankle, overreacting because of my imagination, and having to be carried to the bathroom, I could really stay here with Carter like this forever.
But he wants us gone because of who else is up here, not because of where we are, I know that.
But if dad had to fly out of here, how are we gonna get home?
I find myself starting to worry about everything he told me not to, worrying about the truck as well as what happens if and when we do get home.
Dealing with my dad.
No. The idea of me and Carlton on the couch forever in the woods is much more interesting to think about.
And I do, until I doze off to the sounds of the fire crackling and some snow occasionally shifting on the roof.
I hear myself murmuring something to Carter, half-dreaming as his hands run up the inside of my thighs, making me swoon.
Hearing my own voice promise myself to him all over again.
“You alright?” Carter asks, leaning over me again, making me gasp as I open my eyes, reaching out for him by reflex.
“Better now,” I inform him, noticing he doesn’t mind kissing me any time of the day or night with equal tenderness.
“Good,” he whispers. “Because we’re going home.”
I try to sit up but my chest meets his, and his hands cup my face again, kissing me for a second time.
“It’s all arranged, you just need to lay here and be adorable, remember?” he asks, making me flush hard as one of his hands strays to my chest and works its way down between my legs, making me moan loudly.
“I didn’t-” Carter asks suddenly, worried about my ankle.
But I grip his wrist, holding his hand between my legs once I tell him he’s far from hurting me.
“How long?” I ask, hoping he has time to pleasure me some more. And I can see the same formula working in his own mind as his eyes scan my reclining body.
“Fifteen miles…” he says absently, which makes me crease my brow, pouting again once I realize I’m gonna have to wait for my next dose of Carter.
No matter how bad I need it.
“I mean, we’re going home. I got us a ride and he’s fifteen miles out so I have to pack,” he explains.
“But how?” I stammer. Feeling only his lips on mine before he urges me to relax and just wait and see.
Watching Carter’s fine ass and huge body as he effortlessly packs and picks up our supplies is no chore.
I remember what he’s said and do exactly as I’m told, although I have to fight the urge to rub my legs together.
Helped by my nagging ankle pain, but gee whizz… the man is freaking sex on legs.
Hearing Carter tell me we’re both going home gives me a quiet thrill too. If only it could just be the two of us.
Us and our home.
He packs up the last of our breakfast gear, putting everything into one of dad’s storage tubs, telling me to remind him not to forget to do those dishes once we get back.
“Your dad would kill me if he knew I was leaving without washing up,” he quips and we both share an awkward stare for a moment.
“It’ll work out, Serena, I promise,” he reassures me and cocks his head as if he can hear something I know I sure can’t.
“Perfect timing, they’ll be here soon.”
“They?” I ask, feeling suddenly uneasy again, trusting Carter but still hating surprises.
Then I hear it.
It sounds like thunder for a bit, until I can make out the sounds of heavy machinery.
Vehicles.
“We’ll have Mike, a friend of mine tow your dad’s truck on his and we can ride up front,” he smiles, leaning over to peck my cheek.
“Need the bathroom before we go?” he asks, but I shake my head, watching as he double-checks he has everything and sets the screen in front of the dying fire he’s deliberately let dwindle.
It’s not long before the deep blast of a big rig’s air horn echoes through the cabins and Carter says I should sit tight until we’re ready to go, tucking me back under the comforter to keep warm while he goes and arranges our escape from the shortest and weirdest holiday I’ve ever had.
After more loud noise and what I figure must be a snowplow in front of the rig, I can hear Carter shouting back to his friend as they arrange my dad’s SUV.
But not long after, I crane my neck, trying to see out the snow-filled windows.
There are other voices.
Angry voices.
Against Carter’s orders, I can’t help but get up and hobble over to the door, opening it a little to see and hear what’s going on.
I can see Carter, a snowplow truck in front of a big rig that has what looks like a load of logs on its back.
Both drivers have their heads out their windows, with the angry voices coming from two familiar shapes as they huff across the snow in snowshoes to stop from sinking into the drift.
From what I can tell, the lodge owners aren’t happy that they’re being plowed.
They think they’re going to be charged for it. Plus, another figure emerges from the white landscape of the snow.
I’d know her figure anywhere now, even dressed in that stupid pink ski suit. She’s waving to Carter, carrying some tiny luggage.
I can almost hear Carter’s deep growl cut through everything, but he carries on taking i
nstructions from the rig driver, who jumps out and both ignoring the others, they set to work loading dad’s SUV onto the space at the back of the rig’s trailer.
Once the trucks secure, Carter jumps down and the Lodge owners get close enough to put themselves between him and our cabin.
As soon as Carter spots me peeking through the doorway, I know I’m done for.
He brushes past the others and scoops me up, rolling his eyes a little as he pretends to tell me off.
“I thought I said…” he starts to say, but guesses I couldn’t just lay there while all this commotion was happening outside.
“Let’s get you somewhere warm. I’ll grab your bags. We’ll be riding up front with Mike,” he says, grunting his way past the management who’ve already started to remind him if we leave we won’t get any sort of refund.
I’ve never been in a big rig before, and after a short introduction to Mike, who looks like a shorter version of my dad which is a little unsettling, he settles me into the cabin space in the back, where I can lay down and rest my ankle.
I try to insist I can have a regular seat, but it sounds like Mike has his orders too.
“Carter’s orders ma’am,” Mike apologizes with a knowing smile before he tuts to himself, ready to join the argument I can hear brewing outside.
I strain to see and can make out plenty from the smoky window of the cab.
The owners of the Lodge look mad still and have plenty to say, but Carter leans in close and says something to them both which silences them instantly.
He ignores the woman in the pink ski suit once she finally gets near enough and I can hear her begging us to wait, to give her a ride somewhere. Anywhere.
Carter gives the thumbs up to the plow driver, who starts up again with a huge roar and a thick jet of snow from his plow as he starts to clear a path ahead for us to leave.
We all have to laugh once we see the others left behind, scrambling to get out of the way but still managing to be dumped with plenty of cleared snow.
Carter’s farewell gift for them, especially the hint of pink I can see buried under what must be a thousand pounds of snow.
“Perfect timing!” he exclaims, slapping Mike on the shoulder as he starts his own rig which shudders to life and we follow the huge snow plow past the cabins and back out onto the path it cleared coming in.
“What did you say to them?” I ask Carter, leaning over from my bed behind him, hooking my arms around his neck as I bring my face up close to his.
“Nothing I’d repeat in the company of a lady,” he says cryptically, grinning and holding my hands over his heart as we follow the plow back down towards what would normally be a familiar road if it wasn’t for all the snow.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Carter
Mike’s a gun, and his perfect timing and friend with the plow have sure made me a lot happier.
Free from that Lodge, and most important, free from that idiotic woman who Greg tried to set me up with.
Looking at Serena’s face in the visor mirror, her arms cradled around my neck, I know she’s the only girl for me.
A woman now.
Claimed well and proper.
I feel like the happiest guy alive, but it isn’t too long before I feel another set of eyes glancing over at me.
Once Serena settles back down into her bunk, and once I feel like she’s dozing, I put it to Mike.
“Well? Out with it Mike, I’ve known you long enough to see when you’ve got something to say. If it’s a matter of money, I’ll transfer that to you-” I start to say.
But it isn’t that.
Mike knows I’ll pay him and plow guy handsomely for extracting us.
The look in his eyes is something else.
The look I saw in Greg’s eyes, in Serena’s father’s eyes.
He shrugs and grunts but has to say his piece, which is what Mike does.
“Didn’t know you had a daughter is all,” he mumbles, glancing back at me with a raised brow.
I catch his drift.
“I don’t, Serena’s Greg’s daughter. I think I mentioned Greg a few times,” I reply, trying to keep it casual but feeling my back getting prickly.
My jaw sets hard and I feel my hands flexing into fists.
Mike grunts again, shifting up a gear as he mutters something.
“What’s that?” I spit, not even hiding my annoyance now and Mike’s more than ready to meet me halfway.
“I said you seem pretty friendly with her. Wonder what her dad thinks ‘bout that?” he retorts, holding my intense stare with one of his own.
I know Mike has daughters too, probably around Serena’s age by now.
I hear her shifting in her sleep behind me, reminding me to keep calm so as not to wake her.
“If it’s a problem, Mike, then you can take it up with me once we get to the freeway before I leave,” I hear myself growl.
He thinks for a moment, and I can see him turning it all over in his mind before he chuckles softly, slapping my thigh which I fucking hate.
“Oh! I’m just teasing buddy. You do whatever it is you do… none of my business,” he says, straining to smile.
“That’s right,” I remind him, glancing in the mirror at my girl sleeping behind me, “None of your damned business.”
It’s soured the mood but Mike’s not the type to put me out on the side of an icy road just because he doesn’t approve of something I do.
Serena’s old enough to make her own choices, and if anything I only feel salty from his comment because it reminds me of the impending reality we’ll all have to deal with once Greg finds out.
Once you tell him. There’s nothing to ‘find out’ you haven’t hurt anyone or done anything wrong, neither has Serena.
I sigh sharply, forcing myself to relax, and gradually, for the rest of the way, Mike and I make small talk about the days we had on the rigs for all those years.
We drive in silence for a while after that, slowly following the plow as it makes its way through its regular route, with the driver up front checking in with Mike occasionally.
By the time I hear Serena stirring behind me, we’re back on sealed roads that are still icy, but Mike’s got us through the worst of the snow.
He parks his rig in a rest stop and we unload Greg’s SUV from the back. The plow’s moved on ahead, off to another area to do his important work.
Before I fetch Serena from the cab, there’s an awkward silence before Mike shoots his hand out to meet mine.
“Glad I could help,” he announces, laughing to himself. “And Carter? Sorry if I judged you back there… If you can find happiness in this world, then God bless ya,” he says thoughtfully as I squeeze his hand harder in reply.
“Amen to that,” I hear myself saying aloud, relieved to see some black tar for a change and glad I’ve almost got Serena safely back home.
Walking Mike back to his rig, Serena opens the door and leaps into my arms. She feels warm and smells like something I want to wear for the rest of the week.
Her eyes are misty from sleep but brighten once they’re closer to mine.
“You ready?” I ask her, not wanting to set her down but she tells me she’d like to try putting some weight on her ankle.
Shooing me away, she seems determined to make it as far as her dad’s SUV on her own and gives me two thumbs up once she lets herself in before closing the door.
“She’s a lucky gal,” Mike muses, noting my own proud look as I watch her.
My Serena.
Reaching in my pocket, I feel for the wad of cash I set aside for Mike and his plow driver.
Thumbing them with satisfaction after I press them into his hand I know it’s more than enough, but he’s done well by Serena and me.
“You take care, Mike. And thanks again,” I tell him, eager to get out of the cold but really wanting Serena closer to me more than anything else right now.
“Anytime, Carter… and uh. Well, sorry again for…” he tries to s
ay, but I wave him off with my hand.
“Drive safe,” I remind him and don’t even wait for him to leave first. I want to get Serena home and us both alone again like I know we both should be as soon as possible.
Serena picks up on my mood, which still lingers long after Mike’s out of view.
“Anything wrong?” she finally asks, but I won’t tell her about what Mike said.
“How’s the ankle?” I ask in reply, changing the subject. Relieved when she leans over and kisses my cheek.
“What’s that for?” I ask, holding my hand against my face before reaching over to take hers in mine.
“Just for looking after me, and getting us out of that crazy frozen wasteland back there.” She sighs as she squeezes my hand in hers.
We both look at each other for a moment.
“And for having a ton of snow dumped on that witch,” she adds casually until we both can’t help but laugh at the memory.
“Hey!” I protest, “That wasn’t my idea, all those people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I love seeing her laugh though, watching her smile and her eyes shine because she’s so happy.
I don’t even have to look at myself to know I have the expression of someone who’s head over heels in love for the first time, just like Serena.
It’s not too long before I need to take those chains off the tires either, and we have a quick stop to do just that.
It’s cold, even a little light snow but the roads from here to home will be ice-free from now on.
Turning after stowing the chains in their rightful place just how Greg would, I’m met with Serena hugging my waist as she tries to favor her sore ankle.
Holding her so close, at any time and in any situation always has this effect on me.
“I want you so bad,” I groan into her ear, leaning in to kiss her, feeling her breath catch and her body shiver.
But not from the cold.
“We could…” she ventures, but I shake my head.
“Uh uh. Home young lady and then I’m running you a bath, making you something hot to eat and then. Then we’ll see about that,” I command with a slow kiss, wishing I could just yield to my urges, and take her in the front seat of the SUV.
Matchmaker Backfire: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows Who He Wants Book 226) Page 10