Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“That’s where I’m headed anyway,” he said.
Ricky snorted. “Yeah, you are.” He leaned over and looked at me. “Man, you have pretty eyes.”
Nick shoved him. “Just because you’ve been working out doesn’t make you irresistible. Knock it off.”
My legs shook from the biting cold.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Aiden asked through the speaker.
I tried to brush some of the snow off my freezing legs. “Yeah, just cold. I didn’t hit my head or anything. Stupid deer.”
“Good. Rick, back off,” Aiden said, not sounding amused.
Ricky winked at me. He definitely had the Basanelli charm.
“Let’s get you inside the truck. You’re soaking wet.” Nick pulled me toward his vehicle. I jumped in and instantly started to warm up, thanks to the blasting heater.
My entire body shivered from the cold, and I spread the blanket over my legs. “Aiden, I’ll call you back after we get to my folks’.”
“All right. Be careful, Angel.” He ended the call.
Ricky showed up at my window. “I’ll take care of your rig. Get it back to my garage and fix it up.” He’d recently quit being an accountant to open his own mechanic shop. I’d heard it had been a bit of a struggle.
“Thanks.” I shivered and rolled up my window as he walked away.
Nick stepped into the truck and turned the heat up even more. “Ricky will have the Jeep fixed in no time.”
“I’m glad you guys came along.” I removed my wet gloves and put my freezing hands closer to the heater. They tingled and hurt, and I bit back a groan.
“No problem.” Nick pulled back onto the road. “Sorry about Rick being an ass. His girlfriend dumped him a couple of months ago when he quit his accountant job. He started working out, and now he thinks he’s a badass.”
My shivers subsided. “He does look good.” Nick had two younger twin brothers. The other twin was named Dominick and worked as a cop in Silverville. I leaned my head back on the seat and took several deep breaths as the adrenaline ebbed in my body. “Why are you over the pass, anyway?”
Nick glanced at me and then looked back at the road. “I wanted to have a talk with your dad.”
It took a moment for the words to penetrate my brain. Nick Basanelli was asking for Tessa’s hand in marriage? “Seriously?”
“Shut up,” Nick said.
“You shut up,” I retorted. “What if he says no?”
Nick ground his back teeth loud enough I could hear it. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Nick looked like he was headed to the guillotine as we walked down my folks’ plowed sidewalk, and I opened the front door.
“Shouldn’t we knock?” He grasped my shoulder.
“Stop being a dork.” I stomped inside and kicked off all my wet gear. “Mom,” I yelled.
My mom hustled out of her office and stopped cold. “Hi, honey. Why are you soaking wet? What happened?”
I sneezed into my elbow. “I drove off the road. I need to go change.”
“You drove off the road?” She hurried toward me and cupped my face. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” I tried to hold back another sneeze. “Nick rescued me.”
“Oh, Nick.” She released me and instantly grabbed him for a hug. She was about half his size, but the woman could squeeze.
He patted her back awkwardly. “I didn’t exactly save her.”
I looked at him. I had just given him a huge step up for what he needed to do.
He nodded. “I’m glad she’s okay.”
“I’ll be right back.” I turned and walked on my wet socks through the house to my childhood bedroom so I could rummage through a drawer and find yoga pants, dry socks, and a sweatshirt. I found a hair tie and pulled back my now wet and curling brown hair.
While my sister Donna looked like the Italian side of our family with her dark hair and eyes, and Tessa looked like the Irish half with her reddish-blond hair and green eyes, I didn’t look like anybody. My hair was a plain brown, and my eyes were a greenish gray. It had always been the family joke that we should look at the mailman.
I did, however, have my mom’s nose, so I was fairly confident I was really hers. Now warm, I headed toward the kitchen, where my mom was already pouring thick mugs of hot chocolate.
“That smells delicious,” I said.
She turned and stared at me. She looked a lot like Tessa with her blondish-red hair and green eyes. I’d always considered her the young Irish actress type, but sometimes she was all business, and nobody messed with her. Especially our dad. “Are you sure you don’t need to see a doctor?”
“No, I’m fine. Nick said he’d have Ricky pull my car out, and we’ll see. I’ll go over the pass with Nick tonight.”
Mom sat at our family table, and I followed suit. “I’m sure Nick will be happy to give you ride home,” she said.