The Christmas Girlfriend Read online

  He blew out a breath and knelt. “I know that because it’s a small town. Sometimes, when you’re going to a wedding by yourself, it’s too small.” He picked up the lock. “Let’s see if we can open her up.”

  “Okay.” It unnerved her how normal this felt, even after some guy chased her up a snowbank, almost killed her, and then helped her.

  He jiggled it and chuckled. “Bugger is stuck, isn’t it?”

  “I said that.”

  Tinkering with it, he tugged off his gloves and used his bare hands to pull out the key, reinsert it, and try to turn it. “Man.” He winced, and she could see he was turning it hard.

  Tink. The key broke off in the lock.

  “Dang,” he said, standing and looking down at the key in his hand, then to her, a worried expression on his face.

  Zoey teetered between anger and sadness for a precarious moment, and then all she could do was laugh. “Oh my gosh, of course this would happen.” She threw up a hand. “This is just my luck.”

  Chapter 3

  The girl in front of Mike was clearly losing it. He could tell by the way she was laughing in a hysterical way, but also because, well, he’d caught her on the roof staring down like she was about to jump.

  Her anger at life struck a chord in him. He’d seen the desperation in her eyes when she’d talked about her husband. What did that say about him? He knew what it said. Ann had broken things off, and the reason she’d given was that he was a Neanderthal. Hmph. So he wasn’t a polished Boston guy who liked to eat fish and go to the theater. So what?

  Focusing on the broken key in his hand, he had an idea. He trudged to his truck to get his pliers out of the toolbox he knew his dad would have in the back. If his father was anything, it was prepared. When he’d first turned sixteen, his father had told him, “A man always has his tools and jumper cables.”

  “Where are you going?” she asked, not following him.

  Since he still hadn’t turned the truck off, he jumped in and nudged it closer to where she was. When he got out, he brought his tools with him.

  “What are you doing?” she called out.

  Extracting the pliers and a hammer, he went for the lock. “I’ll buy you a new lock, but this one is coming off.”

  She didn’t say anything while he tried to crack it with the pliers. The lock refused to give. He thought he might just have to use brute force, so that’s what he did—banged the heck out of it until it broke.

  He undid it and threw the garage up. To his surprise, there were only ten or so boxes. “This it?”

  Her hands had gone to her face, and she slowly walked inside, putting a hand out and reverently touching the boxes. “This is it.” She opened one and pulled out a picture, then held it to her chest. “Josh.”

  Dang, he’d just stumbled into something intimate. He shifted awkwardly in place.

  “Okay, well, I’ll leave you to it. Nice to meet you … wait, what was your name?”

  “Zoey,” she whispered, still holding the picture with her eyes closed.

  He shuffled out of the storage shed. “Sorry about the lock.”

  “No, don’t worry about it. I can’t afford to keep this place anyway. I just needed a couple of things.” She met his gaze. “Thank you.”

  Warmth filled him, and he glad that he’d been able to help. “You’re welcome.”

  As Mike climbed into his truck, he realized it had gotten darker by now and the snow was coming down harder. Shoot, he needed to get going. He navigated to the two storage units his parents kept renting every year. After they collected the toys during the toy drive, they would bring them here until they were given to the Christmas Box House in Billings. It provided foster kids with presents when they first went into foster care, and it also provided the kids of cancer patients with necessities all year long. His father needed him to assess how much was left and how much space they had.

  Mike took the keys his dad had left in the truck and went to the first storage unit, unlocking it quickly and tugging open the door. It was empty. “Good.” Mike shut it and relocked it. That meant that everything had been used up. In the next one, he found the same thing. He shut it, locked it, and got back in the truck. His mind went to the Super Eight on the side of the road just before the freeway to Snow Valley. He could stay there if he had to.

  Looking down, he saw he had a missed call on his phone. Immediately, he called his dad back.

  “You’re staying in Billings, right?” his dad asked.

  “We’ll see, Dad. Hold tight.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Just leaving the storage units.”

  “That took a long time,” his father noted.

  Mike didn’t want to get into it. “There was a … complication, but it’s fine.”

  “Is something wrong with the units?”

  “No, not the units. The complication was something else. Don’t worry. I’ll get a room and text you. Gotta go.”

  “Okay. Love you.”

  He pressed end and put his phone down, putting the truck in gear before taking off. He drove past her unit, but no one was there and the door was shut. Worry skittered through him. Where was she? He realized he hadn’t seen any other cars in the parking lot.

  Turning out onto the road, he put his truck in four-wheel drive to make sure he had some grip if he slid around. In the distance, he saw someone walking off—it was Zoey, carrying a box.

  The snow would probably cover her completely by the time she got wherever she was going.

  “What the—?” He pulled to the side next to her.

  Catching her in the lights, he saw her turn. She lost her balance, and the next thing he knew, she was falling. She went down the side of the highway ditch, taking the box too.

  He cursed and got out of his truck, running to catch up to her. “Zoey!”

  When he reached her, she was trying to stand. Turning to him, she growled, “Saving me again?” She sputtered it through the snow covering her from head to toe.

  Guilt surged through him. Grabbing her arms, he pulled her to a standing position. “I am so sorry!”

  He lost his footing, and they tumbled down the rest of the hill. They landed with him on top of her.

  Zoey pushed at him. “Get off me, you oversized brute!”

  He quickly got up and helped her, even though she ripped her arm out of his once they were standing. “I’m so sorry.”

  She wasn’t paying attention to him. “Where is the box?” She started running up the hill toward the box.

  “I’ll get it.” He was faster, moving to her side and leaning down to grab it. “I got it.”

  Their eyes held. Dang, she was pretty, even with snow in her face and her hair all plastered to the sides. He could tell she didn’t wear a lick of makeup. Her skin was perfect like porcelain. Was he really thinking this?

  She put her hands out. “Thank you for running me off the road, but I think I can take it from here.”

  Realizing she was going to continue walking, he kept the box. “No.” He started back to his truck. This woman wouldn’t want a ride, but he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  “That’s my box,” she said, dogging his footsteps. “You can’t take it.”

  He got to the passenger side of his truck and opened the door. “I know. I don’t want it, but I’m giving you a ride to wherever you need to go, and I had a feeling you wouldn’t want me to give you a ride.”

  She crossed her arms stubbornly. “I don’t.”

  “Did you walk out to the storage units?”

  “I didn’t walk. I hitched.”

  “What?” His breath left him, and he made a fast decision, shoving the box onto the seat. “Then I guess you won’t care if I give you a ride.”

  She glared at him. “I will get a different ride, hero. You’ve helped me enough for one day.”

  “You’d rather go with some stranger than with me?”

  “You’re a stranger, too.”

  “No.�
��

  She poked him hard in the chest. “Yes, you are.”

  He laughed. “Hey, I know your friend. She’s my second cousin once removed.”

  The angry look on Zoey’s softened a bit.

  “Just get in.” He said it in a bit of a shameful tone. “No hitching, it’s dangerous. And this way I can tell your friend that I saved you from jumping off a rooftop and killing yourself on the edge of the highway.”

  She scoffed but hopped into the truck. “Fine.”

  Chapter 4

  Zoey didn’t know what the most infuriating thing about this guy was: the fact that he thought he had saved her when he’d almost killed her—twice!—or the fact that she liked his cologne.

  When Mike stopped for burgers at a Wendy’s and she refused food, he bought her the same thing he’d gotten: a burger, fries, and a Coke. She held the bag of food in her hands, but she was too prideful to eat it. Something about the way he so flippantly bought the food, like he didn’t have to account for spending the money, ticked her off.

  “Man, I know this stuff isn’t good for you, and I don’t eat it often, but on a cold night like tonight, it just hits the spot.” He reached into his bag for some fries and devoured them. “You better eat, or I’ll have to eat some of yours too.”

  She focused on the road and said, “Talking with your mouth full is rude.”

  Laughing through the full mouth, he said, “True.”

  She shivered a little, relished the warmth. She’d been so cold.

  “So you said your place was by the university. That’s coming up.”

  She guided him around the university, then to a dumpy, unshoveled apartment complex that looked deserted. “Right here.”

  “Alrighty,” he said, pulling into the parking lot and taking her right to the door. He put it in park and looked around. “There’s nobody here.”

  She shrugged and left the food, but took her box. “Thanks.” She pushed the door open.

  Mike was fast, already around the truck and holding out his hand to help her navigate the snow to her door.

  She put the key in the lock, pushed in the front door, and turned back. “Thanks again, but I’ve got it from here.”

  “You don’t have your food.” He rushed back to his truck.

  She watched him, wondering why she felt a connection to this mountain man.

  He was back, but abruptly stopped just before running into her. If he were to lean in, their lips would be touching. “You have to take the food, because it’ll go bad and I don’t want to be sick eating both of those burgers.”

  Stupid tears rose to her eyes. “Thank you.” She felt overwhelmed by his generosity, by the fact that someone had shown up when she’d said that prayer. “Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas.”

  She waited for him to leave, but he didn’t.

  “I saw you praying up there.”

  “What?” Her heart rate picked up a notch.

  “Up on that roof. What were you praying for?”

  She shook her head and moved quickly up the stairs. “Thank you again, but please go.”

  He was following. “I think you owe me a simple explanation, because I did help you—twice.”

  She rushed into the fourplex and then went to her apartment. She put the box down and set the bag of food on top of it so she could unlock her door. “No way. The true story is, you almost killed me twice.”

  He picked up her stuff before she could scoop it up again. “I never let a lady carry things when I can do it.”

  Unnerved, she gestured him into her apartment. “On the table, please.”

  He put the stuff down, then did a full three-sixty to inspect the room. “Not bad.”

  Zoey tugged off her gloves and hat. She knew it wasn’t that good, but she didn’t care to correct him. “I’m just finishing school. I waitress, and I do an internship. The place might not be that great, but it works.” She unzipped her coat and pulled it off.

  He shrugged. “At least it doesn’t smell like my place. I share with a couple of guys, and I’m always cracking the windows.”

  She smiled in spite of herself.

  He gestured to the hallway. “Could I use your bathroom?”

  It shouldn’t have mattered, but she was surprised he’d asked. Why? Well, she didn’t know him, and if it was messy, she wouldn’t want someone to use it. “Sure.”

  He nodded and walked down the hall.

  Nervously, she flipped on the living room light and went back to the box. She’d found a safe, the one that she thought had the bonds. She’d been unable to find anything like that in the other boxes. The key was in the slot, so she turned it and opened it.

  Nothing. It was completely empty. She was stunned. There was nothing in the stupid safe? Her mind went back to the night before Josh had shipped out. He’d told her there were some bonds in it. She’d completely forgotten until that dream. Her hand trembled. Dang it. She wasn’t one who believed in much, but she did believe in her dreams.

  The dream had been so real. She went back over it, thinking about how it felt to be in Josh’s arms. He’d told her to go to the storage unit. She paused. He’d never said anything about the bonds; she’d just assumed that was what he’d meant.

  Feeling off-kilter, she picked up the remote on the table and turned on the news to distract herself. Dang, she needed that money so she could get to Salt Lake and that tryout.

  She didn’t have cable, but she got the free channels. She turned it to the weather, wondering how bad it was going to be to get to her waitressing job tomorrow.

  Alert. Alert. All roads in Billings are closed unless you have chains. You will be ticketed if on the roads without chains.

  She bit her nails. Dang, it would be really difficult to get to her job. She stomped her foot. She was already in a heap of trouble with Rick, her boss, since she hadn’t been able to get there yesterday because of her car.

  Mike walked out of the hallway and turned to see the television screen. “What?” He put his hands up in the air, then winced. “This is not good. What am I supposed to do? I need to get to the hotel.”

  A nervous rustle went through her. She felt bad for the guy, but worse for herself. “At least your truck works.”

  Jerking his head around, he frowned. “Is your car broken? Is that why you hitched?”

  She kept her eyes glued to the television, watching the weather woman motioning to her monitor. “Yep. Died yesterday. Don’t have the money to fix it, which makes it hard to get to work. The real problem is getting to my job tomorrow.” She shrugged. “My boss told me if I don’t get there tomorrow, I’ll be fired and he won’t give me my last check.”

  “Your boss can’t do that.” Mike frowned. “That’s against the law. You can call his corporate office and report him. I bet you’ll get your check really quick. Or file a police report.”

  She was uncertain. “Really?”

  Mike nodded. “We’ve talked about this stuff in my business classes. Employers are not allowed to withhold the last check. No matter what.”

  Hearing this lifted her heart a little. “Good to know.”

  He pulled out his wallet. “I don’t have a ton, but take my cash.”

  She looked back at the television. “I wouldn’t do that, hero. Please don’t insult me.”

  “Of course you wouldn’t. You’re stubborn.”

  She kept her focus on the news, a bit unnerved by his presence.

  He let out a long sigh and moved to her window in the small dining area, which looked out onto the parking lot. “Dang, this snow.”

  “Right, you have to get to your sister’s wedding,” she remembered, turning to him. “When is it?”

  “In three days. On Christmas Eve. Trouble is, I need to get there to help prep for it tomorrow. We’re having it at our place, and my mom owns a flower shop. They have all these flowers that need to go on, like, twenty-one trees. Before that, we have to clear the property and put down a fake floor and p
ut up the tents. Can’t have Grandpa doing it. It’s—” He broke off, looking around her place. “You don’t have any Christmas decorations up.”

  Feeling pathetic, she threw a hand into the air. “Nope,” she said, letting out a fake laugh. “The staff hasn’t had time for it yet.”

  “Zoey.”

  The sadness in his voice made her pause. She was interested in this guy’s life. A wedding, tents, a small town … it sounded nice.

  His pale blue eyes seared her. “Take my money, please.”

  Once again, she felt that flutter in the lower part of her stomach when this guy was around. He had sandy blond hair and a dimple in his left cheek. Man, why had she noticed that? She shook her head. “No, not my style.”

  “Can I help get your car to a mechanic?”

  She frowned. “What? No.”

  “If you have a place, it would be no trouble to tow it for you.”

  It amazed her this guy was so generous. She turned away from him. “No, thank you. I’ll have the mechanic send a truck.” Which was laughable, but she didn’t want to be this pathetic.

  He sighed. “Okay.”

  She thought of him trying to get to Snow Valley tonight and knew it wasn’t possible. “Look, I don’t ever do this, but you can stay on the couch tonight.” Had she really just offered that?

  “What?” He jerked around to stare at her, like it hadn’t even crossed his mind. Which was a good thing, she guessed. “No. I couldn’t.” He backed up and headed out of her dining area. “I’ll go to the gas station and see if they have some chains. I’ll figure this out.”

  She shrugged. It was funny how he wouldn’t accept her help when he’d insisted on helping her. “Okay.”

  He paused at the door and spun back to her. “Ah, Zoey.”

  “Yeah.”

  He flashed a grin at her, and it melted her heart. Which was stupid and weird, right? Because she hadn’t felt all mushy and stuff about a guy in forever. “I’m glad you said a prayer. I’m glad I was the one to show up. And I’m really glad I didn’t kill you either time.”

  She smiled. “Me too.”

  He winked at her as he walked out the door. “Merry Christmas.”