“Where in Minnesota are you headed?” I asked.
“Burnsville,” the woman said. “But you can drop me off anywhere. Even if I could just get to the border of the state, I could catch a taxi or something.”
Burnsville. Of course, she’d be heading to a town that was practically on the way to Minneapolis. It would be nothing for me to drop her off in the area to which she was going, but that meant I had to put up with her attitude and her presence for the next ten hours.
Was that something I could do? Did I even have a choice at this point?
“Please?” she asked. “I won’t be a bother. I promise.”
I knew that was a lie, but I could see the faces of the clerks changing. The man was already on his phone and typing out something, and alarm bells started going off in my head.
I had to salvage the situation before it got any worse.
“I’ll give you a ride,” I said, faking a smile. “Burnsville is on the way to Minneapolis. So it’ll be fine.”
“Oh, my gosh. Are you serious? Thank you!”
She ran at me and threw her arms around me, holding me close. I stiffened. I didn’t do physical contact. Nope, nope, nope. I stood there and tried to back away from her, clutching the car keys as well as my carry-on bag. With my laptop slung across my body and my coat wrapped around my body, I smiled at the two clerks while the woman gathered her things.
She kept dropping her stuff while she walked behind me, and all I could do was groan.
She was loud, she was clumsy, and she was a hugger.
This was going to be a long trip.
Chapter 2
Abby
I could not believe this man actually said yes. I was beyond relieved he was going to let me ride with him to Minnesota. Life had been throwing me curveball after curveball for the last few months, and I was almost ready to melt into a puddle on the floor. I gathered up my things and tried to keep up with him, but his long stride put him farther and farther ahead of me.
His shoulders were stiff, and his jaw was tense. His hand was white-knuckling the bag he was carrying. He was uptight, to say the least, and way too serious for his own good. I followed him as quickly as I could while he led us to the car, and I couldn’t help but giggle as he opened the trunk.
The car itself was luxurious, but the way he simply slid his stuff into the trunk was telling of the way he lived his life. Everything had a place and every action had a purpose. I came around behind him and slung my things in, toppling one of his bags over before I reached to close the trunk.
“Maybe we could try being a bit easier with things,” he said.
His voice was dark. Smooth, but dark. He had jet black hair, and blue eyes that sang a different tune from the rest of his body. They sparkled, even in the dimness of the snowstorm threatening to swallow us whole, and I watched him scoot my things off to the side before he propped his bag back up.
“Would you like a prop to make sure your things don’t slide around?” I asked, grinning.
He scoffed and shook his head.
“Well, Colin. Would you like me to drive? I happen to be an excellent driver in the snow.”
He turned his gaze toward me, and I could tell he wasn’t amused. He reached up with his long arm and shut the trunk before wrapping around to the driver’s side of the car. I shook my head at him and grinned, taking in how rigid he was in his everyday life.
“I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” I said.
I bounced around to the other side of the car and got on in. He was cranking things up and fiddling with buttons, like this was the car he’d been driving all his life. I pulled off my bright yellow scarf and unbuttoned my orange coat. By the time we were pulling out of the airport parking lot, my ass was heating up.
“Oh, these are those fancy seats,” I said. “Keeps my bum all toasty warm.”
“Yes,” he said. “Toasty warm.”
We rode for the first few minutes in silence. Even though the seat was hot underneath my legs, his cold demeanor shivered me to my bones. His face was stoic while he stared out of the windshield of the car, and I started wondering about the man. Who he was. What he did for a living. What happened to him in another lifetime to make him feel like he had to walk with a stick up his ass. Maybe he was one of those people you had to get to know. Someone with layers to peel back before that smile I knew was hiding underneath that glare came to life.
But before I could start up a conversation, we were pulling into a gas station.
“The car tank should be full,” I said as I leaned over. “Want me to call the rental company?”
I looked up at him, and his gaze was already hard on my face. I quickly sat up in my seat, watching as he slid out of the car. I guessed he wasn’t much of a talker, which meant we probably wouldn’t get to know each other very well. But that wasn’t my fault. He was the one not playing nice.
He left me sitting in the car without asking me if I wanted anything, and I shook my head. What kind of rude man would offer me a ride and then not give a damn about anything else? Was he trying to save
