Nash nodded.
“I appreciate you taking good care of Harper though,” Zeb added. “We missed her down at the station. She likes to tell us how indispensable she is and we give her grief for it. But the truth is, she was missed.”
“I get why. She's…” What? Amazing? Was he really going to tell one of Harper’s coworkers something like that? “Resourceful,” he finally said.
Zeb chuckled. “Yes, she is.”
“How long are you going to be working here?”
“As long as it takes. How is your four-wheel drive truck handling that road?”
Nash looked at the rutted tracks behind him. “I managed to get down here. I’m not so sure how much luck I'll have getting up but I know Harper is anxious to get home.”
“If you want to give it a go and get Harper, we will be here. If you don't come back by the time we’re done we’ll continue plowing up the road until we reach the cabin.”
“Sounds good.”
Nash walked back to the driver side of his truck and opened the door, wishing he hadn't taken the radio out and mounted it on the snowmobile. It didn't matter anymore because the snowmobile was gone. He wasn't going to need it again until next season seeing how it was so late in the season. But the radio was necessary.
“Hey,” he called out before climbing into the truck.
Zeb turned back to look at him.
“Where's the best place around here to buy a radio. Something that will work up at the top of the mountain.”
“You may need to go to the city for that. The hardware store might have something but I’m not sure what the range is.”
“Thanks.”
Nash climbed into the truck and carefully maneuvered it so it was facing in the right direction to go up the hill. He took his time and stayed in a low gear as he followed the tracks from the snowmobile and the tracks he’d made with the truck coming down the mountain. As he expected, it took longer for him to make the climb back up than it had for him to go down the mountain.
It gave him time to think. And he hated the conclusion he’d come up with. Last night holding Harper had been amazing. But she was murder to his focus. He’d come here to work and ended up doing nothing for days except notice every little freckle on Harper’s nose and study every contour of her beautiful face. How the hell was he going to get any work done?
Sweet Montana Rescue: Chapter Eight
Harper heard the truck return long before she saw it rounding the bend in the road. She didn't bother to move the curtain so she could peek out the window. She heard the sound of the truck parking next to the cabin. She'd been anxious the entire time Nash had been gone. She only hoped he had news about her grandmother. She hated the not knowing, just like she had told Nash the other night.
And then again yesterday when she couldn’t find Nash.
He’d kissed her last night when they’re returned. She’d felt so alive and needed him to hold her. She didn't have to say the words aloud but had. She’d wanted him to hold her and to kiss her. She’d wanted that closeness so bad it had hurt.
Now that she was faced with leaving the cabin, her feelings were all jumbled up inside. She’d be going home alone without Nash. Of course, why on earth would he come with her? He was here to do work and she had intruded on his space. He was probably anxious to have her gone so he could get back to whatever it was he needed to do.
The rational part of her who always worked through a problem and came to a conclusion told her the answer was clear. She would go home. Nash would stay. End of story. End of his kisses and his warm embrace in front of the warm wood stove.
Except she didn't want there to be an end. Something had shifted here and she didn't know exactly when it had happened. If it was just a matter of the two of them being stranded together on the top of a mountain in the middle of a blizzard and almost dying, well, she could handle that. They’d move on and forget about each other. Except, she didn’t want to forget about Nash Webber. It was so cliché that she found herself laughing aloud at the absurdity of the daydreams going through her mind waiting for him to burst through the door.
What did she expect? He wasn't coming down from this mountain to be with her. She was going home. He wasn’t going to burst through the door and ask her to stay. Life would go back to normal.
How incredibly boring that sounded now when it hadn't sounded that way for years. That was Harper’s life. Boring. There was no adventure. She lived all of her excitement through the calls that came through the dispatcher’s radio. That was the only thing that had ever gotten her heart pumping.
Until she was in Nash's arms last night. Those precious moments made it abundantly clear to Harper that she hadn't been living all these years. Not really.
Soon there would be plenty to keep her busy. Flowers were going to start blooming in a few weeks. It always amazed her how quickly after the snow spring magically appeared. They’d all have barbecues and potlucks out on the back lawn with neighbors. The annual Fire and Police Department’s potluck was in a few weeks. People would be coming into town for rodeos and vacations and festivals. Harper liked that about Montana.
But now Nash was standing in front of her with the look of death on his face.
“What’s wrong? Did you find anyone?” she asked. “Was that a plow I heard down the mountain?”
Nash closed the door and forced a smile. She could tell the difference between a real smile and a
