“I’m a big boy, Krista. I don’t think you forced me to do anything. The truth is, I wanted to talk to you. Maybe I didn’t want to do an interview, though.”
She put a hand up to keep the ice pack steady on her neck. “If you didn’t want to do an interview,” she said, “then what did you want?”
He looked down for a moment. And then his eyes met hers. “I wanted to…”
Suddenly, from outside the cabin, a horn honked twice, startling her. She jumped a little in her seat.
“Who’s that?”
“That must be Ryder,” he said, getting up from the couch.
“Wow, that was fast.”
“He’s only just down the road from here.” Gunner got up and went to the door.
“Yup, that’s Ryder.” He laughed and shook his head, then opened the door and yelled outside. “What the hell are you doing out there?”
Krista stood up, walking hesitantly toward the front door.
“What are you, scared of me?” someone yelled back.
“Hardly,” Gunner said, chuckling. “Don’t…don’t you dare knock my wood pile over.” Suddenly, he was sprinting out the door.
Krista didn’t know what on earth was happening. She went quickly to the doorway, just in time to see Gunner racing at breakneck speed down the steps and towards the man out in the front yard.
Gunner moved faster than anyone she’d ever seen, and Krista had been at enough sporting events to see some very fast people in her life. But Gunner was like a panther.
She knew it must be Ryder out front because she saw a tow truck parked nearby.
Ryder was smaller than Gunner, but he was stocky, wearing a sleeveless black shirt and jeans. He met Gunner head on as if to tackle the bigger man.
But at the last moment, Gunnar scooped Ryder up and actually lifted him straight into the air, above his own head, like he was doing a dumbbell press. Ryder was not a small man. He probably weighed somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred pounds.
Gunnar was laughing crazily as he spun Ryder in mid-air and then somehow deposited him back onto level ground again without hurting him in the least.
Ryder was laughing hysterically too, like a kid who’s just gone on a scary but fun rollercoaster ride. “That was so sick!” he said. “Holy shit!”
“I told you not to mess with my damn woodpile. Do you know how long it took me to stack that wood?” Gunner asked him.
Ryder was still whooping and hollering. “Oh, man. I almost had you, too.”
“Sure you did. You were so close.”
Krista came outside, waving, as Ryder saw her. “You must be the lady with the unfortunate car situation,” he said, catching his breath. “I passed it on my way up.
Thought I’d come and say hi before towing it back to my shop.”
“Yeah, that’s my car all right. I’m so sorry you had to come up here on short notice—I hope it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.”
Ryder shook his head. He was a very handsome guy himself. Light brown, wavy hair, muscular, with playful eyes and dimples when he grinned, which seemed to be all time. “No inconvenience, ma’am. I’d do anything for this guy right here.” He gave Gunner a playful punch in the arm.
Gunner made as if to hit him back and Ryder ran a few feet away. “I’m not letting you near me. Last time, you gave me the worst Charlie horse of my life.”
“Don’t be such a wimp,” Gunner said.
“Look, I should get going, actually. I’m meeting a friend.”
“What friend?”
“Don’t you worry about that,” he laughed. “I’ll tow the car to my shop now,”
Ryder said. “And if all goes well, I’m guessing I can have it back to you by tomorrow morning.”
“Sounds good,” Gunner told him.
Ryder got back in his tow truck and drove back down the road to where her car was. She couldn’t see him as he got deeper into the woods, but she could still hear his truck for a while.
“Would you mind giving me a ride back to town?” she asked Gunner.
He was still smiling, watching as Ryder drove away. Now his gaze turned to her.
“Back to town? Why?”
“I’ll see if I can get a room at the Inn again tonight. I’m sure they have one open.”
“Don’t be silly,” Gunner told her. “There’s no reason for you to go all the way back to town and spend money on a room. Ryder’s right down the road from here.
Tomorrow, I’ll drive you down to his shop so you can pick up your car.”
“I feel horrible,” she told him. “This is too much of an imposition.”
“You can sleep in my bed,” he told her, “and I’ll take the couch. It’s no problem.”
She shook her head. “I won’t take your bed, Gunner.” Still, her heart was beating fast again and she felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought of spending the night with him.
“Listen, you’re hurt and you’re my guest. I insist.”
Krista was going to keep arguing, but then she saw the look on his face and knew he wouldn’t change his mind.
It was only as they went back inside his house that she realized Ryder had taken her car back to his shop, along with her computer and her clothes.
***
The rest of the day passed by like some kind of dream, a fantasy of what it would be like to spend time with Gunner King if she could have mapped it out.
As she rested on the couch, Gunner went to the store and came back with pasta and vegetables and meat. Then, as the sun began to slowly sink in the sky and the light filtering in through the cabin windows turned dimmer and dimmer, Gunner prepared a fabulous meal.
He did everything, chopping onions and peppers and fresh garlic.
Krista had wanted to help, but he refused, insisting that she rest and periodically ice her neck.
While Gunner made his spaghetti sauce, he talked. “I learned to cook from my grandmother,”
