A handful of turns and five minutes later, he saw Jane’s car. Dark. No lights. He parked behind her and got out, realizing she was sitting behind the wheel. He slid into her front passenger seat. “Why wasn’t this locked?”
She let out a mirthless laugh and tipped her head back, staring up at the roof of her car. “There’s not a lot of people who would ask me that.”
“Then I’ll make sure to keep asking.” He reached out and let his fingertips brush the nape of her neck, wanting to comfort, but also not wanting to push her before she was ready. “Are you okay?”
Instead of answering, she closed her eyes. “I’m short on brave tonight. You got any to spare?”
“You can have any of me you want.” Or all of me . . . “You said you were stuck.”
“I think my battery’s dead.”
“That’s easy enough.” He looked around. “Where are we?”
“Up that steep driveway is my grandpa’s cabin.”
And with that, he finally understood. She was going to go talk to her grandpa for the first time in twenty years. “You’ve got this, Jane.”
That got him a ragged but real laugh. “How do you always know the right thing to say?”
Now he laughed, thinking of his family and how they might disagree. But Jane, a woman who didn’t have a lot of reasons to trust anyone, trusted him. It had a warm glow filling his chest. “I never know the right thing to say.”
She turned her head, met his gaze, and gave him a small smile. “You just get lucky?”
Her smile turned his heart upside down. “Once in a blue moon.”
Chapter 17
Jane drew a deep breath at the way Levi was looking at her. Like she meant something to him, like she was important, at least enough to drive out in a storm for her. She’d texted him instinctively, not even thinking about it, which was a statement all on its own about how much she trusted him. And he’d shown up, no questions asked. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“Happy to help.”
She nodded. “Happy,” she repeated softly and then shook her head. “I think I’ve had a problem letting myself be happy.”
“Cherophobia.”
She looked at him. “What?”
“It’s the fear of being happy.”
She laughed and felt some of the tension drain from her. “Thanks for that too, for always knowing what to say to brighten my day.”
He smiled. “But it’s night.”
“You know what I mean.”
His smile faded. “I do. And you should know . . . you do the same for me.” He pulled off his ski cap and unzipped his jacket, even though the interior of her car was cold. She’d turned it off half an hour ago to save gas.
Then he put the ski cap on her head, wrapped her up in his jacket, and zipped it up to her chin, letting his fingers brush her jaw. “Better?”
Okay, so he had a question, but only one, and with that single word, uttered in his low, calm voice that said together they could handle anything, she knew that somehow it was going to be okay. “Yes.” And not just because she was now enveloped in his body heat, but also because his scent was teasing her. Something woodsy and very male. “I need to go talk to my grandpa about the ornament.”
He nodded, clearly not wanting to influence her on this, trusting her to be a grown-up. Which meant that she needed to actually be a grown-up.
They both looked up the driveway to the small old cabin at the top. A light flickered in the kitchen, her favorite kitchen in the whole wide world. Some of the best memories of her life had taken place there. The place had always seemed warm, and there’d been copious amounts of hot chocolate made with love, complete with marshmallows. “I’ve been avoiding this a long time,” she murmured.
“I know. Just a reminder, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But—”
Very gently, he set a finger to her lips. “You didn’t, Jane. No one in their right mind would blame an eight-year-old who was at the mercy of her relatives after her parents walked away from her.”
She closed her eyes, then felt Levi’s hand slip into hers. Even without his jacket and hat, he was warm and solid. Her only anchor at the moment.
“Will he be alone?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Near as I can tell, my aunt Viv sold her house here in Sunrise Cove a bunch of years back. Word is her husband got a job on the East Coast and they all moved there.”
Levi raised his right, scarred brow.
“Yeah,” she said on a laugh. “I’ve got some excellent stalking skills.”
“Good riddance. Come here, Jane.”
She leaned in closer, but apparently that wasn’t close enough because he hauled her up and over the console, effortlessly dropping her into his lap.
“What—”
He wrapped his deliciously warm arms around her and cuddled her into him.
“Mmm,” she heard herself purr and pressed her face to his throat.
He dipped his head so he could meet her gaze, but she didn’t know how to take the way he looked at her. Like he cared. Like he wanted to hurt someone for what she’d been through. Like he wanted to touch her. She’d honestly expected him to recoil from her history, from how screwed up she was. Instead, he’d done the opposite.
“What do you want to do?” he asked, his calloused thumb making slow sweeps over the knuckles of her hand.
Still with her face in the crook between his throat and shoulder, she just breathed him in for a moment. “I want to run away,” she admitted. “Just like I always do. But I need to go talk to him.”
“I’ll go with you if you want.”
The offer surprised and warmed her from tip to toe, and she squeezed him before lifting her head. “Just knowing you would helps. But I think I’ve got to do this alone. I’m sorry I called you out here before I did this.”
“Don’t be sorry. I’ll wait. As long as you need.”
She let out a breath, not taking that promise lightly. She wasn’t sure how or when they’d become friends for real or when he’d become so important to her, but she felt grateful for him. “Thanks,” she whispered, inadequate but all she could think of in the moment. She reached for the door handle, then hesitated, her heart pounding in her ears.
“Quick like a Band-Aid,” he said quietly.
She snorted. “Do you and your family ever stop speaking to each other?”
He laughed, drawing her eyes. He was genuinely amused. “All the time. They mean well, but I’m very different from them, and different is sometimes hard to accept.”
She pressed her forehead to his. “I like different.”
“For which I’m grateful. You’ve got this, Jane.”
She eyed the little cabin. “You sure?”
“Hey, you survived a near-fatal fall from a gondola. You regularly put yourself in war zones to save people’s lives. You agreed to go to dinner with my crazy family. Trust me, you can handle this. Either way, I’ll be waiting right here.”
With a wobbly smile, she nodded, drew a deep breath, got out of the car, and walked up to the front door and knocked.