Four For Christmas (3 page)

Huh. Georgia looked down at the tree, the burlap fabric wrapped around its base. As good a hiding place as any. Was snowmobile hunk a fugitive on the run? Had he stolen the snowmobile as well as something more valuable? Was this sad tree an unwilling accomplice in a crime involving smuggling?

Her chuckle was more like a wheeze, freezing in the shockingly cold air as soon as it left her lips. She was really letting her imagination get the best of her. And it was getting harder to concentrate. She needed to get back into her car and back on the road as soon as possible.

Snow patrol hunk must have heard her, and seemed just as surprised to find Georgia as she’d been to find an unconscious man in the snow. Then, quicker than she could take another step in their direction, he was heading in her direction.

He raised his voice so she could hear him over the wind. “You shouldn’t be out in this weather, ma’am, but I’m glad you were. Flynn just told me an angel saved him and went back for his tree. I imagine he was talking about you.”

Georgia raised her eyebrows. Or tried to. Who knew icicles could form on flesh? “My dog found him.”

He nodded, his long legs bringing him quickly to her side. When he reached her, he picked her up before she could protest and took her—not in the direction of her rental vehicle—but toward his. “And I’m thankful she did. But I doubt the dog dragged him all the way back to the road and to safety. When he missed checking in a few hours ago, I came out to find him. We told him he shouldn’t go out with a storm coming, but he’s always been the reckless one.”

Before she knew it, she felt the hot air from the truck’s heater blowing against her as he set her down in the backseat of his comfortable extended cab. She gasped at the sensation, but it stunned her out of her stupor. “Wait a minute. Thank you, but I need to get back to my car. And my dog. You can’t just toss people around like this, even if you are the snow patrol.”

He smiled and she was blinded once more by brilliant white. Not snow but a stunning smile, complete with disarming dimples. He had shorter hair than the other man, a darker skin tone, and warm brown eyes instead of green…but damned if he wasn’t just as handsome.

“That’s highway patrol, and can’t might be a poor choice of words, ma’am. It’s obvious that I can. And you’re welcome.  Just sit tight while I get Flynn and your dog so we can take you somewhere safe. She’s a pretty girl, isn’t she? What is she, a hound dog? Ridgeback? What’s her name?”

Her teeth were chattering. Actually chattering. It sounded like castanets in her head. And parts of her skin were starting to tingle. No. Not tingle. Sting. “Cur.”

He raised one dark brown eyebrow. “Her name is Cur? How unfortunate.”

Georgia rolled her eyes. “Her
name
is Roux. She’s a cur. And we were already on our way somewhere safe when we found your friend.”

The man reached around her and grabbed a blanket, taking the tree and keys gently out of her hands before wrapping her up. She allowed it, she told herself, because she was distracted by his spicy scent.  Not because she couldn’t move her arms.

His tone was soothing.  His words were not. “You were on the side of a rarely traveled road with your vehicle up on a jack in the middle of what is turning into one heck of a storm.  It doesn’t seem like you were on your way to anywhere other than a bad case of pneumonia or worse. Did you try to change that tire yourself?”

Try
? Was he kidding or had he time traveled from the nineteen fifties to rescue snowmobile hunk? “Look, Officer Neanderthal, I appreciate your help. Really. But I managed to change the tire
and
save your friend all by myself. Hard as it may be to believe. Now, my engine is still running, my tire is road-worthy and all I need is for you take your buddy and—“

“Brother,” he interrupted her. Shaking his head as he looked at her boots. “You are lucky I came along. Where are you from? Texas? Those boots may look good, but out here? You could lose a toe.”

Georgia swallowed. Oh good lord. Wouldn’t that be the perfect end to this failed experiment of a road trip? Her first time in snow and she would lose her feet. She’d be that crazy, footless writer living in the bayou with her dog and talking about the night two sexy giants ruined her future as a ballerina forever.

The officer obviously saw something resembling panic in her expression, because his own sobered and cupped her shoulder in a comforting gesture. “I said you could, but you aren’t going to.” His grip tightened. “Besides, I know the best doctor in town. Trust me…at least enough to tell me your name.”

“Georgia.” She mumbled through lips that felt swollen and raw. Defrosting was no fun at all. She was stubborn, but even she wasn’t confident enough to think she could drive in this condition. She needed help. “Not the state, my name. And I’m not from Texas. I’m from Louisiana. If you have cell service I can call my friend to pick me up. And please make sure Roux is okay.”

He nodded. “I’ll get her right now, Georgia from Louisiana. And I’ll get you a phone as soon as I lug Flynn out of your car.  Later you’re going to have to tell me how someone your size got him in there in the first place. I’m James, in case you were wondering. Jimmy to my friends and women freezing on random roadsides.”

He disappeared, his body no longer a shield between her and the open truck door. She shuddered, clutching the blanket tighter. She
was
freezing. And she knew enough to know that there was no way she was going to warm up until she got into a change of clothes. Hers were soaked clean through.

She heard Roux bark excitedly and smiled as the wet heap of fur jumped up onto her lap. Georgia opened her blanket and enclosed her shivering companion, cuddling her close. “Good girl,” she murmured soothingly, thankful to have something other than her own discomfort to focus on. “Good girl.”

The dog’s presence and body heat was calming. Georgia leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Just a few minutes. She just needed a few minutes. So snow patrol hunk and snowmobile hunk were called Jimmy and Flynn. Brothers? They looked nothing alike, other than their above average sizes. Maybe they had different mothers.

Sexy half brothers. Georgia thought of Connie’s friend Charli’s situation and grinned. Only two men instead of three, but they would do. A girl could fantasize, couldn’t she? Especially if she desperately needed to get warm.

***

The rich voice she heard as she regained consciousness, made Georgia think of whiskey and naked fireplace make-out sessions. Whoever it belonged to was speaking in low, hushed tones beside her. “Mild hypothermia, but no injuries. She’s been asleep since Jimmy brought her in, along with our knuckleheaded Flynn.”

The man paused and sighed. “He’ll be fine. He was dressed for the weather, at least. Just not the crash. He’s bruised, has a bad headache to go with his slight concussion and a well-deserved case of guilt about your friend, Georgia, but he’ll live.”

Your friend? Georgia struggled to fight her way out of the warm lethargy that covered her along with several quilts and, if she wasn’t mistaken, her dog. “Who—?”

A chair scraped along the floor and the whiskey voiced man spoke with a smile in his voice. “She’s awake, Connie. I imagine she’ll want to talk to you before she lets me near her. Hang on. Georgia?”

She opened her eyes. It was official. This whole experience had been a dream. It had to be. She was still in the SUV, alone on an isolated road and dreaming. It was the only explanation that made any sense.

That or Colorado was a popular retirement community for gorgeous immortal demi-gods.

She pushed herself up, noticing the large bed she was resting in the middle of, the warm, rustic room…was she in a cabin? She tried not to stare at the Paul Bunyan look alike standing over her, complete with flannel shirt, auburn curls, trimmed beard and piercing blue eyes.  “Georgia? Do you think you’re up to taking a phone call?”

Connie. He’d said Connie. She nodded, not really sure why she was blushing, and accepted the cell phone he was holding out to her. “Hello?”

“Oh my God, Georgia. You have
no idea
how worried I’ve been.” Connie sounded exhausted. “When the phone died and I couldn’t get you back, I panicked. I knew Doctor Williams had a brother who was a highway patrol officer in Divide, so I called. I’m so glad I called.”

Georgia lifted a hand to her head as she shook it. She had an awful headache, but her friend’s anxiety was tangible. “Calm down, Connie. I’m fine. At least, I think I’m fine.” She glanced up in question, and the gorgeous lumberjack nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Is Doctor Williams the man who just handed me the phone?”

“Yes. He has several patients he visits at the Medical Center in Denver, and we’ve done a lot of fundraising together this year. You lucked out in the rescue department, I’ll give you that. He’s the best.” Connie’s sigh was watery. “He said the weather was so bad that his brother just brought you, Roux and your things to their cabin. He said you, well, that you had been out too long in the snow. That you saved his youngest brother Flynn’s life.”

Hunky Doctor Williams placed several pillows behind her back and Georgia leaned against them gratefully. “Roux found him while I was changing the tire. I would never have seen him otherwise.”

“We should have called someone”

Georgia snorted. “I’d still be out there with a flat if I’d waited on someone else to save me. I’m surprised the officer saw my rental, the snow was so thick.” She sat up and looked at the doctor again. “You didn’t happen to tow that SUV back along with me did you?”

He shook his head, and she noticed how the dim light in the room added a golden tinge to his auburn hair. She bit her lip. “Darn. Connie, as soon as this dies down you may have to ask Lee’s friend to break out his big truck after all. I’m not sure how else I can get to you.”

A large hand covered hers and slipped the phone out of it. “Wait, we were still—”

“Connie, don’t worry about it. The weather channel is saying this snowstorm is going to last a few days. You know as well as I do that no one is going anywhere for the moment.” He listened to her on the other end for a moment, but shook his head. “She’ll be fine here. We have plenty of supplies; we were already planning to spend the week here. All she needs is rest. So do you. Especially in your condition.”

Georgia’s mouth dropped open in shock. Connie was pregnant after all, and apparently this man planned to keep her in his cabin for the next few days. She didn’t even know him. “Doctor, I’m fine. You said so yourself.”

He sent her a stern look that for some strange reason made her blush again, and continued to speak into the phone. “We have six days until Christmas. We’ll clear the roads ourselves to get her to you by then. You can call her back later, okay? Okay.”

He hung up the phone and kept his gaze fixed on hers intently, as if he were studying her pupils. “Are you feeling any dizziness? Nausea? What about your vision?”

Georgia swallowed. “No. No. And it’s working.” Her hand reached out instinctively to pet Roux, who was sleeping peacefully beside her, once again unconcerned by their strange new predicament.

 “Are all my toes still attached?”

He looked confused so she wiggled them experimentally. It felt like they were all still there. It also felt like she was in a dry pair of sweatpants and a man’s t-shirt instead of her original outfit. She kept her tone conversational, though she had to admit she was starting to get a little uncomfortable. “Officer Jimmy said I could lose a toe, so I was just curious. I have a curious nature and an overactive imagination. It’s a curse. Which is why I need to ask—where are my clothes, Doctor Williams?”

Now it was his turn to blush. Goodness, he was a handsome man. A little rougher in appearance and not as perfect as the other two. His nose had a small crook in it and he looked weatherworn, as if he spent a lot of time outdoors. But that only made him sexier.

“Officer Jimmy, huh?” He shifted on his feet and sat back down on the chair beside the bed. “Your clothes are drying by the fireplace. And you’re in my home, Georgia. You’re my houseguest. You can call me Chris.”

She used her other hand to tug the quilt higher against her chest. “Not to be a bad houseguest, but you being a strange man who’s seen me naked? Makes me want to keep calling you Doctor Williams.”

He chuckled in surprise at her words. “You definitely seem to be recovering. That’s a good sign. Now Flynn won’t have to live with the guilt of killing his Christmas angel, and James will stop pacing right outside the door.”

Georgia wrinkled her nose and bit her lip, trying to remember his conversation with Connie. “So Jimmy and Flynn are your brothers too? You all seem so…different.” Other than the hot, giant muscle man thing.

The doctor shrugged, still smiling. “We are in every way that counts.”

He reached for a glass of water on the bedside table beside him and handed it to her. She must have looked confused. He lowered his voice. “It’s a long, boring story.”

“I like stories.”

The doctor studied her a moment longer, then nodded. “Short version? We were in the same foster home when we were teenagers. Sort of made our own family after.”

Georgia’s heart felt like his hand had wrapped around it, squeezing gently. Foster brothers. “And you’re spending Christmas together?” Alone? Where were the adoring, super model wives and the beautiful mountain children they each looked capable of creating?