Had he known all it would take was to allude to their age, he would have done it ten minutes in. At least he wasn’t going to have to stand before the judge explaining DNA evidence of dog poop anytime soon. There were some things to be grateful for.
Finally, he stood and moved to his office, where he looked out the window with a frown. When had it begun snowing? He should have been paying better attention to the news. At least he didn’t have to worry about Grace out there driving in it, not after her strange call a couple of hours ago about her car not working.
“Cam, you have a call on line one.” His assistant popped in and back out again.
Maybe he should just head home for the day. His mind certainly wasn’t on work. No, it was on a certain brunette who had his heart racing and his blood boiling. Her staying in his house might not have been the smartest decision he’d made in a while. If he didn’t make love to her soon, he was afraid certain parts of his body might well fall off.
“Camden Whitman here. How can I help you?”
“Cam, I’m sorry to bug you at work, but little Gracie took off over an hour ago on foot, and then the snow started. It’s really coming down now and I’m worried about her. I sent some men out, but I thought you’d want to know.” When Shawn, his foreman, stopped speaking, Cam felt his heart stop altogether.
“Damn stubborn woman!” Cam shouted. “I’m on my way now. Get my horse ready.”
Cam hung up, then walked from his office, told his assistant to cancel the rest of his appointments, and rushed to his vehicle.
Since Grace’s return, his neighbors, father, brothers, and just about everyone else in the entire town of Sterling had been poking and prodding into his business, asking if he and Grace were going to renew their epic romance, if he was going to finally make an honest woman out of her and settle down, have a few kids . . . The questions went on and on.
At first, Cam hadn’t known what to think. Grace was the one to get away. But they were young and dumb, teenagers who thought they held the world in the palm of their hands. When the real world kicked in, they weren’t able to hold on to each other. They went eight years without speaking, and they didn’t do a hell of a lot of talking in the last two years—it was mainly just fighting, actually.
Cam had told himself many times that he was over Grace Sinclair, that their time together hadn’t been anything like “epic.” The problem with that, though, was that every time he was with her, he couldn’t seem to keep his hands or his mouth to himself.
As he drove home much faster than he should with the roads covered in a layer of fresh snow, Cam knew their story wasn’t finished. But he just didn’t know how to begin anymore. So much had happened.
Sliding to a stop in front of his barn, Cam leapt from the truck, thankful to see Shawn on his own horse, with Cam’s horse saddled and waiting. “Which direction did she go?”
“She headed down Watkins Creek Road. I figured she was just going for a quick stroll. Then the guys and I got busy buckling things up for the unexpected storm. By the time we figured out she wasn’t back yet, I got real worried,” Shawn replied.
“We’ll find her,” Cam insisted, and they took off down the road.
They went down about a mile, the snow falling thicker and thicker, and Cam felt real panic grow within him. If she hadn’t stayed on the road, she could be anywhere. If she’d stopped walking, holed up beside a tree, anything, she could be buried in snow by now.
“Have you called the sheriff?”
“Yes. There have been four auto accidents already in town. There are a lot of people visiting for spring break or something, and people who have no business driving in snow are out driving. But he said if we didn’t find her in the next hour, he’d get a search and rescue going.”
“Dammit!” Cam was panicking more by the second.
That’s how he almost missed it. Something off to his right. It wasn’t much, just a slight flash that caught his eye. “This way!” he shouted, and raced through the trees toward it.
“That’s her.”
Leaping from his horse, he jumped down in the snow and ran up to Grace, who was curled up in a ball, the snow nearly covering her. The flash from her bright blue coat, a small piece of it still showing, was all that had caught his attention.
If he had missed that . . . No! He couldn’t even think that way.
“Grace! Wake up! Grace!” He shook her shoulders before lifting her into his arms and pressing his ear to her mouth. “She’s breathing, but barely. We need to get her back now. Call the men, have them get my room ready. I want heated blankets, the fire going—that room has to be a freaking toaster oven.”
“Shouldn’t we take her to the hospital?” Shawn asked while still pulling out his phone right after helping Cam get Grace on the front of his own horse.
“It’s too far, and the roads are too bad now. I need to warm her up.”
The ride took only ten minutes on the way back, but it felt like hours as he cradled Grace inside his coat, holding her tight, hoping like hell he could get some heat back into her system. Stopping his horse right in front of his back door, he pulled her off the saddle and rushed into the house with her in his arms, knowing Shawn would take care of the animals.
He didn’t care what it took. He wasn’t letting her go.
Grace felt as if she were falling into a cloud of pillows. She was warm, and so very tired. Someone was talking, but she didn’t care. Her body wouldn’t move, and she had no desire to do anything so difficult as to open her eyes.