Читать книгу Mr Taken - Danica Winters - Страница 15

Chapter Six

Overnight the sky had opened and fresh glittering snowflakes adorned Colter’s front yard. The weatherman was calling for another six inches of snow today and possibly another six tomorrow. Yet in rural Montana, six inches could turn out to be two inches, or it could be two feet—it all depended on the way the wind decided to blow and the fickle whims of the winter storm.

He loved this time of year. Some hated the cold and the constant grayness that came with living in the valley, but he’d always thought of the world around him like a blanket. The mountains were his borders and the clouds were his cover, as though he were protected from the brutal world thanks to the bosom of the world itself.

He pulled on a red sweater his mother had given him last Christmas. He needed to get back to the ranch. His parents would need his help plowing and getting ready. There were only two more days until the party. He’d need to fix the floor of the barn. Not to mention being on hand to greet the visitors who would be starting to arrive for the ranch’s holiday festivities.

If truth be told, though his parents would appreciate his help, he knew they could do it on their own—what and who he really wanted to help was Whitney and the poor little dog they had saved. Or, if she asked, that would be a convenient excuse for finding his way to the ranch’s main office.

The snow crunched under his boots as he walked out to his pickup. He started it, letting the engine warm up and stave off the bitter cold. His breath was a white cloud even in the cab of the truck. According to the dashboard temperature gauge, it was ten below. This kind of weather only lent itself to three things—breakdowns, house fires and frostbite.

He wouldn’t be surprised if he got called into work. It would be an overtime shift, but the last thing he wanted to do right now was find himself there. His hand and leg were sore from yesterday’s fall. He’d be all right, but it would be an annoyance that he would have to ignore in order to do his job—and anytime something like this happened, he always had a sinking fear that it could hinder his attempt to save someone’s life. He hated the thought of letting someone else down thanks to his own weakness.

As he drove toward the ranch, his mind wandered to his other weakness—Whitney. He couldn’t get her out of his thoughts. She didn’t want to be with him; she had made that clear. Yet, when he was around her, there was just some...a spark. Something seemed to buzz between them, and from the look in her eyes, she couldn’t ignore the feeling, either.

He just had to be around her, even if it wasn’t as anything more than a friend. He was simply drawn to her. Maybe it would turn into something more than it was, and maybe it wouldn’t, but at the very least he could have her in his life.

Whitney really was one of the most confusing women he’d ever met. One minute she seemed open to the world and a future, and the next it was like a curtain fell over her and she slipped back into the shadows of her thoughts and closed him out. Colter understood it. He had seen the look a thousand times with his brother Waylon. It was the look that came with loss and pain.

She had never really talked about her life, but she didn’t need to tell him in order for him to understand that she had some baggage. Everyone had a past. Though he tried hard to hide from his, enveloping it with humor and lightheartedness, it didn’t hurt any less when he pressed too hard against it. If she would only talk to him, maybe they could work through it together.