Chapter Fourteen - Amanda

Amanda brushed snow off her windshield. It was heavy and wet, and she could tell the storm wasn’t going to get better any time soon.

“Here, let me help you,” Cameron said. “Do you have another snow brush I can use?”

Having a spare brush was a good idea, considering where they lived. She’d even thought of it from time to time—in moments like these. But she’d always procrastinated and never gotten around to it. “Sorry. This is my only one.”

“Then let me do it while you start warming up the Jeep.” He held out his hand expectantly.

She hesitated. He was being…nice.

“Let me do it,” he said again. “Please.” He wasn’t pleading, but Amanda could hear the sincerity in his voice.

She handed the brush to him, then jumped into the Jeep and started it up. She turned the heater on full blast, shivering at the sudden onslaught of cold air. It would take another few minutes before it would be warm enough to defrost her fingers. In another month, she’d be used to the colder weather.

Cameron finished brushing the snow off the windows, then jumped into the passenger seat before placing his hands over the vents. He had worn a coat but no gloves. “You sure you’re going to be okay?” he asked, turning in his seat and eying the steep road that led up to her house.

“I can get down the road, no problem.” Amanda put on her seatbelt and grinned. “But we might do a few donuts on the way.”

Cameron turned back around in his seat and gave her a cautious look. “I’m sure you’ll be able to drive me home just fine. What I’m worried about is you getting back.”

Her smile faltered. The way he was looking at her—like he wanted nothing more than to make sure she’d be safe. “I’ve driven in worse,” she said, her voice soft. “Besides, either I drive you home or we sit here debating until the snow is too deep to drive in.”

“I wish I still had my snowmobile,” Cameron muttered.

Amanda watched him, curious. She’d never noticed the pain in his eyes before, but now that she recognized it, she realized it had been there all along. “What happened to it?”

“Sold it.” He didn’t say anything more, but it was apparent that it hadn’t been because he wanted to.

Amanda shifted the Jeep into drive and made her way around the circular driveway before inching her way down the road that would lead to the main part of town. “See, this isn’t so bad,” she said. Though her windshield wipers were going as fast as they could and the snow was already sticking again to the side windows. She tried not to notice the way Cameron held onto the door. “Do I make you nervous?” she finally asked when she couldn’t ignore it anymore.

He laughed, though it sounded strained. “The last time you drove me home, you considered the speed limit optional.”

“Yeah, well, I might like things fast, but I know when I need to slow down. Life isn’t much fun if your car is wrapped around a telephone pole.”

Thankfully Lakeview was a small town with not much traffic and only two stop lights. Amanda wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop quickly with the way the roads were.

“Does your need for speed only apply to driving?” Cameron asked, a hint of a smirk playing on his lips.

Amanda’s concentration on the road lapsed for a moment, and the Jeep slid to the edge of the road—or where she thought the edge was. With the snow coming down faster now, it was difficult to tell. She would have thought his question benign if it hadn’t been for his eyes laughing at her. “I eat slow,” she said, though she was pretty sure that hadn’t been what he’d been referring to.

“Oh, yeah? How does your boyfriend feel about that? My mom has to start eating half an hour before us so she’s not left eating at the dinner table after we’re done. It drives my dad nuts.”

Was he fishing to find out if she was dating anyone?

But Cameron couldn’t possibly be interested in someone like her. They were at complete opposite ends of the social spectrum, and he’d already made it clear how he felt about rich folks. Even if he was interested, she couldn’t possibly date someone like him, either. Cameron was the typical guy she’d always been taught to avoid—the broody jock who thinks he’s above the rules.

And yet—

“Well, considering my boyfriend only eats one meal a day and starts eating before the food has been fully served, he doesn’t seem to care much either way. He’s surprisingly good at cuddling, though. I just wish he’d sleep somewhere else—he keeps me up all night.”

That had obviously not been what Cameron had been expecting. When Amanda tore her gaze away from the road long enough to catch his reaction, she saw him staring at her, looking completely dumbfounded.

“I’m sorry?”

Amanda laughed, pleased with herself. “My cat, Oliver. He’s completely self-centered, but he’s good to keep me warm on those cold Minnesota nights.”

Cameron released a long sigh that sounded an awful lot like relief, and warmth spread through her chest.

Acid reflux. That was all it was. Because she couldn’t allow Cameron to evoke those kinds of reactions from her.

Amanda forced her attention back to driving as she eased the Jeep into the neighborhood she thought was Cameron’s, but everything looked the same when it was white. “You gotta lead me the rest of the way. I can’t tell one house from another at this point.”

Cameron seemed to be in his own world, but after saying his name a couple of times, she managed to startle him back to reality, and he led her to the right place.

“Thank you,” he said, though he didn’t move to get out of the Jeep. “I really do appreciate this. Not many people would brave a storm like this for someone they barely know.”

Amanda gave a small shrug. “I’d like to think most people would. But even if not, I don’t consider us strangers. Not anymore.”

“What do you consider us?” he asked, his gaze firmly holding Amanda’s. There was so much going on in his eyes, and she wasn’t sure how to decipher what she saw. Excitement, maybe. Or anxiety. She thought she might have seen attraction mixed in there, but maybe that was her own desire she was seeing mirrored back to her.

Amanda’s gaze shifted to the storm around them. What did she see Cameron as? She wasn’t sure she considered him a friend yet, but he was certainly more than an acquaintance. When she failed to answer, Cameron moved to leave, his mood shifting as quickly as the weather had. His lips were pulled into a frown, which wasn’t unusual for him, but Amanda was fairly certain she’d been the cause of it.

“I don’t know what I consider us,” she said, the words bursting out. For some reason, she couldn’t stomach the thought of him being disappointed with her, though the previous week she wouldn’t have cared one bit. She would have even thought it comical. “But I’m looking forward to figuring it out.”

Cameron paused, one hand resting on the door. He glanced back at her, and she met his gaze. A small smile appeared. “Me too.”

And then he left. Amanda watched as he pushed through the snow and entered his house.

Speaking of getting home—the sun was already starting to dip low in the sky. She shifted the Jeep into drive and lumbered forward.

* * * * *

Amanda made it through town fine, and the snow seemed to be slowing, though that could have been wishful thinking. Now for the hard part.

The hill.

Why did wealthy people always have to live on high ground? Sure, it offered a stellar view, but when someone lived in a small town in Minnesota, it wasn’t worth it. Yeah, they all had trucks and Jeeps and all that, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. And from the look of the road, it wasn’t looking promising. The plows were still working on the main streets and hadn’t gotten that far yet. She’d tried to warn her mom about choosing to live all the way up there, but Amanda’s opinion hadn’t mattered as much as the floor plan.

Amanda pumped the gas, knowing that if she floored it, she had less chance of making it up. She crept forward, but as she reached the steepest portion of the road, the wheels began spinning. She took her foot off the gas pedal and tried again, but with the same result. Maybe if she backed up a bit and tried to get out of her own tracks, she could get up. She shifted into reverse, but then slid sideways. Okay. This was worse.

She should call her mom; maybe she was on her way home. Amanda moved to pull her phone from her purse, but paused. Where was her purse? She searched the floor, then the back seat. Oh, crap. When she had grabbed her keys to take Cameron home, they hadn’t been in her purse like they usually were. They’d been hanging on the key rack by the front door.

Which meant she was stranded. With no phone. She was going to have to hike the rest of the way home.