jogging toward her. He was the oldest of her siblings and she always teased him that he’d come out of the womb wearing a suit and tie.
But now, he wore a T-shirt and blue jeans, his dark hair looked like it had been combed with a garden rake and even from a distance she could see the concern in his brown eyes.
No amount of willpower kept her tears away then.
She dropped the ice pack and ran into his arms. It was comforting. Familiar. And if she’d never felt that utter sense of security in the sheriff’s embrace, she never would have known it wasn’t there in her own brother’s.
“Damn,” he muttered as he took in the mangled mess of her vehicle. “What the hell happened, Georgia?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know, Austin. I was driving along, everything was fine and then bam! Everything was out of my control. I couldn’t steer, I couldn’t brake and I was crashing through the guardrail and—” She closed her eyes against the terrifying memory of the engine suddenly screaming, then turning quiet as she soared over brush and through trees, turning in one long, slow somersault—
She realized she was sweating and dug the heels of her palms against her closed eyes until the images faded. “All I could think was that Daddy was right.” She finally dropped her hands and looked up at him. “I should have gone on the family plane with the rest of you. I should have stuck with my old car—it was perfectly good—instead of spending a fortune on a sports car like that—”
He exhaled an oath and kissed her temple. “Stop. You’d been waiting months for that car. Accidents happen. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“I want to get away from here.”
“Felicity’s waiting at the campground,” he said. “She’s making sure the travel trailer you’ll be using is all set for you.”
“How did you know what happened?” When she’d set up her emergency account with the car dealer, she’d listed him as the person to contact.
“The sheriff’s office sent someone out to the campground to find me.”
She rubbed her temples. “You didn’t get a text or some automatic notice from R-Haz that my vehicle was in an accident?”
“Nope.”
She looked around her brother at the man in question, only to see that he was heading their way. “Watch out,” she warned Austin. “He might have rescued me from my car, but he’s got a beef against ‘those Fortunes.’” She air-quoted the term.
“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”
She spread her hands wordlessly.
Pax stopped a few feet away. “You’re the brother? Austin?”
“I am.” Austin kept an arm protectively around Georgia’s shoulder but extended his other. “Austin Fortune. I appreciate what you did for my sister. She says you pulled her out of that.” He nodded toward the mangled vehicle now fixed in place atop the flatbed. Charlie had a broom and a bucket and was sweeping up debris where she’d gone through the rail.
The dusty brim of the sheriff’s hat cast most of his face in shadow, but Georgia still felt his gaze roving over her as he briefly shook her brother’s hand. “Sheriff Price. I’m glad she wasn’t hurt more badly than she was. And that nobody else was involved. I’m not issuing a citation, since she didn’t commit any offenses—”
“Big of you.”
He ignored her. “That could change if under the course of investigation new information comes to light.” He was still holding his boxy metal clipboard and he slid a business card free, handing it to Georgia.
She automatically took it, annoyed with the way she shivered when her fingertips brushed his. “There isn’t any new information,” she assured him. She glanced down at the card.
“That’s Charlie’s card,” he said, pointing out what she’d just realized.
Why had she thought he might want her to have his number?
Thankfully unaware of her thoughts, he was continuing. “You’ll want to arrange things with him when it comes to getting the rest of your personal belongings. And you’ll want to keep the accident report when you deal with your auto-insurance folks. If you want Charlie to contact them for you, I can tell him to go ahead. Don’t know if they’ll want to send someone to see the vehicle in person or not. It’s a given it’ll be totaled, though.” He tore off a carbon copy of the report he’d made and folded it in thirds before extending it.
“Since my phone is MIA, I’d appreciate him making that call.” She plucked the report from his grasp. No shivers, no way, no, ma’am.
“She can come with me now?” her brother asked.
“Address of the urgent care in Amber Falls is on the back of the report. Might want to get her checked out for good measure. But as long as she’s got clearance from Sean and Sarah, I’ve got no reason to keep her.”
At the mention of their names, Sean waved a thumbs-up. “She’s good, Sheriff. Lucky as hell, that’s for sure.”
Which was what Georgia needed to remember.
“Let me get the air-conditioning going in the SUV,” Austin told her. “Then we’ll get you out of here.” He squeezed her shoulder gently before jogging across the highway.
She looked toward the sheriff.
No matter how his attitude had changed when he’d learned she was a member of the Fortune family, he had saved her from the car.
She stuck out her own hand. “Thank you for your help, Pax.” She wasn’t sure what devil made her use his name. Maybe the same devil that made her curious to see the circus that the coming wedding was sure to be.
But the devil got more than she bargained for when Pax tapped his thumb against his hat brim and pushed it up an inch before he slowly closed his hand around hers. His fingers were long, his palm warm. “Glad to be of service—” he waited half a beat “—Georgia.”
Something in her chest went tight. His emerald eyes were once again soft and warm and vaguely mossy.
She moistened her lips and slowly pulled her hand away.
It was probably a good thing that he was biased against people with her last name. Everything else about him would just make for complications.
She preferred short, simple and uncomplicated.
Moistening her lips again, she grabbed her little purse and overnighter from where they sat on the ground near the ambulance.
Aside from it, the tow truck and the sheriff’s SUV, there was only one other vehicle sitting on the side of the road, and Georgia immediately started to cross the road toward it.
“Whoa, there.” A hand grabbed her arm, hauling her up short, and she jerked, looking up at Pax.
Her heart simply thudded. That’s all there was to it.
