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He opened the door to his Jeep “Everything, Lexie Everything Hop in—I’ll give you a ride”

“But then I won’t have a ride hoet me”

“That’s not a problem”

“It is to me Safety 101, always have an escape route”

“You think you’re going to need to escape frole Inn and Christmas Tree Farm?”

“I don’t know the kind of shit that happens up here in the Arctic What if there’s a bear attack?”

“That won’t happen”

“An avalanche”

“The mountains are several miles away”

He stood there beside his open passenger door and I opened ood old-fashioned standoff

“Fine,” he said on a huff and shut the passenger-side door “But I’ you to make sure you don’t end up in a ditch”

“Suit yourself husband It’s a free country”

He jerked at the word husband and then a little smile crossed his face

“Yes it is, wife Yes it is”

I cli was scowling at me

“I know I know,” I said Last night after I went to bed I gavewith Ethan As in, I would not I loved flirting and he was a natural flirt but that road only led to trouble, as my mother would say And that whole husband/wife routine was pri

I’d alht And, let’s be real, a kiss would have been the start of it I alht and I’d promised Henny and myself I definitely wouldn’t do that