“Yes.”
“A lot more.”
“Yes.”
“Can I finish?”
“No.”
She stood and kissed him.
The little girl screamed so loudly half the café applauded before understanding what happened.
Six months later, the wedding reception took place at Evergreen Café.
Small.
Family.
Friends.
Employees from the garage.
Employees from Sophia's company.
The girl served as flower girl in a dress she designed with Sophia.
White satin.
Brown ribbon.
Tiny embroidered gears along the hem.
Jake cried when he saw her.
Sophia pretended she did not notice.
During their first dance, snow began outside.
Jake pulled Sophia closer.
She rested one hand against his shoulder.
“You know what I still think about?”
“What?”
“That road.”
Jake smiled.
“Your terrible alternator?”
“My excellent alternator.”
“It failed.”
“It introduced me to you.”
Jake considered.
“Fair.”
Sophia looked up.
“If it hadn't broken…”
“You would've arrived first.”
“You would've arrived later.”
“We would have sat across from each other politely.”
“You would have hated me.”
Jake smiled.
“Probably.”
Sophia hit his shoulder.
“You're awful.”
“You were terrifying.”
“I was glamorous.”
“You were wearing boots that couldn't survive snow.”
“They survived.”
“Because I caught you.”
Sophia smiled.
“That part I remember.”
Jake's hand tightened at her waist.
“So do I.”
She leaned closer.
“Mechanic.”
“Yes?”
“You still owe me for that roadside repair.”
Jake smiled slowly.
“I married you.”
“That seems expensive.”
“It is.”
Sophia laughed.
Their daughter rushed onto the dance floor.
“You're dancing too slow.”
Jake looked down.
“What should we do?”
“Spin.”
So they did.
All three.
Jake holding one hand.
Sophia holding the other.
The girl laughing between them.
Outside, snow covered the mountain road where headlights moved slowly through the night.
Somewhere, another vehicle probably broke down.
Someone cursed bad timing.
Someone believed a delay had ruined their plans.
Sophia no longer trusted that assumption.
The night her SUV died had felt like one more disaster in a year full of them.
She had been losing investors.
Losing sleep.
Losing herself inside a company she loved too much to leave and feared too much to fail.
Then an engine stopped.
A mechanic pulled over.
And for twenty minutes beneath a raised hood, neither of them knew who the other was supposed to be.
That mattered.
Because Jake met Sophia before he met the CEO.
Sophia met Jake before she knew he was the owner standing between her company and its expansion.
He saw a stranded woman.
She saw a stranger willing to freeze his hands fixing something that was not his responsibility.
Everything afterward became complicated.
Money.
Property.
History.
Grief.
Business.
Family.
But the first thing between them had been simple.