Free Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber Page A

people skills?” she asked.
    “Are you suggesting I have poor people skills?” He appeared to find the question amusing.
    “Not in the least…it just seems like a life skill one would acquire as part of the armed forces.”
    “I’d like to think I did.”
    “But there was no time for…women?”
    He attempted to hide a smile, without success. The edges of his mouth quivered with the effort. “What makes you ask?”
    His question took her by surprise. She wasn’t prepared to answer, but quickly ad-libbed. “Well, it seems, you know, that you would be involved.”
    “Why’s that?”
    She might as well say it. It wasn’t like Dash didn’t know. “You’re sort of good-looking…I mean, women, other women, not me in particular, tend to notice that in a man.”
    “They do?”
    “Oh come on, Dash, don’t be coy. You know the way women look at you, so it only makes sense that you would, you know, look back.”
    “Yes, I suppose it does, but I was up to my eyeballs in work. I’ve only been out of the army two months. I enjoyed military life, but I didn’t want another tour in Afghanistan, and the handwriting was on the wall.”
    “You’re avoiding the question.”
    He exhaled. “No, I’m not. While in the service I didn’t have time for a serious relationship, and frankly, I wasn’t all that interested.”
    Ashley arched her brows and turned her head to look out the window. It’d started to snow. Just a few flakes, not enough for Dash to turn on the windshield wipers—at least not yet.
    “What was that look about?” Dash demanded.
    Ashley didn’t realize that he’d seen her reaction. “Nothing.”
    Dash groaned. “I hate it when a woman says that, because it clearly is something. So don’t give me that ‘it’s nothing’ crap. I want to know what you’re thinking.”
    “Fine, I’ll tell you. We all make time for what’s important to us, and clearly a relationship isn’t high on your list of priorities.”
    He took a moment to mull that over. “An interesting observation.”
    “I’m right, though.” She made it a statement and not a question.
    “Basically.”
    She smiled, feeling good that he was willing to admit it. A man of his integrity was a rare find. Ashley found it far too easy to fall for him.
    “What’s your story?” he asked, turning the tables on her.
    “Me?” She pressed her hand against her breast. “We weren’t talking about me. Besides, who says I’m not involved?”
    “Are you?”
    “Not currently,” she admitted with some reluctance.
    “But you were until recently?”
    The falling snow started to thicken. “Sort of,” she said, hedging.
    “Sort of? What does that mean?”
    She wasn’t going to be able to escape this inquisition, and she had no one to blame but herself. She was the one who’d opened this Pandora’s box. “It means,” she said, inhaling deeply, “I was involved and so was he, but apparently not just with me.”
    Dash’s face broke into an easy smile.
    “I don’t see why you find this amusing,” she muttered. “Trust me, from my point of view it wasn’t the least bit funny.”
    “I bet not. How’d you find out?”
    Ashley stiffened. He acted like this was all one big joke. “I’m not telling you that.”
    “Come on, humor me.”
    “No way.”
    “Why not? It’s in the past, right?”
    “Yes.” She shifted in her seat; this conversation was growing uncomfortable.
    “You’re over him?”
    Ashley wasn’t sure she wanted to answer that. Her brief relationship with Jackson continued to trouble her. She didn’t know how she could have been so blind. “What makes you say that?”
    That smile of his was back and wider than ever. “Because you’re flirting with me.”
    The man was infuriating. “I am not flirting with you.” She made sure each word was distinctly enunciated.
    He laughed outright. “Yes, you are.”
    Ashley’s back went broomstick straight. “Jackson broke my heart.”
    “Unlikely.” His tone was