Free Wait for Me by Samantha Chase

land.  She turned when she heard him and almost gasped at what she saw.  He was covered in snow and his skin was red and at his feet were all of her bags and belongings from her car.  He nearly slumped to the ground once the door was closed.
    “Oh, my gosh, Lucas!  What in the world?”  She nearly ran over to him and it didn’t take long for her to realize that he was in pain.  Without a word she took the hat from his head and began to help him remove his coat.
    “Emma,” he said by way of warning her but she ignored him.
    “Hush,” she said quietly and went back to helping him get as much of the snow covered clothing off as possible.  With his coat, hat and gloves on the floor, Emma watched as he slowly removed his boots.  It was hard to miss the hiss of pain when he bent forward.
    “Go put on dry clothes,” she told him.  “I’ve got lunch ready.”
    Lucas stood straight up and looked at Emma as if he’d never seen her before.  He opened his mouth to argue but all she said was “Go” and he slowly lumbered back toward his bedroom where he slammed the door.
    Emma made a tsking sound and went about picking up his belongings and taking them into the mud room near the back of the house to dry.  After that she headed into the kitchen to serve up their food.  Lucas stepped from the bedroom before she was finished and walked over to the living room and sat down wearily on the sofa; his head falling back against the cushions. 
    It was a no brainer at that point; making up a tray, Emma carried it to Lucas and placed it over his lap.  He looked up at her in surprise and what she saw in his eyes took her breath away.  Gratitude, plain and simple.  How long had this man been taking care of himself?  How long since anyone had done something as simple as preparing a meal for him?  How long since he’d even let anyone?
    She gave him a weak smile and turned to walk away.  “Are you going to join me?” Lucas asked, his eyes warm on hers.
    “I was just going to make myself a tray,” she reassured.  Within minutes she was sitting on the sofa opposite his making herself comfortable and trying to not spill her soup.  “I wasn’t sure what you wanted to eat but I figured this was your house and if it was here, you’d pretty much enjoy it.”
    He gave a small laugh.  “Can’t argue with that logic.  But seriously, Emma, thank you.  You didn’t need to do this.”
    “Are you kidding me?  It was nice to have something to do.  I felt so helpless sitting in here where it was warm and dry while you were stuck out there.  I hate that you had to do that for me.”
    “We’re not going to go through that again, are we?” he asked.  “None of this was your fault and you need to let it go.”
    “How did you get the driveway cleared away so fast?”
    “I have a plow blade attachment for my truck.  I simply pulled out of the garage and went to work.”
    “Oh, thank goodness; I thought you had shoveled that whole thing yourself!”
    “Not anymore,” he mumbled to himself.  “It didn’t take too long and I wanted to have it done before I called the tow truck.  It would have been pointless to have them drive all the way out here if they couldn’t get onto the property.”
    Emma nodded.  “How bad did it look?”
    “The road?”
    “No, my car.  Was it bad?”
    Lucas took a hearty bite of his sandwich and seemed to chew slowly.  Emma did not take that as a good sign.  “It was about what I expected,” he said finally.
    “Meaning what exactly?”
    “It looks like you ran it into a tree.  The front end is pretty banged up but luckily you weren’t going very fast so it could have been much worse.  I had Bill take it to his shop; he’s a friend of mine and I trust him and his work.  He’ll get a good look at it probably tomorrow and have an estimate to us by Monday.”
    “Us?”
    “Emma, Montgomery’s is going to take care of this.  It wasn’t your fault and you were on company