Nicole had no idea where that last thought had come from, but it made her shift uncomfortably.
“Here. Allow me to walk you to your car,” her rescuer said, relieving her of her bags.
“Oh, thanks,” Nicole forced a smile and started to move when he shifted her bags to one hand and took her arm with the other, to urge her to move. She glanced at him curiously as they walked. He was tall, and well built like Jake, but that was where the resemblance ended. This man was fair-haired as she’d noted, but he also had a boy-next-door look rather than the more rugged good looks Jake had. Which she supposed was kind of ironic, considering Jake was a cook/housekeeper and this man had acted like a commando when he’d tackled and then rolled her to save her life. He was also older than Jake by a good ten years, by her guess.
“Ex-army?” she asked suddenly as they paused at the back of her SUV.
He had been scanning the parking lot as they’d walked, but now glanced to her with surprise. “How did you know?”
“It was that or an ex-football player,” Nicole said with amusement. “You have a heck of a tackle-and-roll thing going on there.”
His mouth widened into a smile, losing the grimness it had held since she’d first seen him. “Well, I did play football in high school,” he admitted with amusement. “But the tackle-and-roll thing is a more recent skill.”
Nicole nodded and opened the back of the SUV for him to set her bags inside. She then reached to close it and winced as pain shot down her side.
“I really did you in,” he said with concern, closing the back of the vehicle himself.
“A couple bumps and bruises,” she said waving away his concern. “Much better than the beating I would have taken from the car if you hadn’t been there.”
“Hmm.” He squinted at her through the dark, trying to get a better look at how much damage had been done, she supposed, and then said, “Maybe we should call the police and take you to the hospital.”
Her eyebrows rose with surprise. “On that’s not necessary. I mean, what would we tell the police? I almost got run over? I didn’t catch the license plate, did you?”
“No,” he said with an expression that made her suspect he was kicking himself for not getting it. “Still, I don’t want to just leave you here like this. In this light I can’t tell if you have a head wound or something else serious. If you pass out from blood loss or a head wound on the road and crash, I’d never forgive myself.” He glanced around briefly, and then said, “There’s a Moxie’s restaurant just past the grocery store next door. Let me buy you a coffee so I can be sure you’re okay.”
Nicole hesitated. She thought she was probably all right, but was aware she was trembling. A result of the adrenaline in her system she suspected, but truth be told she wasn’t sure herself if she wasn’t wounded somewhere. She’d hit the ground hard and was hurting pretty much everywhere. Moxie’s, she thought. It was right beside Loblaws, where she was supposed to pick up Jake.
Nicole nodded. “Okay.”
“Great.” He smiled and held out his hand. “My name’s Dan Sh— Peters, by the way.”
“Nicole Phillips,” she said, smiling crookedly as she placed her hand in his. Much to her surprise his smile quickly faded then.
“You’re shaking,” he said grimly, and asked, “Are you going to be okay to drive?”
“Yeah,” she said, and heard the uncertainty in her voice, but while she didn’t mind having coffee with the complete stranger who had saved her life, she wasn’t willing to let him drive her there. Stiffening her spine, she assured him, “I’m fine, and it’s just next door.”
“Okay,” Dan said, but didn’t release her hand, instead squeezing it before saying, “I’ll follow. Flash your lights and pull over if you start to feel sick or anything.”
Nicole nodded, relieved when he released her hand. But he just took her arm to usher her to the driver’s seat, saying, “I’m that pickup there.” He gestured to a dark pickup parked two cars down from hers. “Pull out and pass me and I’ll follow.”
“Okay,” Nicole murmured as he opened her door and ushered her in.
“See you there,” he said and closed the door for her.
Nicole pushed the button to start the engine and then just sat there for a minute, trying to concentrate on her breathing and calm her body. Her hands were trembling and she felt shaky and not quite all there. It was hard to describe, but she felt sweaty and a bit foggy. An overflow of adrenaline she supposed.