Page 53 of Stuck with the Hero Next Door

Not for the tree falling—that part was definitely not fun. But for Levi coming to find me.

And luck, for the fact that I hadn't been inside the cottage when the tree fell, because if I had been...

I shivered, and not from cold this time.

“Hey,” Levi said softly, noticing. “You're okay. That's what matters.”

I looked at him then, really looked. His hair was dusted with snow from his rescue mission, and there were worry lines around his eyes that I'd never noticed before. He'd rushed out into a blizzard to find me, and now he was sitting here making sure I was okay instead of pointing out all the logical reasons why I should have stayed in town tonight or parked farther from the trees.

“Thank you,” I said, and my voice came out smaller than I'd intended. “For coming to find me. For... this.”

He smiled, and some of the worry lines softened. “You don't have to thank me, Cassie. This is what neighbors do.” He said, winking at me and hugging me closer.

But it felt like more than neighboring. It felt like something deeper. Something that had been building between us for months and was only now becoming clear in the warm light of his living room while the storm raged outside.

I’m still shaken, definitely, and probably facing some complicated logistics in the coming days. But with Levi by my side. I felt like everything was good, for now.

And I wasn't facing any of it alone.

That realization settled into my chest like warmth from the fireplace. Outside, the blizzard continued its assault on the world, but inside, wrapped in Levi's blanket with his arms around me and surrounded by his quiet strength, I felt like I was exactly where I needed to be.

Chapter 14

Fireside Wake-Up

Levi

The sound of that tree crashing down was like thunder splitting the world in half.

I'd been standing in my kitchen, watching the snow intensify through the window, debating whether I should check on Cassie. Then came the crash—deep and violent—and for a breathless moment, it felt like the world had exhaled wrong. The windows rattled in their frames. My coffee sloshed over the rim of my mug. And in the sudden, terrible silence that followed, I knew with bone-deep certainty that something had gone very, very wrong.

Running through the trees between us, my fear tripled the closer I got. The sight of that massive pine lying across her cottage nearly stopped my heart. For one horrible moment, I'd thought she was inside—thought I was too late, thought I'd lost her before I'd ever really had her. But the panic shifted into something sharper, more focused, and I ran harder toward the cottage.

When I found her sitting in the snow, looking dazed and fragile in a way that made my chest ache, it was both relief and terror rolled into one. She was alive, conscious, talking—but she was also soaked through, probably hypothermic, and definitely in shock.

Now, sitting on my couch with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and color slowly returning to her cheeks, she looked more like herself. But I couldn't shake the image of her lying in that snow, or the sound of her voice when she'd said “I think I'm okay” like she wasn't entirely sure.

“I should call Doc Miller,” I said, pulling out my phone. “Have him take a look at you.”

Cassie shook her head, pulling the blanket tighter. “I'm fine, Levi. Really. Just cold and a little shaken up.”

“You were hit by a tree branch and thrown into the snow,” I said, already punching in the number. “Humor me.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but then seemed to think better of it. Maybe she could hear the edge of fear in my voice—the fear I was trying to keep under control, the way my hands were still shaking slightly from the adrenaline.

Doc Miller answered on the third ring, sounding remarkably alert for someone who'd probably been settling in for a long winter evening. “Levi? Everything all right?”

“Tree came down on Cassie's cottage,” I said, watching her face as I spoke. “She was outside when it happened. A branch caught her, knocked her down. She seems okay, but...”

“But you want me to check her over anyway,” Doc finished. “Smart man. I'll be there in twenty minutes. Roads are ugly, but I've got chains on the truck.”

“Thanks, Doc. Be careful out there.”

I hung up and looked at Cassie, who was studying me with an expression I couldn't quite read. “He's coming,” I said. “And before you say anything, it's not negotiable.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “I wasn't going to argue.”

“Good. Because I was prepared to get very stubborn about it.”