Page 31 of Cookie

I stepped closer and glided my lips up his neck to his ear, making him shiver. “I’m so fucking proud of you,” I whispered before leaning back enough to meet his eyes. “And I love you. I feel like I don’t tell you that enough.”

“I love you too, and you can tell me whenever you want. I know we were planning to go to your house tonight, but what do you think about ordering a pizza and some wings and staying here?”

“Well, now Ireallylove you. I know you’re exhausted and, to be honest, I’d like a quiet night,” I said which seemed to make him happy.

“I’ll place an order,” he said, and took out his phone.

“And I’ll go turn on the heat upstairs. Oh, look,” I said and pointed out the window where small flakes of snow were just starting to fall.

“I thought it wasn’t supposed to snow?” he asked as he spun around to look.

“It wasn’t, but things must have changed.” I pressed myself against his back and wrapped my arms around him as we stood at the window and quietly watched the snow. It wasn’t heavy, and I didn’t expect that to change, but it was pretty, and I knew it made Ryan happy.

“Oh my god, I better order before they tell me there’s too much snow,” he said and finished his order. “They’ll be here in thirty minutes. Go upstairs. I’ll shut everything down and bring up the food as soon as it arrives.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure, and I really appreciate you helping today.”

“That’s what boyfriends do, right?” I said as I walked over to the stairs.

“I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s what my boyfriend does.” He didn’t have to say how he was feeling it was clear in his eyes, and I had to force myself to go upstairs rather than run over to him and steal a kiss. But we had all night, and that thought made me happy as I ignored how cold it was in the little apartment he lived in and turned on the electric fireplace to chase away the chill.

Twenty-Eight

Ryan

The two of us snuggled together in bed, and while I had ideas of making love as soon as we were upstairs, as soon as I hit the bed, I was ready to fall asleep. Charlie held me in his arms, and we were both out within minutes. Sometime in the middle of the night, the sound of the blowing wind woke me. I looked around the room, but there was no light coming from outside.

“Power’s out,” Charlie said.

“Am I wrong, or does it seem colder?” I asked and pulled the blankets up tighter under my chin.

“I just looked at the weather and there was a new storm that blew in that’s hitting us fast and hard. They’re predicting two feet of snow here overnight,” he said so calmly while I felt my heart rate speed up.

“Should we do something?” I asked, not really surewhatwe should be doing.

“No, we have enough wood for at least a week, and since we’ve been stocking the pantry, there’s plenty of food. We have the small generator ready to go so we can charge our phones and turn on a light if we need to. It’ll be alright.”

“Do you think we should close the store tomorrow?” I couldn’t wait for the day that I just knew all this stuff. Every day I was reminded of something else I didn’t know, but with Charlie I knew he’d make sure everything was as it should be.

“Let’s wait and see what we wake up to. If it’s too heavy, you might need to open a little late, but I doubt it’ll keep the diehards away. Plus, if they’re bored, they’ll be looking for something that doesn’t require power to keep them entertained.”

“It was so busy today. Do you think there could be more shoppers tomorrow?”

“Could be. Let’s not worry about it now,” he said and kissed my forehead. “Get a few more hours’ sleep and we’ll see what we’re dealing with in the morning.” I closed my eyes and snuggled in close to him and after a few minutes of shifting and turning, I finally dozed off.

Dim light peeked in through the window and I knew the sun was up, but it was so diffused it felt more like early evening rather than morning. “Morning,” Charlie whispered next to me.

“Good morning. It’s still so dark out. What time is it?” I asked and reached for my phone.

“It’s still early,” he said.

“Seven, I thought it was earlier. Have you looked outside yet?” I asked.

“Not yet, but I checked the weather. It’s going to keep snowing the next three days.”

“Three days?” I squeaked and sat straight up before rushing to the window. “Oh my god, Charlie, come look. That’s more than two feet.” He squeezed in next to me as the two of us watched the snow fall as heavily as I’d ever seen. The wind blew it into drifts on the side of Main Street, and it was so deep it looked more like a ski run than a street. There were no cars moving and no people out and about. Outside the window was a beautiful winter wonderland.

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