Page 112 of Snowed In
“Well, don’t worry about lunch. Mam’s half in love with you after last night.”
“I’m worried aboutyou.”
“You don’t need to be,” she says softly. “I’m not backing out.”
“I don’t mean the—” I break off, frustration building. “I don’t give a shit about that anymore, okay?”
“But I agreed to—”
“I think what we agreed to pretty much went out the window after your mother’s party,” I say, and her cheeks go pink. “Don’t tell me you’re getting shy now.”
“No,” she says pointedly, even as her blush deepens. “But we should probably talk about that.”
“We did.”
“I meanactuallytalk about—” Her mouth slams shut as I step even closer, leaving only inches between us. “That’s cheating.”
“How is that cheating?”
“Because you smell nice.”
“What?”
“You smell really nice all the time and— stoplaughing.” She groans as I ignore her, and this time, I wrap my arms around her. She goes willingly, resting her forehead against my chest. “It’s been a bad day,” she mutters.
“I know.”
“A really, really bad day.”
I tighten my hold, feeling her warmth through the thick wool of her sweater.
“But this is nice,” she adds quietly, and I have to agree. I don’t know how I never noticed it before. How she fits so perfectly against me. The top of her head reaching the bottom of my chin, her soft body sinking against mine.
I don’t know how long we stand there like that, but I swear even the pain in my head eases. And I wonder how the hell am I going to explain what I’m feeling to her, when I don’t even know it myself, when a shrill ringing sound cuts through the silence, making us both stiffen. Megan breaks away.
“That’s your phone,” she says when I don’t move, and I fight back a sigh.
“Stay right there,” I tell her, as I fish it out of my coat pocket.
It’s Zoe.
“You have bad timing,” I say to her while holding Megan’s gaze.
“Well, you have bad—Molly! Get back in the car.”
I frown as a sharp wind blusters over the line, along with the faint sound of people yelling.
“Are you guys okay?”
“No. Well, yes but no. Extra no because Molly’s made an arch enemy with the man behind us and she keeps—” A car horn blasts somewhere nearby, cutting off her words. Zoe curses sharply in my ear, and a second later, I hear a thump as she closes the car door.
“There,” she says on an exhale. “Right. So. Super fun update: we’re stuck.”
“Stuck where?”
“On the road back from town with seemingly every car in Ireland. It’s bumper to bumper. Can you tell your Mam we won’t be at yours for dinner? And that we’ll probably die out here?”
“Zoe!” I hear Molly hiss.
