Page 41 of Love of the Game
Well, shit. “I guess that’s a good thing, eh?”
His laugh was exasperated. “Come on, let’s get a nap before we have to leave for the game.” Then he pulled me upstairs.
We lostthe game in overtime, and that was probably the first sign that the next twenty-four hours wouldn’t go the way I’d planned them. The second sign was the three inches of snow that had fallen while we’d been in the arena, with more accumulating as we walked out.
We had to be careful navigating the parking lot in our dress shoes. Drake wrinkled his nose. “Was it supposed to snow?”
“A little, I think. A dusting?”
Drake climbed into my truck. “This isnota dusting.”
It absolutely was not. The flakes were big and falling fast, and there was already a Winter Storm Warning in effect. Somehow, the weather had gone from less than a half an inch to eight to twelve inches in the hours we’d been in the arena.
The traffic on the roads home was light, which was good, since they were a fucking mess. Even Route 30, which should’ve gotten some attention from the plows, was a nightmare. I was glad to have the truck—with relatively new tires, too.
“Fucking hell,” Drake muttered as we passed a car struggling to make it up one of the hills. “This isn’t good.”
I grunted and focused all of my concentration on getting us back to the house. It was easier once we’d gotten off the main roads. The back roads were completely untreated, and if you didn’t know how they went, they might have been hard to drive, but the truck packed the snow down well enough to get reasonable traction, and I knew every curve. I had to drive slowly, so it took a while, but I got us back to the house, safe and sound.
Still, once I turned the engine off, my body shook, and I slumped back against the driver’s seat. Drake blew out a breath. “This is wild,” he said, looking around at the snow that was still coming down. “Holy shit.”
“I don’t want to do that again,” I murmured. “Not for a while.” I pushed open the door. “Let’s get in where it’s warm.”
The cats sniffed at the snow we dragged into the foyer, where we shed our coats and shoes. My socks were damp, and I hated that, so I took them off right there. “Going to throw these in the laundry and change into something more comfortable.”
Drake followed me—he’d moved some of his things into my bedroom, since we spent every night since our first in my bed. The sex was awesome, but we both had confessed that we liked sleeping with each other. The cats approved, too, having all their humans in one room.
And Drake was very much one of their humans. He was, at least for now,myhuman, too.
After we’d changed into sweats, I waved my hand in the direction of the kitchen. “Tea?”
He chaffed his hands together. “Please.”
The truck had been warm and the housewas fine, but there was something about tonight that was icy—the snow, the loss—I didn’t know what.
As I waited for the kettle to boil, I looked out into the backyard. There was only white and dark. Snow and the night. There had to be four or five inches by now, and it showed no signs of stopping. The weather app on my phone had dark blue bands over the area and we were now under a Blizzard Warning.
There went any plans I had for tomorrow. Well, not true—just the parts that I’d planned outside of the house. “I had a dinner reservation for tomorrow,” I said. “For your birthday.”
Drake pulled two mugs out of the cabinet, and one of the evening blends of herbal tea I kept around. “Oh,” he said. “So it’s your fault it’s snowing?” He almost deadpanned that, but the twitch at the corner of his lips gave him away, and it only took me giving him a look for the grin to appear. “Kidding. But at this rate, we’re never getting that date.”
“Even the weather conspires against us.” I shook my head and poured water into the mugs. We settled in on the couch with our mugs and a blanket, and in no time, had two cats joining us. “I hadplans, too. There’s a French place in Pittsburgh…” I waved at the windows. “We are not driving to Pittsburgh tomorrow. The Turnpike might be fine, but the roads around here and in the city are going to be amess.”
Drake put his mug on the coffee table and snuggled up against me. “An entire day lazing with you sounds like the perfect birthday.”
Yeah, that wouldn’t be so bad. I sipped my tea, then wrapped my arm around him. “I did plan to make you breakfast. I guess I’m making lunch and dinner now, too.”
“We can build a snowman.”
I blinked, grinned, and started singing “Do you want to…”
Fingers over my lips stopped me. “Don’t!” Drake said. “You’ll get that stuck in my head!”
“Okay, fine. I’ll let it go, then.”
“Ugh. If you weren’t holding a mug of hot liquid with Thor right there, I’d tickle you.” Still, Drake brushed over the sensitive spot on my side.
“So glad you’re concerned about the cat,” I took another gulp of tea. “And now I know where I fall in the pecking order.”
