Page 63 of Flirting in Traffic

Relief coursed through him. He put his hand on her back. “Come on, then. The trailer is about a quarter mile up the road. I’ll drop you off in the truck on the way.”

Chapter Nineteen

Esa stood quickly when the door to the trailer opened an hour and a half later and Finn clambered up the steps, snow flurrying around him as he entered. The wind howled outside, catching the trailer door and flinging it wide. He shut it forcefully behind him and locked it into place before he staggered into the cluttered room. She not only saw him shivering but actually felt the cold coming off his body when he came closer.

“God, you’re freezing,” she said as she inspected his rigid features. She saw through the dim light provided by the gas heater that crystals of ice had frozen on his eyebrows and the dark gold whiskers on his angular jaw. He leaned over and held his hands to the heat appreciatively.

“The ambulance only got stuck twice. Didn’t have as much of an opportunity to work up a sweat this time. We saw some Red Cross volunteers setting up shop along the way. You can get a free cup of coffee if you walk down a half mile.”

Esa laughed ruefully. “Great. Just what people need.”

He cast an amused glance her way. “Better than nothing, I guess. We’re in it for the long haul. The Chicago Transit Authority officials are stopping people from trying to get on the ‘L’. I’m betting that IDOT or the Illinois State Police are behind it. Getting the roads cleared is going to be impossible if everyone abandons their vehicle.”

Esa shook her head incredulously. “New definition of a traffic nightmare.”

“It’s not all bad.”

Esa met his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“At least the storm made it possible for me to see you again.”

Esa looked away, unsure how to interpret his expression and tone. Wasn’t he still angry at her for lying to him? And if so, wasn’t it starkly at odds with the heat in his blue eyes?

“It wasn’t so bad waiting. I found a copy of Metro Sexy on the desk and read it cover to cover. You know what?” she asked, striving for a light tone in her increasing anxiety about being alone with Finn. “I’ve been maligning my little sister. It’s really a good magazine. Another thing I realized while you were gone. I understand now why your condo is so neat. Apparently this trailer is the place where you can express your slovenliness at full volume.”

Finn straightened and glanced around the dim nine-by-fifteen-foot room. Over half of the floor space was covered by tables stacked high with files, tubes of blueprints and paper.

“This trailer has been like this for as long as I can remember. I didn’t have the heart to change it after Dad died.”

She looked up into his shadowed, handsome face. The ice crystals in his whiskers had started to melt in the warmth generated by the portable heater. It suddenly struck her how small the space seemed with Finn it, how dim the lighting was, how intimate it seemed.

She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

“I’m glad I ran into you tonight,” she said.

His eyebrows went up. “You are?”

She nodded. “I never really got to tell you why I misrepresented myself to you. Do you want me to try and explain more fully?”

He examined her before he nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah I do. But hold on just a second…”

He went around to the front of the ancient, sturdy wooden desk and opened one of the drawers. He pulled a bottle of liquor out and hooked his finger in the handle of an empty coffee cup on his desk. The wheels of the chair that he rolled into position next to Esa clacked loudly on the tile flooring. He poured two fingers of the amber liquid from the bottle into the glass and handed it to her.

“What’s this for? Courage?” she asked, her lips curving in amusement even as nervousness made her voice tremble slightly.

“If that’s what you need it for,” he said softly. “Personally, I need it to thaw out.”

Esa smiled at him and was heartened to see that he returned it. The whiskey scored her throat as it went down but it didn’t warm her anywhere near the way Finn’s steady gaze did.

The words started to pour out of her mouth as though they’d been crowding eagerly on the back of her tongue for weeks now—which they had, she supposed. He never spoke, only listened with focused attention and took a sip of whiskey now and again.

“Finn, I want you to know that I absolutely forbade my sister Rachel to print anything in Metro Sexy about Julia and you,” Esa said passionately once she’d reached the end of her story. “I don’t know how Julia got her information but she was mistaken. Rachel would never have run that story in her column once I specifically asked her not to. Rachel may have her faults but she and I are very loyal to one another.”

Finn stared thoughtfully at the flickering blue flames at the bottom of the gas heater. After a moment he roused himself, running his long fingers through his wind-tousled hair.

“I know it,” he said.

Esa’s eyebrows went up in surprise at the matter-of-factness of his statement. He gave a small smile and shrugged.

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