He smiled, and stood a little straighter as he continued on his way to the diner.
Seven
MATTHEW WAS THINKING THAT IT WASN’T SUCH A HARDSHIP to be forced to spend another couple of hours with a pretty woman. She had that happy-go-lucky, little Mary Sunshine thing going on, yeah. And normally, people like that got on his nerves like nothing else in creation. But she was different. She wasn’t one of those morons who were just too dumb to realize how shitty the world was. She wasn’t one of those lucky idiots who’d never had any hardships and so thought the world was a bowl of freaking ice cream.
She’d had some hard times. Lost her whole goddamn family at the tender age of twelve. During the holidays.
Just like I lost my dad.
And yet, she loved the freaking holly-jolly-ho-ho-jingle-bell bullshit.
He had to admit, he was curious about her. Her reaction to such a similar tragedy was so totally opposite his own that he found himself wanting to know more. Wanting to know…why.
There was more than that, though, and he knew it. He was attracted to her. Big time. And it was tough to rein it in when she was so open about feeling it right back at him. Hell, that hug. And that crack about liking him. And the look in those big blue eyes every time they met his.
Damn.
She came into the living room, bearing big plates full of food, and his stomach reminded him how long it had been since his lunch.
“Well, it smells good,” he said.
“You’re gonna love it.” She marched to the hearth, and sat down.
He got the message—she didn’t want food and crumbs all over the sofa bed because she was going to have to sleep on the damn thing. Okay. He joined her on the hearthstone, and took the plate she offered him.
The burger looked good, too.
“Whole wheat bun,” she said. “Best kind.”
“I’ll bet.” He picked up a French fry, still piping hot and salty. She handed him the bottle of ketchup at her side.
“Come on, try the burger.”
“Oh, all right.” He finished the fry, then picked up the burger, which was pretty hefty with all the stuff she’d added to it. He wrinkled up his nose, preparing for the worst, and bit into the damn thing.
Grimacing, he chewed. Slowly, he felt his grimace vanish. And then he lifted his brows in surprise as he kept on chewing. And then he swallowed, and he smiled. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“Told you.”
“Oh, there’ll be no living with you now, will there?”
“Uh, actually, Matthew, there kind of will.”
“Kind of will…what?” He was lost.
“There kind of will be…some…living with me.”
“Huh?”
“Where did you get the idea we were only going to get a few inches of snow?”
He frowned, glanced at the window. In the glow of her hideous holiday lights, he could see that the snow was still coming down, huge flakes, falling densely and rapidly. “I overheard the waitress saying it at the diner.”
“Oh. And what did she say, exactly?”
“I don’t know. ‘Snow’ and ‘lake effect’ and ‘we’re gonna get two to three.’ Then the other waitress said, ‘I heard three to five.’”
“Uh-huh.” Holly shrugged, sighed. “Well, I hate to break it to you, Matthew. But, um, my best guess is they weren’t taking about inches. They were talking about feet.”
“Feet,” he repeated blankly. Then his brain interpreted her meaning and he said it again. “Feet?”
She nodded. “According to the radio, it’s going to go all night, three feet by morning, and possibly more. And I can’t even imagine how long it’ll take to get dug out, get the roads cleared, and so on, once it’s over.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“No. It’s pretty common up here. We’re in the snowbelt, you know.”
“I knew. I just didn’t know, you know?”
“Oh, hell, yes,” she said. “So, I guess you and I are going to be spending Christmas together.”
Matthew looked up at the ceiling and muttered, “Dammit, when I said to get me out of spending another inane holiday with my sappy sister and her know-it-all husband and their whiny, sticky-faced kids, this is not what I meant.”
“I was just having a similar conversation with the universe myself,” she told him. Then she shrugged. “But you know, the gods love a good laugh. And this time I think the laugh’s on us.”
He sighed, but found it hard to be too upset about any of this. In fact, if he didn’t know better, he might think he was almost…enjoying it.
Nah.
“I’ve got a three p.m. flight out of Syracuse tomorrow. Think I can make it?”
“If you do, you’ll miss Christmas Eve dinner,” she told him.
And then the hideous holiday lights outside flickered, and so did the inside lights. They flickered, and then they dimmed, and then they brightened up again.
She sucked air through her teeth and closed her hand on his forearm. And heat shot right up it.
“We’d better get those oil lamps lit, ahead of time. The power’s not gonna last through the night.”
Neither, he thought, was he.
HOLLY CARRIED HER EMPTY PLATE INTO THE KITCHEN, AND her reluctant houseguest did the same. When she put a kettle of water on to heat, he crooked an eyebrow at her.
“No hot water?” he asked.
“It’s gas, and it’s not lit. I didn’t bother. Probably just as well we don’t—I mean, we’ve got a limited supply of gas. It’s a new tank, but it’s not a big one.”
“You’re using as much gas heating it on the stove as you would in the hot water heater.”
“I am not. Why heat fifty gallons and keep them hot for the duration, when we can heat just what we need, when we need it?”
“Because I’m going to want a shower in the morning. How much propane is out there?”
“I don’t know. A tankful.”
“Yeah, but how big a tank?”
She shrugged.
“All right, I’ll check while I’m out. If it’s enough to last three days, we light the hot water heater. Deal?”
“What do you mean, while you’re out? Why are you going out?”
“To see if it looks like I could make it back to the hotel.”
“In that Matchbox Car you drove?”
“It’s a Porsche.”
“In this weather, you’d be lucky to make it in a Bronco.”
“I’m just going to take a look.”
She shook her head at that. “Fine, you win. If the notion of spending any more time in my presence is that intimidating to you, then—”
“Intimidating?”
She shrugged.
“Why would you think you intimidated me?”
“I haven’t figured that out yet. I think you might be afraid of me. Or maybe of yourself. If you hang around me, you might just enjoy the holiday, and for some reason, you can’t let yourself do that.”
“Holly, there’s absolutely no chance I’m ever going to manage to enjoy Christmas. But uh, just so you know, I was thinking if I could get back to the hotel, I’d try to talk you into going, too. If the power goes out—and three feet of snow. I just think it might be safer.”
“Oh.”
She watched through the doorway as he bent to pull on his boots, then his coat. Then he went to the door, and headed outside. She ducked aside to avoid the rush of wind and cold that came in when he left. Then she sighed and shook her head and tried not to wonder if he had been thinking one room, or two, at that hotel.
She took her teapot off the burner, and poured the steaming water into the waiting dishpan. Then she cooled it with some from the tap, and washed the handful of dishes from their shared dinner.
As she washed the dishes, she recalled standing here at the sink at the age of twelve, washing them after dinner and complaining loudly the entire time. “I don’t know why I have to do them. I’m not the mom.”