Page 73 of Snowed In

“And you know that how?”

“Uh…” Heat filled my chest and cheeks. “I may have had a slow day at work and stole the book out of your bag.”

“And… what? Now you’re an expert on Omegas and mates and suddenly gay enough to want to make butt babies on the side of the road?”

“I mean, a man can evolve.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he snorted as he unbuckled and opened the car door, letting in a blast of wintery wind.

“Shi… what’re you doing? Shut the door.”

“We need to assess the situation. See if we can get back on the road.”

I leaned back and grabbed both of our jackets from the back seat before I unbuckled and stepped out of the car into the frozen tundra. “At least take your jacket,” I shouted through the roaring wind and pushed the puffy coat into his arms as he approached me.

“T-thanks,” he muttered as his teeth chattered. “I c-can’t s-see anything.”

The snow continued to fall in thick walls of white, making visibility difficult. “I don’t think we can make it up that hill. For one, the snow is too deep. Look.” He pointed at the tire marks our car had carved into the hillside of snow. “That’s at least a foot… and it’s up to our calves down here. It’s going to get worse.” His voice pitched, his anxiety getting the better of him. “This is bad… this is really fucking bad.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket, pacing two steps forward and then back again, holding his cell toward the sky. “Still no goddamn signal.”

“Hey...” he ignored me. “Shi…” He kept pacing, his chest rising and falling faster with every second that passed. “Shi… look at me.”

He shook his head, his hair sticking to his cheeks, his nose a deep red.

I tugged the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him into a hug. “We’re going to be okay.” He tucked his frozen nose against my neck as I ran my hand up and down his back. “Hey, I got you, okay. I’ve got you.”

We stood there in a freaking blizzard, tangled up in a hug that seemed to be more than just a hug as Shi’s cold lips grazed my jaw as he spoke. “I want to believe it,” he whispered, gripping the side of my jacket. “But it always feels impossible.”

I leaned back, trying to get a better look at his eyes. “Always?”

He shook his head, his lips trembling and slightly blue. “It’s too cold. We need to get b-back in the car.”

Inside the car, we shed our wet jackets, banishing them to the back seat and turned up the heater. We sat in an awkward silence, holding our hands in front of the air vents.Always.What the hell did that mean? He obviously wasn’t talking about being stranded. Right?

“Shi—”

“Gary—”

We laughed and I nodded. “You go first.”

“It wasn’t important.”

His smile was almost bashful, which threw me. He hadn’t looked at me like that since the day we’d met at the bookstore. He had been much quieter back then, his nose usually hidden away in one of his fantasy novels. He hadn’t talked to me much those first few months, but sometimes I’d catch him staring at me. I’d been shocked when he’d finally attempted to talk to me. I’d happened to mention I was a Dungeon Master for a local D&D group, and he’d opened right up. We’d started our own campaign after that, playing D&D whenever we could, inviting others, but loving just being with each other on those quick breaks we’d find at the store. We’d found this perfect little world for ourselves, and it was easy to lose time with him. If I was honest with myself, it was always easy being with him. More so than anyone I had ever dated.

“Everything you say is important.” He rolled his eyes, mistakingmy honesty for a joke. “’I’m serious.” I stole another touch and reached over to squeeze his knee. His eyes fell to the spot, and he swallowed.

“I think you must be concussed.” A nervous laugh rumbled in his chest. “Or hungry. You always get touchy-feely when you’re hungry. I told you to eat something at that gas station… and now we’re stranded in a fucking blizzard with a half a tank of gas and a bag of chips.”

Chuckling, I squeezed his knee again. I didn’t think holding in my feelings mattered at this point. For all I knew, we’d be frozen popsicles by the morning. Discovered by a hungry bear, or even worse, a lineman crew sent to restore power to the village that was only a half a mile away, and they would say, “If only they had made it into town, they’d still be alive….”

“What are you thinking about right now?” he asked with a curious and cute as hell smirk on his face. “You’ve got the whole DM hazy-eyed thing going on.”

“I’m not concussed,” I said, and he tilted his head, a deep crease forming between his brows. “When I said,everything you say is important, I meant it. Shi, you’re important to me.”

He blinked once and then again, his breath quickened, matching the fast beat of my heart. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“What do you want me to say?” The pink color of his cheeks intensified to rose. “You’re important to me too.”

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