Page 11 of Snowed In on Valentine's Day

When his eyes met mine again, they were blank yet again, but he shook his head slightly.

I couldn’t stop my frown this time. “Well, if you don’t want them, I’ll just take them back. I’m not going to force—”

He reached out to grab the basket and hastily set it down inside the house behind him. “Thank you,” he muttered.

“You don’t sound excited. But you haven’t tasted them yet. Trust me, they’re to die for.”

“Well, I don’t want to die.”

Was he cracking a joke? A glance at his expression didn’t reveal anything. I smiled though, hoping he’d been joking. “It’s like paradise in your mouth.” I sealed my mouth shut after that, immediately regretting the overly familiar, sensual language.

He just stared at me and slowly parted his full lips to speak. “Right. Is that all then?”

“I mean, yeah, that’s why I came over,” I said, my voice a bit salty. Had he never met a friendly neighbor before?

He scowled and put his hand on the doorknob. “I’d like to close the door now. It’s cold.”

My eyes widened. The man was just rude!

Then again, it was the middle of winter, and he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt while holding the door open whilewe talked. Of course he was cold. It was thoughtless of me to not notice.

Buthe could’ve invited me in too.

Why would he though? He didn’t like me. At all.

“Ah, yes, I will go. I’m sure you have better things to do than chat up the new neighbor, right?”

He nodded briefly and stood back to close the door.

“Um, OK, good night?” He was just going to shut the door without saying anything?

His hand on the door paused, but he didn’t make eye contact. “Goodbye,” he said firmly before the door closed and a lock clicked in place.

Chapter 4

Well. That went … not well.

I had half a mind to pound on the door and demand that he return my cookies and brownies. He didn’t deserve my best creations. The man was unbelievably rude. Cold, even.

And I had to live next door to this guy? Though my teeth were chattering from the icy wind, my blood was boiling as I stomped back over to my house. Just before stepping into my house, I glared over in the direction of his house, as though he could see. But surely he wasn’t spying out the window like I had been.

I kicked off my boots and threw my coat on the nearest chair before sinking into my soft lavender couch. Clutching a fuzzy throw pillow to my chest, I took some slow breaths to try to calm myself.

And then I promptly tossed the pillow across the room.

What—whodid he think he was? How could a guy likethatrun a successful company or whatever it was he does? Or did, maybe. He was, after all, in a small town now, far from whatever Chicago business he was running. Maybe he was working remotely though. But why movehere?

I rubbed my jaw, which was suddenly sore. I’d probably been clenching it for quite a while.

Though I was loathe to admit it, it made sense that he wasn’t too impressed with me at the wedding. I was rambling, he was basically a stranger, and who knew how drunk I’d been at that point. But tonight? I was making a nice gesture. Not only was he totally ungrateful, but he acted as though I was poisoning the air around his new house.

I took a deep breath then. Ugh, he’s not worth all this.

As my heart rate finally slowed, I started thinking back to his initial reaction upon answering the door. Had I surprised him? I frowned. He actually didn’t seem surprised. Well, it’s not as though his face was ever very expressive, but I wondered if he’d known I lived next door. But why then …

Oh no. No, no, no. He could’ve seen me spying through my window earlier. My face flamed as I wondered how much lower his opinion of me could have sunk.

But wait,whydid he dislike me in the first place? Because I overshared at the wedding? Come on. People drink too much and do stupid things at weddings. Indignation coursed through me, followed by pain as I accidentally bit my cheek.

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