Page 32 of Snowed In on Valentine's Day

My hand was clasping a muscular thigh.

I wasusing my neighbor’s lap as a pillow.

Oh no. Oh, I didnotfall asleep on him. I started to push myself up and then covertly looked at his sweatpants to see if I’d left any drool there. Dry. Whew.

When I managed to get myself vertical, I backed away several inches as my eyes took him in.

He was rubbing his neck, and his heavy-lidded eyes slowly met mine. “Good morning,” he said with a scratchy voice.

“Well, that’s debatable,” I muttered before putting on my best apologetic smile. “I am so, so sorry for whatever happened here. I’m assuming I just crashed after the movie? Or, wait,maybe it wasduring. I don’t really remember anything from the documentary other than the beginning.”

He nodded. “Yes, you fell asleep during the movie. I tried to wake you, but you just said, ‘Goodnight, Pete’ and then laid your head on my shoulder.”

My face was on fire as I covered it with my hands and groaned. “Seriously, so sorry, Peter. I don’t remember that at all. But this explains why my neck is so sore on the left side.”

He nodded. “It’s fine.”

A new realization struck. “Oh my god, that means you had to sleep sitting up all night?”

He nodded again. “I don’t think I slept much, but apparently some, as my neck hurts too.”

I winced. “You should’ve tried harder to wake me. I feel terrible—”

“No, it’s fine. Don’t feel terrible.” He yawned before saying gruffly, “You looked so peaceful.”

“Well, that’s nice, but I don’t want to sleep peacefully at someone else’s expense.” I flashed a small smile then. “Even if that someone is you.”

His mouth twitched. “Oh, really?”

“You’re not that bad, actually.” He was so close to a smile. I couldn’t handle it if he did. He was already so gorgeous even when he was glaring or showing zero emotion. If he smiled, I’d have no chance. None. “I mean, you’re OKsometimes.”

He frowned, as though I’d hurt his feelings, but I knew that was next to impossible.

I cleared my throat and looked around for the water bottle I’d left on the coffee table. After taking a swig of it, I stretched my arms upward and rolled my neck a bit. “OK, well, let’s see what our winter wonderland looks like this morning. I’ll go look out the window if you want to check—”

“Already on it,” he said while retrieving his phone from the table.

After looking out the window and seeing essentially the same view as the last two days, I sighed and turned back toward the couch where he still sat. “No change that I can see. Maybe we can look out the front door. Or do you have a back door?”

He didn’t respond for a while, looking instead at his phone with a grimace. “The weather station says the snow has stopped in most areas, but the winds are even worse, so all the roads around here are closed. Near-zero visibility.” He paused, swiping on his phone again several times. “And the power company gives the same old tired message.” He exhaled deeply as he threw his phone on the couch beside him.

“Which is?”

“They’re doing their best to restore power but have no estimate at this time.” He shook his head. “The exact same message every time I’ve checked since this all started.”

I frowned.

“Hazel, I’m sorry it’s not better news.” He looked genuinely sorry too, which was a first. As though the weather was his fault.

I shook my head and averted my eyes. Oddly, I wasn’t frowning because of this news. I actually … didn’t care. It didn’t bother me that I’d be staying here a little longer.

Andthat’swhy I was frowning.

Because … what the heck? It’s not like I wanted to stay.

“I will keep checking so we can find out as soon as things change.”

I forced a smile. “No need to apologize for mother nature. It’s not your fault. So, what shall we do today?”

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