Page 44 of Stuck With Mr. Frosty

“You don’t have to, but you haven’t talked to me since yesterday morning when I lugged the bags back home and you were gone. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“I don’t have time to talk right now. I just came home. I have just enough time to have a snack and then I have to go back to the search and rescue station.”

“Why? So you can keep avoiding me so we don’t have to talk about what’s going on between us?”

“I don’t know why you think I’m avoiding you. I’ve got no reason to avoid you.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So I don’t understand what’s going on.” I rub a hand down the side of my face, trying to make sense of all of this.

He sighs and peels off the top of this pudding cup, licking it before putting the garbage in the trash. “I really don’t have time for this. I have to go back before the other guy leaves.”

“I don’t think you do. You’ve already been working a double shift, and now you’re trying to tell me it’s turning into a triple? I think you’re trying to hurry out of here so you can avoid talking about whatever’s been bothering you since yesterday, and rightnow it feels like we’re going around and around in circles. I keep saying the same thing. You keep telling me you have to leave, and then you don’t walk out the door.”

I get up from the couch, my temper flaring. I take a deep breath, but it does nothing to ease some of the irritation flowing through me.

Aiden shrugs. “This is the only point of the day I get to come home for a while. I’d like to enjoy it before I head back out. I’m not in the mood for an argument right now.”

He’s not in the mood for an argument?I take a moment to try and rein in my temper. I don’t have much of one most of the time, but there’s something about him that’s drawing it out of me.

I snap. “We can’t keep dancing around each other like we have no clue what’s going on.”

He grabs a spoon and jabs at the pudding cup. “I’ve got a real job to do, Mia.”

“And you think I don’t?”

I don’t know where this is coming from at all. I want to go over to him, take his face in my hands and ask if everything’s all right. I want to look in his eyes and know that we’re going to be fine.

But I don’t think we’re going to be. There’s this sinking feeling in the bottom of my stomach that tells me this is the beginning of the end.

Aiden puts a massive spoonful of pudding into his mouth and shrugs.

“Seriously, Aiden. We’re going to do this now because if we don’t, I don’t think we ever will.”

“Fine,” he says. “I think my first impression of you was right. You’re just here for a good time. That’s all this has ever been for you. At the end of the season, you’re going to go back to your life and pretend that you don’t know what you want. When the truth is that you know what you want, you’re just too scared to go after it.”

“Where the hell is this coming from?”

“This isn’t just some game of pretend for me, Mia. This is my job, and this is my life. This is what I do all year round. I travel. I do search and rescue. I don’t have time for settling down or whatever else you might have assumed we were doing here.”

I guess that’s my answer.

Tears prick at the corners of my eyes, but I hold them back.

“WhatIassume we’re doing.”

“Yeah. I’ve known what this is from the start. It’s fun. We had sex, we went out, we danced.” He doesn’t look at me, just says the words, his tone hollow. He finishes his pudding and tosses the cup into the trash. “I think it’s time we stop pretending that this was anything more than what it was.”

Confusion surges through me as he walks out, the door slamming behind him.

I have no clue what just happened or why. Things were going good between us. Sure, there were moments when it seemed like maybe this wasn’t going to be something that we continued forward with. But that’s why I wanted to talk to him. Ever sincethose couple of days in the cabin, all I can think about is where we go from here.

But now it seems like he’s backing out. He’s done.

Maybe I should be done too. It might be easier that way. I could pretend that he’s never meant anything to me. It would feel like ripping my own heart out of my chest. But I could do it.

I’ve pretended I’m fine before.

Pretending isn’t good enough, though. I cross the room, my heart hammering in my chest, blood rushing in my ears. As I yank open the door, my mouth goes dry. I don’t know what to say to him. I don’t know how to fix this.

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