Page 17 of Snowflakes and Sparks

I swung my arms and legs around his muscled back and he started jogging in the direction of the main road. I held on for dear life, burying my head in his hair. He occasionally asked me if I was still doing okay, and with every question I felt the energy seep out of me. I just wanted to get home and sleep. I wanted to roll myself in a warm duvet, like a sausage roll, and close my eyes for a very long time.

Alex quickened his pace. When we reached the road, I immediately spotted his car. It was sloppily parked next to the forest entrance. Tears started rolling down my cheeks, this time from the relief of making it out of the forest alive.

“I know this sounds crazy, but you’re going to have to take off your clothes,” Alex said. “They’re completely soaked and the temperature will only keep dropping now that the sun’s down. I brought you a dry set of clothes to wear until I get you into a shower.”

He could’ve asked me to spin on my head and I would’ve obliged. Nothing else mattered to me in that moment except for not feeling the horrible cold clasping onto my bones.

“I fell into a lake or a pond or something. I just wanted to see Bambi,” I said as he helped me strip down to my underwear.

“Didn’t you see the warning signs along the trail? And don’t get me started on this Bambi thing. I think you might be hallucinating.”

I put my arms out so Alex could slide a warm fleece sweater over my head.

“Maybe it wasn’t the real Bambi. Sure looked like it,” I mumbled as I stepped into a soft pair of sweatpants.

Alex put me in the passenger seat and wrapped a fresh blanket around me before racing the car back to Old Pine Cove.

As soon as we were on the road and the town came into view I closed my eyes and everything went black.

Chapter Seven

Rays of sunlight filtered through the curtains, making the streams of dust in the room glitter. I did my best to peel my eyes fully open. The wallpaper looked unfamiliar and the duvet I was curled in didn’t look one bit like the one I’d bought a week earlier. This one was more manly, though incredibly soft.

“Good, you’re up.” The deep voice coming from the corner startled me. It took me a few seconds to realize it was Alex.

“You scared the living daylights out of me. How long have you been watching me?”

Alex laughed and moved closer to the bed. “You do have a knack of making me sound like a creep. First you think I’m a gigolo, then you portray me as some psycho who gets a kick out of watching beautiful women sleep.”

At the sound of him calling me beautiful, my heart did a little jump.

“How are you feeling, Bambi?” he added with a grin.

“Incredibly dumb for running into a pond,” I said. “There was a deer there and, well, it’s too stupid to talk about.”

“Now I get it. Deer. Bambi. Wow, I’m actually relieved.”

I frowned. “Relieved?”

“Not that you stepped onto thin ice out there, but you couldn’t stop talking about Bambi and I was afraid you’d hit your head or something.”

I laughed. “I didn’t go crazy, don’t worry. Although I did have the weirdest dreams all night long.”

What was also weird was the fact that I had just woken up in Alex’s bed, and that he had seen me in my underwear last night. I pulled the duvet tighter around my body, all of a sudden feeling self-conscious.

Alex sat himself down on the bed and put his hand on my forehead. “I don’t think you’ve got a fever, which is good news. Are you hungry? I could whip you up something,” he offered.

“Yeah, I could eat. Thank you.”

“Great. If you want to take a shower, the bathroom is right through there,” he said, pointing to a door on the left. “I’ve put fresh towels in there for you. I’ve also washed and dried your clothes so you don’t have to walk home naked.”

“And you’re still single? How is that even possible?” I asked jokingly.

“Beats me. I don’t get women either,” he said, getting up and making his way to the door.

“Oh, stop it.” I laughed and threw a pillow at him, missing him only by an inch.

I got out of the toasty bed and swung the door of the bathroom open. The room was as tidy as the rest of his house. Bright blue towels were stacked meticulously on an impressive wooden shelving unit. Just beneath it was a black laundry basket and I couldn’t help myself from taking a peek. It was completely empty though. Either Alex was some kind of neat freak or he’d hidden his dirty laundry from me, which was probably a wise decision. Who wanted their neighbor to see their dirty underwear, right?

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