Page 10 of By Candlelight

He looked at me like I was dreaming, but didn’t say anything. My Jeep had never been through anything this deep. And it was still a long way into town.

Just then his phone rang from its spot on top of the coffee table. He turned around to get it. As Drew took the call, I admired the view. I’d never been around much snow. We got dustings in my part of North Carolina, but before that, I’d grown up in Florida. Maine was like a whole different country. And snowy Maine was even more foreign.

But as I looked out the window, my breath fogging up the glass in front of me, I adored what I saw. Snow blanketed the ground, not a single imperfection showing. The trees were flocked with fluffy white clouds of it. And it was still coming down in a heavy whirl. I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful sight.

I heard Drew say goodbye to whomever he was talking to, and then felt him walk up behind me. If I were smart, I would have never let a stranger approach me from behind. But Drew did things to me. He made me crave him. Wait, what? Did I reallycravehim?

I thought about the way my body reacted to his, the way it was reacting right now to him standing so close. My pulse was thudding, my skin was hot. My panties were definitely wet. Crave? Maybe so.

And despite his grumpiness, and a complete lack of knowing him, I trusted him for some reason. At least enough to know my life wasn’t in danger.

“Well we’re definitely stuck here for a while. None of the outer roads in town are plowed and they gave up plowing downtown for now, too, since the storm is supposed to get even worse.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah, that was Rick. He was supposed to come bring me a tire, but that’s canceled now. They’re shutting everything down.”

“I thought you New Englanders were built for snow storms.”

“Yeah but not two feet of it in less than twenty-four hours.”

“Two feet?!”

“By this afternoon, apparently.”

“Well I don’t think my Jeep can get through all that.”

“Sure can’t,” he said, easy as pie while I gaped at the situation we now found ourselves in.

He walked back, staring at his phone.

“I gotta contact work. See if there’s anyone able to get in there.”

Drew sat back down on the couch and started doing his work stuff, and I didn’t want to be a bother. So I went back upstairs to get dressed and try to take my mind off this new development.

I stood at the dresser surveying all of my options. I didn’t have any proper snow clothes, but I had a parka and Uggs. I could layer leggings under jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt under a sweater. Good enough, I supposed. There was no way I would miss playing in the snow for the first time in my life. Ten minutes later, and properly bundled, I waddled down the stairs and grabbed my coat from the rack by the door.

“Uh, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to go play in the snow.”

“Play in the snow? Like you’re seven?”

“Well, some of us didn’t get to do it when we were seven.” Drew just shrugged but as I struggled to put my parka on top of my layers, he took pity on me and came to hold it so I could slip my arms in.

“Thank you.”

He just grunted in response and went back to the couch. It was my turn to shrug, but it wasn’t visible due to the fluffiness of my wardrobe. So I slipped my gloves and hat on and walked out the front door.

The snow was up to the middle of my shins. I had never experienced anything quite like it. Hiking my feet up to trudge through it, I walked over to the front yard. There wasn’t much since most of the property was surrounded by forest, but I remembered there was a patch of grass across from the front porch.

The snow was still coming down and I tipped my head back and stuck out my tongue to catch snowflakes. They tasted like the cold air. It was magical. I giggled and dropped to my butt in the snow. I wanted to make a snow angel, but it was too deep. No matter, I just rolled around. I realized I must look absurd, but this was amazing. I couldn’t remember the last time I smiled so much.

Maybe this trip to Maine was made for the wrong reasons, but it seemed to be the absolute right thing for me.

seven

DREW

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