Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne Page A

about her.”
    “Oh, yeah, that was real obvious back there.” I jammed the toe of my boot into the ski, locked it in place, and reached for the other.
    “I’ve never kissed another girl,” he said.
    “Yeah, right.” I shoved the other boot into place.
    “I swear, I never have. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ve never wanted to.”
    “Then why me?” I spun around to face him, lost my balance, and landed on my butt.
    He was beside me before I could blink.
    “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I honest to God don’t know.”
    He wrapped his hand around my arm, helped me to my feet, or my skis, rather. Whatever. He helped me stand.
    I was frazzled, upset. I didn’t want to be the other woman—the other girl—the person who tore them apart, who might be responsible for . . .
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    Omigod! What if they broke up and it was my fault?
    “That’s never going to happen again,” I said determinedly.
    “Okay.”
    I heard the resignation in his voice.
    “Okay,” I said, hearing the disappointment in mine.
    I watched him drop the flashlight into his backpack before shrugging it onto his shoulders.
    He put on his skis, concentrating on a task that I figured he could probably do in his sleep.
    “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “But I can’t be the other girl.”
    He glanced over at me and gave me a sad sort of smile. “I know.”
    “She’s crazy about you.”
    He squeezed his eyes shut like the words hurt.
    He heaved a deep sigh. “We need to get back.” He started to move past me and I grabbed his arm. “And Josh, I don’t do boyfriends.”
    “Okay, already. I get it.” I heard the irritation in his voice. “Let’s just go.”
    “No.” Shaking my head, I held his gaze. “I didn’t say that right. What I mean is that I don’t want a boyfriend. I like to date, but I only go out 132
    with a guy a couple of times. I don’t want anything permanent. I’m not like the girls here. They all have boyfriends. I don’t want one.”
    “But Chase—”
    “He likes to date around too. So we’ll have some fun. Then he’ll move on to the fudgies and I’ll”—I sighed—“move on to online dating.”
    “And hook up with a serial killer?” I wrinkled my nose, which was going numb with the cold. “Okay, the same thought occurred to me. But the point is, I shouldn’t have gotten upset about you having a girlfriend, because the most you and I would have is a date or two.” I’d convinced myself that’s the way it would be. I wasn’t upset that he had a girlfriend. I was upset that we wouldn’t have a single date.
    “How do you know?” he asked. “You might really like me—”
    “I don’t do boyfriends. Period. No, exclamation mark.”
    “What are you afraid of?”
    I scoffed. “Nothing. Just following my mom’s advice.”
    “No one follows their mom’s advice.”
    “Well, I do. And I just felt like I should let you know. Because I totally overreacted.” 133
    And I found some comfort in knowing that I wouldn’t be faced with making a decision regard-ing our relationship.
    “Okay,” he said. “Let’s go home.” I seemed to have finally learned how to move quickly and smoothly using the skis. I didn’t lose my balance once. Before I knew it, we came out of the woods and onto the trail that would lead to the street.
    We took off our skis and started walking.
    Josh glanced over his shoulder. “A taxi’s coming. Do you want to grab a ride? I’ll pay.” I glanced back over my shoulder. This one was a sleigh instead of a wagon like we’d taken from the airport.
    The reality was that I wanted nothing more than to take a sleigh ride with Josh. But only because I thought it would be romantic. And romance was the one thing I couldn’t have with him.
    “No. I’m good walking.”
    The horse clomped by, the runners sliding with ease over the snow-packed ground. Watching it disappear around the bend, I wondered if I’d ever take a romantic sleigh ride.
    As we got nearer