Unexpected by Meg Jolie Page A

surprise on his face. I trotted up to him.
    “If I said I didn’t want things to go back to how they were, would that change things?” I asked as I stood in front of him. My breath came out in a cloudy white puff.
    He tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”
    “You’re the smart one,” I said with a smile. My cheeks were already starting to go numb. I wrapped my arms tightly around myself as I started hopping from one foot to the other. “Are you going to make me spell it out?”
    He nodded but he was grinning. “Yes.”
    “ Ohhhkay ,” I said. I drew out the word as I tried to gather up some courage. I told myself it was just Tristan. But that almost made it worse because it was Tristan. I didn’t want to do something stupid that would ruin the friendship we had. I really didn’t want to do anything that would cause problems with Jamie and me. And yet…I realized that I liked him. Maybe even liked him a lot. So I said it. Just like that. “I think I like you. I mean, I might even like you a lot.”
    “Since when?” he wondered. He didn’t bother to hide his disbelief.
    I shrugged and I started to shiver. I held my arms tighter around myself. It didn’t help. “I don’t know exactly when. Does it really matter?”
    “Fair enough,” he said with a small laugh.
    I grinned, probably stupidly at him, as I danced from one foot to the other. “So, do you maybe want to come back inside with me? I mean, you don’t have to…obviously…”
    “You don’t have shoes on!” he realized.
    “I know. I should probably go back inside,” I said as I continued my hopping. “So, you don’t have to. Of course. But if you, um, want to…”
    He leaned close, wrapping his arms around me; lifting me just enough so my sock covered feet were dangling above the icy ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck. “You say that like I might not want to,” he said with a grin.
    “So you do want to?” I was sure my face was crinkled up into a look of hopeful confusion.
    “See, this is one of the things I like most about you. You have no idea how tempting you really are. Yeah, I’ll come back inside with you,” he said. He started moving toward the house, with me dangling in his arms.
    “Am I heavier than you thought?” I asked as we trudged along.
    “I am not going to answer that,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s not as easy as they make it look in the movies.”
    “ You could put me down,” I suggested. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t. My feet had gone numb.
    “ Nah, I got ya.” He readjusted me as we reached the steps. Luckily there were only two.
    “ If I’m heavy for you,” I told him, “it’s probably because you’re wearing a bulky jacket. It’s probably just in the way.”
    He laughed at that. “Yeah. I bet that’s it. Not because I’m not some freakishly strong superhero.” He placed me on my feet so he could swing the door open. I hopped inside.
    “So…does Jamie know you’re here?” I wondered.
    He shrugged. “I didn’t tell her. I’m not sure if she realized I left or not. I’ve been waiting all day for her to stop following me around. As soon as she went into her room, I slipped out the door.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you worried about her?”
    “A little,” I honestly replied. “I don’t want her mad at me. And I don’t want things to be weird for her.”
    He had begun to slip his jacket off but he stopped with it hanging half off. “Do you not want me to stay? I mean, I want to. But I don’t have to.”
    A ping pong ball had nothing on my emotions. They were bouncing all over the place. I was wondering what I was getting myself into.
    “No, I definitely want you to,” I told him.
    He looked like he was debating something as he slid his jacket all the way off. He hung it on a hook and then he finally said, “You know Jamie as well as I do. She’s not going to like this. Actually, she’s probably going to hate this. I already got an earful