Snowed In (17 page)

“Oh, you’re awake,” she said as she closed the door behind her.

The only light I’d left on was the lamp beside my bed. I’d put a silk scarf over it so the room looked a little blue. I didn’t think it would have looked like much light from the street. If she 208

would have even noticed. She’d obviously been totally caught up in Shaun. Which I completely understood. I might not get the attraction of Shaun, but I knew when I was ready to have a boyfriend, I’d want to be immersed in him too.

And I definitely would be, if he took me on a romantic sleigh ride.

“You’re only here for one more day,” I told her.

“You didn’t really think I was going to spend what little time we had left sleeping, did you?” I helped her get out of her Victorian costume.

When she was in her flannel PJ’s, we both sat on the window seat—it was that big—looking out, with my grandma’s quilt wrapped around both of us.

“I kinda like it here, Ash,” Tara said.

“Yeah, it definitely has its moments.”

“Shaun and I are talking about coming back during spring break.”

“That’d be great.”

“And probably in the summer. Maybe we could get summer jobs here, working for your mom.”

“Please do,” I said. “You can make the breakfast
and
beds, while I sleep in.”

“Think of all the different kinds of people you’ll meet. I think it’ll be fun.” It would be fun. Especially if Tara was here.

209

We were quiet for a few minutes, watching snowflakes fall.

“If Josh didn’t have a girlfriend,” she said quietly, “wouldn’t you go out with him more than once?”

I nodded. “Twice at least.”

“How could you not want him to be your boyfriend?”

“Love doesn’t last when you’re young, so why bother acting like it does?”

I was staring hard out the window because it had been difficult saying that. Especially to Tara, who thought Shaun was her forever guy. I just didn’t get it.

Tara was so quiet that I was afraid I’d hurt her feelings. Having a boyfriend was the one thing we’d never agreed on.

Twisting my head slightly, I rested my cheek on my upturned knees and looked at Tara. “Do you really think you and Shaun will live happily ever after?”

“I don’t know, Ash. I just know that I’m happy now.”

“It’ll hurt so much if you break up.”

“What if we never break up?”

“Then I guess you’ll have happily ever after.”

“Exactly.”

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She looked really pleased with herself. Really happy. But it was scary to think of happily ever after. It was scary to think about trusting someone enough to give him your heart now, hoping he wouldn’t break it later.

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18

As Tara explained it, from the time they’d arrived on the island, it had been all about what Tara wanted to do. Hang with me. Eat fudge.

Dress in Victorian clothes. Eat fudge. Take a sleigh ride.

So their last day on the island was all about what Shaun wanted to do. And he wanted to go to the mainland. He wanted to drive across the bridge connecting the straits.

Why he thought that would be a rush, I don’t know. Had to be a guy thing.

I’d stopped trying to figure Shaun out. He made Tara happy and that was all that mattered.

And he was willing to include me in this little excursion across the water, and that made me happy.

I hadn’t been on the ferry or to the mainland yet, so I was excited about getting to tag along. I wasn’t even thinking about being the odd number.

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And I didn’t even complain that it felt like the temperature had dropped a hundred degrees since yesterday.

Shaun, with his love of numbers, would have no doubt spent time explaining that my theory was impossible. But I was beginning to learn the difference between very cold and realllly cold.

Shaun was also very methodical. He had the entire day planned out. But he was being secretive and wouldn’t show Tara the list on his PDA. Yes, his list. He was going to check them off as we did them. Geeky. But again, he made Tara happy, so I was okay with it.

“Please, tell me just one thing we’re going to do,” Tara begged as we trudged to the dock. She was hanging on to his arm, which was a good thing because the wind was strong today.

“We’re going to drive across the bridge.” I wasn’t sure how we were going to do that. I figured he was going to rent a car. If they had a car rental place over there. Surely they did.

“I know
that
,” Tara said. “Tell me something else.”

“Have lunch.”

She laughed. I didn’t know why. Love did strange things to people.

The ferry horn blasted.

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“Come on, we better hurry,” I said.

We practically ran to the dock, bought our tickets, and dashed onto the ferry. We went inside where the wind couldn’t hit us. It wasn’t much warmer. I was concentrating on figuring out where the warmest seat might be when I heard Shaun say, “Hey,” greeting someone.

But who did Shaun know here?

I spun around and watched as Josh approached from the rear of the cabin, or whatever they called the little room on top of the ferry. It had big windows so we’d have a great view.

Josh and Shaun tapped knuckles.

“Thanks for doing this, man,” Shaun said.

“Not a problem,” Josh said.

“Doing what?” I asked.

“Josh has a car. He’s going to drive us over the bridge.”

“Oh, that’s nice of him,” Tara said.

But her tone sounded funny, like someone who’s trying to appear surprised but isn’t.

“Yeah, it is,” I said. And I was back to thinking that being a third wheel wouldn’t have been nearly as awkward.

Maybe I should get off now, before things get any
worse
.

The ferry horn sounded again, and the boat 214

began to move away from the dock.

Too late. I’m stuck.

“Cool. Let’s watch,” Shaun said, taking Tara’s hand and pulling her toward a window.

Which, of course, left me standing there with Josh.

“You didn’t know I was going to be here,” he said.

I shook my head.

He nodded.

“Where’s Nathalie?” I asked.

“Working.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets. I was still cold. I wanted to reach out and button up his jacket, like I thought bundling up someone else would help warm me.

“This”—I pointed my fingers at him, pointed them at me, pointed them at him—“is not a date.”

“I know. Shaun needed a car. I’ve got a car.”

“And no experience driving it.”

He grinned. “I’ve got experience.”

“We’ll see.”

“Ash, come see the view,” Tara called out.

How touristy. A few other people were on the ferry, and they all looked at me. I rolled my eyes and grumbled, “She’s the fudgie, not me.” But I did walk over to the window and looked 215

out. It appeared to be as snowy on the mainland as it was on the island.

I felt Josh come up behind me.

“You’re shivering,” he said.

He got nearer. Put his arms around me. I knew it was impossible, bundled up like I was, but I swear I could feel his warmth. It felt so good. I knew I should shove him away, or at least step away, but I didn’t.

I just stood there and let him hold me. And watched the mainland grow closer and closer.

And kept telling myself that this wouldn’t be a date. I wouldn’t be the other woman. He was a guy, I was a girl. We were friends. It was no big deal. We needed his car.

Unfortunately, I was also feeling like maybe I needed him, too.

The city on the mainland was bigger than the one on the island, but it still had a historic feel to it. A lot of the stores looked like lodges and had fireplaces. We decided to eat at a restaurant in a log cabin. Josh explained to the hostess that his friends were from the South, not used to the cold, and asked if she’d give us a table by the fireplace.

We had to wait ten minutes for one to open up, but it was so worth it. I was actually able to 216

take off my jacket and gloves. I kept my knitted cap on, trying to retain any heat my body might absorb from the fire.

After we’d given the waitress our order, Tara said, “I know this is supposed to be your day, Shaun, but there are so many little shops—” Shaun gave her a quick kiss.

No doubt to shut her up. What guy wanted to spend
his
day shopping?

He pulled his PDA out of his jacket pocket and started tapping the stylus against it. Then he showed it to Tara.

She gave a little squeal before looking at me with a huge smile. “Number one on his list of things to do is ‘Let Tara shop.’” Squeezing his arm, she kissed him.

Okay, so maybe I was starting to get the attraction to Shaun. His idea of having a great time seemed to be making sure that Tara was happy.

I glanced over at Josh. “Did you know about the shopping?”

“Nah, but I’m cool with it.”

Lunch was tasty, but when we were finished, I sorta hated to leave the warmth of the fireplace.

I prolonged it as long as I could by ordering dessert: apple cobbler. But I skipped the à la mode part. I couldn’t believe the waitress had even 217

asked if I wanted ice cream.

Then she looked at Josh and winked. “Two spoons?”

“Sure,” he said, like we were a couple, used to sharing.

I would have protested, but it seemed petty.

Besides, Tara and Shaun were sharing.

When I saw how large the bowls were, I was glad I had someone to help me eat it. It was scrumptious with a lot of brown sugar crumbs.

And it was hot. Anything hot was good.

Which meant Josh was good. I nearly choked with that thought.

He looked up at me. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You mind sharing the cobbler?”

“No, not at all.”

“Thanks. I could die from boredom shopping, so this could be my last meal.”

Grinning, I tapped my spoon against the side of the bowl. “You worry a lot about last meals.”

“Hey, you never know.”

“Actually, I do know. You’re not going to die from boredom.”

I dipped out some cobbler. Some of the melted butter and sugar dripped on my chin. I wiped at it with my napkin.

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“You missed some,” Josh said.

He grazed his thumb near the corner of my mouth. I swallowed hard. It didn’t mean anything, I told myself. So why did my toes curl?

“There,” he said.

And while I was still recovering from his touch, he finished off the cobbler, looking smug.

I wanted to accuse him of distracting me on purpose, but that would mean acknowledging that he had the power to distract me. As a rule, guys didn’t distract me. They interested me . . .
if
I wanted to be interested.

With Josh, I always felt like I had no control.

Once we finished dessert, I couldn’t put it off any longer. We paid for our meal, bundled up, and strolled through a square that had all kinds of shops. I was very aware that Tara and Shaun were holding hands, while Josh and I weren’t.

At one point my gloved hand bumped up against his and I jumped. It was embarrassing. I could watch a horror movie without closing my eyes, but I was all jumpy just walking with a guy.

It made no sense.

“So.” Josh cleared his throat as we walked along the cobblestone pavement. “You and Chase.

I guess you’ve run your course.”

I peered over at him. “What?”

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He held up a bare finger. Why didn’t he need gloves? “Date one, the hayride. Date two, V.P. And you’re a two-date girl, right?”

“Usually, yeah. But I’m not sure V.P. really counted, since I spent more time visiting with Tara than I did with Chase. And he and Shaun were palling around, so if he asks, I’ll go out with him again.”

“You would?”

Would I?

“Yeah, probably,” I said.

“You really like him?”

“I like him,” I clarified. “He gets the whole not-wanting-to-date-the-same-person-over-and-over thing.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t that limit . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Limit what?”

He cleared his throat again. “The first time you kiss someone it’s kinda awkward. So isn’t your life just filled with awkward first kisses?”

“You and I weren’t awkward.”

The words popped out before I could stop them. Ours had been so not awkward—at least not until I realized I was suddenly the other woman.

“No,” he said, and his gaze dropped to my lips, which made them do that whole irritating 220

tingling thing. “It wasn’t.”

His voice had gone deep like he might be stran-gling. He cleared his throat again. Maybe he was coming down with whatever Nathalie had been sick with.

“Hey, guys!” Tara called out. “There’s a mirror maze over here. Shaun wants to go through it. You wanna come?”

“Sure,” Josh said, taking my hand before I could respond. “It’ll be fun.”

I wasn’t sure if his taking my hand was calcu-lated or done without thought. But it seemed right as we headed to the building. Only when we got there, we saw that it was closed. The sign said they were only open May through October.

“That sucks!” Shaun exclaimed.

Who’d have thought he’d get emotional over mirrors?

“We’ll come back in the summer,” Tara said.

How could she be so sure they’d still be together come summer?

Nodding, Shaun drew her up against his side.

“Sounds like a plan, babe.”

He sounded equally certain. I just couldn’t fathom that.

For the first time in my life, I felt a flicker of regret that I’d been so insistent on not having a 221

boyfriend. I had no one to make plans with for next week, much less next summer.

“You okay?” Josh asked.

“Oh, yeah, I’m just sorry it’s closed.”

“Well, maybe we—” He stopped. Swallowed.

“Maybe when they come back, you can go with them.”

And I knew then he’d been about to say that he and I could come back sometime. Before he’d remembered that we couldn’t. That I wouldn’t.

“Have you ever been inside?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s pretty awesome.”

We all started walking around again, but Josh didn’t let go of my hand. And while I knew that I should pull free, I didn’t.