Summer rests the side of her face against Elsa’s neck and looks at me. “Thank you for finding her.”
“I’m pretty sure it was me who lost her.”
“Yeah, but you thought to look in here.”
She rubs both sides of Elsa’s neck, and the dog throws her head back in glee.
“I’m just happy she wasn’t wandering around cold and terrified. Fuck, that was scary.” And it was, I can’t remember the last time I experienced as much fear and dread as I’ve felt this last half hour.
Summer plants a big kiss on Elsa’s nose, then locks eyes with me. “Back yard, fenced. Safe. Front yard, not. Dangerous. Got it?”
I scratch Elsa’s butt with one hand and tuck a stray curl back under Summer’s hat with the other. “Oh, I promise you, that is something I’ll remember until my dying day.”
I stand up. “Come on. Let’s all go inside, warm up, and have a late breakfast.”
* * *
A couple of hours later, all three bellies are full, and my socks are drying by the fire.
Summer’s on her laptop at the breakfast bar, and I’m on mine on the sofa resuming my research on Archie Banks. The snow is still too deep for me to leave so I might as well make the most of the time for studying.
And I’m truly comfortable here.
There’s a part of me that will be sad to go. A part of me I’m desperately trying to shove into a hidden corner. No good can come of listening to that part of me.
It’s certainly been an interesting couple of days, to say the least.
“The plow won’t be up here till tomorrow,” Summer says.
I stop reading halfway through a sentence about how Archie was a child chess protege but fell out with the game’s international federation over not being allowed to snack during games, and never played again.
“What do you mean?”
She swivels to look at me. “The snow plow. Even though it’s stopped snowing, this area won’t be cleared until sometime tomorrow because there still aren’t enough plows in action.”
“Tomorrow?” So I won’t be leaving today after all? I should be concerned about another delay in getting to my aunt and uncle’s place, but this tremor in the pit of my stomach is more like excitement at having to stay. “Where did you hear that?”
She points at her screen. “County website.” She slides off the stool and walks over to sit next to me on the sofa. “Your family’s party is not till tomorrow evening, though, right? So you’ll still be there in time.” She yawns, stretches, puts her feet up on the coffee table, and flops back.
She must be worn out after all the stress. Adrenaline rushes are exhausting. And it’s not like we got a whole lot of sleep last night. Now she’s warm and fed and Elsa’s safely dreaming away by the fire, Summer looks fit to flop.
“Wherever will you stay?” she asks, as her head drops onto my shoulder and she instantly falls asleep.
13
OWEN
“Istill can’t believe I fell asleep on your shoulder this morning,” Summer says for about the seventeenth time. “And for an hour. Embarrassing.”
I place the large cardboard box I’ve just brought in from the trunk of my car on the kitchen counter. “It was more like a coma than a sleep. You didn’t notice my arm moving while I typed or anything.”
I’d tapped the keys as gently as I could, so as not to disturb her, and silently rehearsed the things I’d say to Archie in my head, instead of pacing up and down and practicing them out loud like I usually would.
Since it was me who’d causedall the worry and upset that had exhausted her, my priority was to let her rest. And I had no intention of doing a single thing that might disrupt that.
But there was another reason I didn’t want to wake her.
Having her head on my shoulder felt good.
