“William asked me to take over for a sec,” I explain.
“Ah.” He begins moving again and slips out of his shoes. “Well, then I’ve got to keep you company. Truth be told, I really just wanted to pick up a few sandwiches after training but now not even ten horses could pull me away.”
“Well now…” I take a deep breath. “We can only hope the storm stops soon.”
Knox laughs out loud before coming over to me and falling into the chair next to mine. The leather creaks as if it were letting out air. “It’s obvious that you’re not from here.”
I frown. “How so?”
“Well, a snowstorm in Aspen doesn’t juststop soon. We can be happy if we manage to get out of here before tomorrow morning.”
“Before tomorrow morning?” I squeak. “Impossible. I’ve got to take care of your tourists!” The idea of spending another night next to Knox Winterbottom chokes my breath. That won’t do. No way. It would just throw me deeper into the mess of feelings I’m already in.
“They’ll be just fine without you for a while.” Knox casts a glance over his shoulder to the left and right before getting up and then coming back with a whole tray full of cheese sandwiches.
“You’re disgusting.”
He takes a bite. “And you’re abnormal,” he counters, munching away. “Everyone likes cheese.”
I wrinkle my nose and refocus on the fireplace.
From the corner of my eye I can see Knox looking at me. “We haven’t talked since…that evening.”
“True.”
“So… I mean… Are you okay?”
“Of course.”
He lets out a pent-up breath. “Okay. Good.”
I finally turn back to face him. “And you?”
Knox shrugs. “I’ve never cared what the press has to write about me.”
That surprises me. “You don’t care what the world thinks about you?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Why should it think about me at all?” He stuffs the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. “As long as I don’t forget who I am, everyone can think what they want.”
I pick at a loose thread sticking out of the chair. “Are you ever afraid of forgetting?”
Knox takes his time to respond. Eventually he says, “More often than you think.”
“Me, too,” I say quietly, without knowing why.
Knox looks at me for a moment, then places the tray to the side and slouches down farther into the chair. “Strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“I’m living with you in the same house, but have the feeling I don’t know you at all.”
“That makes two of us.”
Knox tilts his head and looks at me thoughtfully. “Well, all right. We’re going to play a little game. A truth for a truth, okay?”
