She sucked in an indignant gasp. “Do not.”
“You were always spying on me and Teller.”
“You guys were always up to something fun.” She settled back into my side and grabbed the remote, but she didn’t turn on the TV right away. “Are you sure you’re okay showing me your space?”
“I wouldn’t have offered if I weren’t.”
“You spend a lot of time out there, don’t you?” When I nodded, she said, “I thought you were hiding from me.”
“I was. It’s not polite to lust after a runaway bride.”
“And now?”
I still shouldn’t be as into her as I was. Her life wasn’t on this mountain. Her life wasn’t even on her family’s land across the valley. But we were stuck together in a storm and I wasn’t strong enough to turn away someone who looked at me the way she did. “I like the idea of watching a lame-ass movie with you. What’s it going to be?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Summer
Snow was still coming down, but the wind was almost nonexistent. Jonah was clearing the driveway. I’d helped shovel before he’d run me inside, then worked with the skid steer. He didn’t want to chance not seeing me through the curtain of flakes while he was buzzing around the yard and driveway areas, clearing a path to the shop.
I had tried to peek into the shop when he’d opened the big garage door to drive the skid steer out. The place was well lit and full of stuff, but like the garage, everything had its place. Unlike the garage, the inside was well lit and full of life. Giant slabs of wood were leaning against the wall. There were workbenches and tables, walls full of tools, and protective gear hanging from hooks.
I’d also spied a small lounge and a door that wasprobably a bathroom. How much time did Jonah spend in his shop?
Judging by those huge cuts of wood, he got his muscles from working. He might spend a lot of time on his feet, but he had an even floor and he wasn’t walking long distances. I’d witnessed him doing stretches and exercises when he thought I was still sleeping.
The last two nights, I’d gone to sleep in his bed—after an orgasm or two or three—and he’d let me sleep while he made breakfast. I might not have been dozing too hard. I might’ve liked getting doted on.
He was a thoughtful man.
I was bursting to talk to someone about us, but he hadn’t even told his parents we were a thing. To be fair, his parents might be the most complicated ones to tell. But he also hadn’t said anything about continuing what we were doing beyond the storm. Once the roads were clear, was that the end of us?
I hadn’t approached any of my sisters about my relationships. I hadn’t wanted to worry them when I wasn’t happy, and when it came to Boyd, I hadn’t wanted to be told what I knew deep down inside.
This time though? The need to spill that I was sleeping with Jonah Dunn, that I was scared we were temporary, was bursting inside me until I thought I’d split apart at the seams.
I roamed the kitchen where I could see Jonah pushing loads of snow and called Autumn. There was no way I was worrying Wynter this close to her due date. I wasn’t bugging Scarlett and risking Tate finding out either. Junie was on the road, and she’d tell me to hang on and enjoy the ride, to hell with the consequences.
Autumn answered. “How’s this round of getting stranded with the moody mountain man?”
“Climactic.”
“Oooh.” Fabric rustled. I could picture her in her little house in town. She had land like the rest of us that Daddy had parceled out for her, but like me, she’d never made the commitment to build. Like me, she sometimes just took the unofficial dirt road to a little clearing and gazed at everything until life straightened itself out.
I hadn’t done that in so long. But there was no point now. I could look at the snow-covered valley all day long, but I would still be as confused as before.
“Tell me all about it,” she urged.
I peeked out the window one more time. I could make out the outline of him in the cabin of the skid steer. He was chiseling away at a giant drift that reached from one corner of the shop to the other. “We opened up about Eli and how I felt and how he felt. But I’m afraid once the mess of this storm is cleaned up, he’s going to end things.”
“Have you talked to him about it?”
“Sort of. He asked if we could not worry about it until we had to.”
“Oof.”
I sighed. “Right? Not exactly what a girl wants to hear.”
