“You’d be on a nice warm tour bus if it wasn’t for me.” If she hadn’t killed time at the mall or bothered paying that condolence call to Hattie, Avi may have actually had a chance to catch up with his bandmates. “You’d already be in New York City.”
“Are you kidding? If it weren’t for you, I might still be sitting at that rest stop, curled up with my beef jerky.”
That admission, at least, halted the flow of tears. He rubbed her shoulders, either out of consolation or to generate more body heat. Either way, it felt infinitely better than chastising herself. “Honestly, I’d rather be here.”
Leah waited for Avi to elaborate, but he said no more. He continued making slow revolutions with his palms on her shoulder blades until the motion – like the push and pull he had described of the ocean – finally lulled her to sleep.
It was all so unexpected. The detours, the delays…the utter frustration of being paired with this not-so-much-a-stranger; turning into an easy comradery once the sun went down. Once the candles were lit.
But having all that morph intothis– this supercharged feeling he couldn’t put words to?Tender.Jangly guitar power chords bounced between his ears like a one-two punch.Tender is the Night.
Leah had him living in a catchy Jackson Browne song, where he just wanted to hold her tight. So he did. Finally feeling her body, tense from the cold, the driving, and the re-hashing of oldmemories, gently relax against him. She sighed, shifting slightly in her sleep.
Suddenly, Avi felt a breeze as something – a sock? – passed by, just inches from his nose. Sure enough, a second one sailed overhead and onto the floor.
He held in a laugh. You weren’t supposed to wake sleepwalkers, right? He wondered if the same went for sleep-strippers. He turned on his side, away from Leah, as warm toes brushed against his calf.Good thing she warned me.
Next, she wriggled out of something that landed with a soft thud at the foot of the bed. Her sweatshirt, apparently; he felt bare arms pull him close like he was her life-size teddy bear. Her breasts, loose under the thin material of whatever she’d layered beneath the bulky pullover, mashed against his back.
Surface area markedly decreased.
He had to think about science. Or kittens in baskets. Or grandmothers holding kittens in baskets. If he thought about the situation at hand – and how close her hands were to –
Did the Bit O’ Honey have vibrating beds after all?The mattress was shaking. No, just Leah – shimmying out of her fleece bottoms. She rolled a little away from him, taking heat with her.
This wasn’t the worst Leah Gellman thing he’d had to deal with. But Avi knew if she even so much as slipped a smooth bare leg between his, he was gonna lose it.
No matter what he’d told her earlier about his willpower.
But she had that doctor date waiting for her in New York, and he respected the guy code – mostly. More than that, he didn’t want to give her another reason to resent him by ruining her plans.
He carefully slid out of bed, making sure she stayed covered with the blankets and headed to the adjoining room to try to get some sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Sunlight striped the pillow, slowly waking Leah.Curtains…not closed?
Thoughts tried to surface, but she was so cozy, so warm…
So…not clothed.
Her T-shirt was twisted halfway up her tummy. One bare leg exposed to the air as she rolled to sit up. Her curtainshadbeen closed, and the scenery outsidethiswindow had shifted slightly.
Avi’s room.
“Avi?”
Their adjoining door was open, but he was nowhere in sight.
Oh God. Had I stripped before or after he left?
She still had all the blankets, she noted, diving under them to locate her PJ bottoms, mashed at the bottom of the tightly tucked sheets. Her sweatshirt had ended up on the floor, along with her socks.
Of course, the radiators were doing a stellar job cranking out the heat now.
The bright sun drew her to the window. What a difference a day made. Yesterday had been gray and heavy, the impendingweather like a weight. Today was the calm after the storm – no wind, no clouds…just blankets of sparkling white snow.
And not a snowplow in sight.
