Her giggles make the cold bearable, and before I know it, Snow’s slowing down near an apartment block.
She glances around and her grip briefly tightens around my elbow.
“This is me.” She nods to the building at the end.
“You live here? The sun must look amazing from this high up.”
“It does. I love driving down and seeing it all crest over the lake and the—” Snow suddenly jumps away from me as if she’s been burned and clears her throat as the door opens to her apartment and a man stands there.
His gray joggers rest low on his hips and a stained blue T-shirt hangs off his slender frame.
“Noelle!” he barks. “Where the fuck you been?”
Who is this?
My back bristles immediately at his tone, but I hold my tongue when I glance at Snow.
A mixture of annoyance and exhaustion flits across her features and she flashes me a polite, apologetic smile.
“Thanks for walking me home.”
“It is no problem.”
She’s gone without saying anything else, hurrying up the path against the rain and running inside.
As she passes the stranger, his hand touches her lower back to guide her inside and his eyes narrow at me.
I stare back and watch the door slam as something heavy settles in my gut, akin to disappointment.
I was only helping her, only doing a nice thing.
And yet seeing someone else touch her like that, laying claim to her like that, makes my chest ache.
She’s not even mine and walking back down the hill, I’m struck with a small pulse of yearning.
What if she were?
5
SNOW
“…and then to see you walking home like nothing happened? It’s one thing to disappear but to come home with a man? So much for respecting the rule of no one else in the apartment. Were you going to fuck him, huh?”
Caleb’s voice booms through the bathroom door.
I’ve locked myself in and the shower runs, but I can’t bring myself to get in.
The last thing I need is for Caleb to burst in here while I’m naked and vulnerable to continue the argument that’s been raging for the past six hours.
It’s the same thing, over and over andover.
I can’t take it anymore.
I need out.
I need away from him.
“Shut up!” I scream as all the anger and frustration overflows.
