“I’m Adam,” he said. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Oh, I’m Gloria,” she said, and she gave him a firm handshake. “In fact, I’m gonna go turn the furnace up right now while it’s still on.” She bustled halfway down the hall to do that, and Joey snuck past her and came back into the living room.
“Have you eaten?” Joey asked, and Adam whipped his attention back to her.
“No.” He gestured toward the kitchen. “But I just put all the food away.”
She grinned at him, a ray of sunshine in Adam’s life during this awful storm. “Why’d you do that, silly?” She squeezed his hand, and then ducked around him to re-enter the kitchen. “You like chicken pot pie, don’t you? Being from the South, I would think so.”
“I like chicken pot pie,” Adam said. “But really—” He cut off when Joey threw him a severe look. He blinked and put a smile on his face, all in the same second. “Will you heat it up for me, please?”
A small smile touched her face before she ducked into the fridge, and Adam moved to the edge of the kitchen. He threw a look over to her mother and found that Lauren had closed her eyes and seemed to be asleep.
Joey didn’t try to be quiet at all, but after she’d slammed the microwave and slid his pot pie into a bowl, she came toward him. “You can eat dinner in your bed.” She handed him the bowl, and the scent of creamy sauce and roasted chicken rose to meet his nose.
Then he stepped over to the couch and sat down on the bedsheet-covered cushion. Joey joined him, and he cast a look down the hall where her grandmother had gone. He didn’t see Gloria anywhere, and he figured that hallway held a couple of bedrooms and bathrooms.
He dug into the pot pie with his spoon, the crackling of the crust music to his ears. “Did you learn to cook from your grandmother?” he asked.
Joey nodded and looped her arm through his. She didn’tseem to want to talk, and Adam took the steamy bite of food as her nerves pranced through him again. He didn’t have to stuff the silence with sound either, and he ate his whole dinner before Joey asked, “Good? You liked it?”
“Yes.” He reached across her and set the bowl on the end table. “I’m fed, I’m warm, and I have somewhere to sleep.” Adam grinned at her and lifted his arm around her shoulders. “Thank you so much for letting me come here.”
Joey searched his face, something vulnerable swimming across hers. “We really might lose power, but my mom has a generator that should kick on within a couple of minutes.”
He nodded and reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear, a soft smile accompanying the gesture. Everything about her made him want to be softer, kinder, better. “Okay.”
“My mom goes to bed really early,” she said next. “We can put a movie on after they do.”
“All right,” he said. “Whatever is fine with me. I have headphones in my car, and I can listen to a podcast or an audiobook without disturbing anyone.”
She smiled and shook her head, sending her silky hair swinging. “You can’t go get anything out of your car.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“I bet the doors are frozen shut.”
“You’re kidding.”
Joey giggled and shook her head. “I’ll go get your coffee.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, but she’d already pushed to her feet. Adam watched her go, his throat tight. When she returned, he took the mug and tracked her as she sat down again.
“What?” she asked.
“You don’t have to take care of me,” he said. “I’m capable of heating up food and getting my own coffee.”
Joey blinked at him, and it looked like she might fire back at him. Then her chin dipped, and her shoulders sunk in. “Okay,” she said. “I’m just used to helping while I’m here.”
“You don’t have to do that for me.” He threaded his fingers through hers. “In fact, if you want anything tonight, you let me know, andI’llget it foryou.” He leaned over and pressed his lips to her temple.
“Are we going to talk about…us?” she asked.
“What about us?”
“You kissed me before our first date.”
He drew in a deep breath. “First, you closed your eyes, so yeah, I kissed you.”
