I glanced at him as the driver pulled away from the curb, muttering curses under his breath. Alex was still smiling, watching me like I was the answer to a question he hadn’t known he was asking.
Something fragile and impossible seemed to be taking root between us. I just didn’t know yet whether I wanted it to survive.
CHAPTER 24
ALEX
The Uber fishtailed the last half block, tires hissing over packed snow, and Jane’s hand shot out to grip my sleeve.
“Oh my God,” she laughed, half hysterical, half thrilled. “We’re going to die in Lake Forrest.”
“We’re not,” I said, even though I was white-knuckling the seat myself. “This man clearly does this for sport.”
The driver snorted. “You’re my last ride tonight. After this, I’m going home and not moving until spring.”
The car slid again, then straightened, pulling up in front of the iron gate and the long, snow-laden driveway of the rental. Every window glowed with warm golden light, smoke curling lazily from multiple chimneys like the house itself was breathing.
Jane leaned forward, peering out the windshield and exhaling a relieved sigh. “We made it.”
“See?” I said, discreetly flexing my fingers out of the iron grip they’d had on my seat. “We didn’t die.”
“Yet,” she said, but she was smiling now.
I paid the driver more than I should have, but he deserved it for accepting our trip in this weather. We climbed out of the car, but as I prepared to grab her arm and make a run for it, Janetapped on the driver’s window before he could pull away. He frowned, then opened it a crack.
“Do you want to come in for a bit?” she asked. “At least until the snow eases up?”
He blinked in surprise, but shook his head with an easy grin spreading on his lips. “That’s kind of you, ma’am, but my place is only a few blocks away. I’ll be fine. You two enjoy.”
He tipped an imaginary hat and drove off, taillights disappearing almost immediately into the white curtain of snow. We stood there for a beat in the biting wind, struggling to just stand still while snow dusted Jane’s hair and the shoulders of her coat.
Suddenly, she spun to me. Her gray eyes were almost silver in this light but lit up with an open, easy kind of joy I’d never seen from her before. “Race you inside?”
She didn’t wait for my answer, digging in her heels and spinning before taking off up the driveway. I laughed and gripped my coat. My shoes sank into the snow as I kept my head down and ran. Jane’s laughter rang through the quiet night air, and despite how insane this was, I grinned, chuckling under my breath while also trying not to snap an ankle.
I nearly slipped on the steps as I fumbled with the door, but Jane was already inside, stamping snow from her boots with her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright with exhilaration. She turned to glance at me, her hair a golden halo around her head against the firelight as she smiled.
“That was a crazy ride,” she declared breathlessly. “I’m glad we decided to leave when we did. Can you imagine how much worse it’s going to be later?”
“You screamed.” I reached for my scarf and unwrapped it, hanging it on the hook near the door before shrugging out of my coat.
Jane pursed her lips at me. “I did not scream.”
I arched an eyebrow, turning to lock the door before looking back at her. “You grabbed me like you were about to say goodbye forever.”
Her eyes narrowed, but then she laughed again, finally backing deeper into the house, closer to the fire. “Maybe I did, but you liked it.”
I had liked it. Way too much.
The house wrapped around us as we moved to the living room, heat along with the faint scent of woodsmoke and old polish wafting through the air. Wind howled outside, the old roof creaking every so often as I stepped closer to her in front of the fireplace.
She glanced up at me with questions in her eyes as I reached for the zipper of her coat. “What are you doing?”
“Hold still,” I said, easing the coat from her shoulders now that we were safely out of the storm.
My knuckles brushed her neck and the flush on her cheeks deepened. I sank my teeth into my cheek to keep from letting out a groan. I didn’t know why I kept putting myself in situations like this, torturing myself with these not-so-accidental grazes of her skin when I already wanted so much more.
It was stupid, reminiscent of a teenage boy in a movie theater pretending to stretch his arms out because he was too shy to just wrap that arm around his girl. I’d never been that boy. If I’d wanted to hold a girl, I’d gone for it, prepared to face rejection if she should knock my arm away, but none of them ever had.
