“I’m not helpless, you know. Just because I had the glass incident doesn’t mean you need to take care of me.” Despite the cold, heat crept up my face.
He rolled his green eyes, framed perfectly with long, snow-covered lashes. “I checked on our neighbors, too, okay? Not just you. They have generators or are out of town. Now come on. I can help you grab some stuff to bring over.”
He barged past me, heading up the stairs with his own flashlight. He didn’t know where my room was located, but he sure walked with a confidence I could appreciate. I followed him, needing to stop the insane idea ofroomingtogether for a few days. “Harrison, stop. I’ll figure something out. I always do.”
“Again, I admire you.” He stopped walking and got nose-to-nose with me until his breath hit my face. His minty, warm breath. His eyes were hard, so beautiful, and filled with annoyance.
Awesome.
He tightened his jaw and stared at me like he wished I was anyone else. “Becca, peopledieduring power outages like this during a blizzard. The power companies can’t risk going out with negative-forty temps, so it could be days before the electricity is back on. I have enough firewood to last a month, food, and a gas water heater.”
Unease and foolishness hollowed out my stomach, and I took a step back, hating how nervous he made me. I shook my head, wanting him to get out. I’d call someone or bury myself in a closet. “No, I—”
His facial expression softened, and he spoke over me. “It’s better to have a buddy, right? You teach the girls that.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, for going out at night, not blizzards!”
“Same thing, Becca. If I freeze to death, I don’t want to die alone.”
“We won’t die,” I said, even though my heart raced as the severe realization came over me. I could remain stubborn, but doing so would be dumb. I’d rather not die.
I couldn’t get a fire started on my own, and I didn’t have any wood.
Harrison narrowed his eyes in a silent warning.
“Okay fine.Fine.I’ll get my stuff.”
“Good girl. Hurry. I want to get my fire going.”
He followed me up to my room, and I ignored how close he walked behind me. He must’ve thought I’d fall down the stairs—which had happened before—but I wasn’t going to complain because his natural body heat warmed me. I could surely survive a few days with him. God knows what we’d talk about or do, because we weren’t friends. Hell, we were barely neighbors. But an uncomfortable few days beat dying, so my reality was what it was.
“Could you point your flashlight around my room?” I asked, hoping it would speed up the packing process.
He didn’t respond but did as I asked.
Finding an old duffel bag, I shoved leggings, socks, underwear—the semi-sexy kind—sweatshirts, and every long-sleeved shirt I owned inside. I threw in two lip balms, my phone, and toothbrush. It wasn’t like I was moving in with him… just for like two days to escape death. That’s all.
“Do you need help?”
“No, I’m done.” I hoisted the bag on my bad shoulder, winced, and switched to the other.
Noticing, he yanked the bag off my arm. “Here. I’ve got it.”
“Hey!”
He shook his head. “I need you to grab all the ingredients for your hot to-go-coa.”
My mouth fell open at his playful expression. Near-death temperatures raged outside, and he chose that moment to make fun of me. “Did you… did you just usemyjoke?”
“Yes.”
I burst out laughing at his proud expression and left him in my room. Smug looked really good on him.Gorgeous grump.“I’ll grab the goods. Do you have enough food? We can take some over.”
“We can come back if we run out. It’s only next door. We could get cabin fever after a couple days.”
Couple of days? Two days with Harrison? I gulped. Could I survive more than a day with my sexy, grumpy next-door neighbor? Sleeping under the same roof together?
Guess I’d find out.
