Chapter 17
Now that it was snowing, I felt downright relieved. After spending all day preparing for the coming nor’easter, there was nothing left to do but hunker down and wait out the storm.
So far, our situation here at the B and B was unremarkable.
The power was still on. The patches on the roof seemed to be holding, just as Xander had predicted.
I got sick of listening to the same weather report over and over again, so I switched the radio in the kitchen to one of the local music stations.
If there was an important update, I figured they’d interrupt their playlist.
As Taylor Swift sang out over the radio, I pulled up the blinds and peered through the backdoor window, watching the snow fall.
“It’s quite beautiful, isn’t it?” said Xander, coming up beside me.
I glanced at him and smiled. “It really is.”
We stood together for a bit, not saying anything, just enjoying the view. Outside, the moonlight was shining down, reflecting off the fallen snow, making the whole scene appear almost, well…magical.
Eventually, I looked back at him. “Do you have snow where you come from?” I asked.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, his red hair tumbling around his shoulders. “This is all new for me.”
I nodded. Folding my arms, I gazed back out the window. This wasn’t anything close to my first snowstorm. But somehow, watching it with Xander, it felt brand-new for me too.
“So, I did a little reading,” he said. “On the subject of snow.”
Hearing the amused lilt in his voice, I grinned. “Did you now?” I teased, giving him a little bump with my hip.
“Yes,” he said. “Apparently, snowmen keep their money in snowbanks?”
I giggled.
“But that makes no sense,” he said. “Even if snowmen had money, keeping it in a snowbank would hardly be safe. Once the snow melted, the money would just be out there in the open. Anyone could come along and snatch it up.”
I laughed, and he did too.
The snowflakes continued to fall. As they gradually obscured everything in their gentle coating of white, the rest of the world seemed to fade away, leaving just the two of us. In our own world.
“What else did you read?” I asked.
It was a moment before he replied. “Well,” he began. His tone was still playful, but maybe playful in a different way. “The book also offered some advice for, uh…getting romantic during a snowstorm.”
I peered at him. His green-eyed gaze was soft and searching, and something in my chest started to ache.
“Huh,” I said quietly. “Wh-what did it suggest?”
“Oh, silly things,” he said with a shrug. “Like cuddling under a blanket of snow.”
I hugged myself tighter as the achiness spread.
“But I don’t think that sounds romantic at all,” he added. “Do you?”
Suddenly, I was aching all over, throbbing with need.
“Xander,” I said slowly. “Are you, um…testing the ice here?”
“I’m not sure I understand,” he said. But the way he was looking at me, with the same deep longing I felt, said something else entirely.
“I think you understand a lot more than you let on,” I said, hardly above a whisper.
He smiled. Now, his familiar smile was a little different. A little…naughty. “I think you do too.”
Well…damn.
The atmosphere between us started to prickle with energy. I could practically see the sparks.
I swallowed nervously. For a time, I couldn’t move. I could barely breathe. It was as if I was standing here in suspended animation.
But then, hadn’t my life these last ten years been a form of suspended animation? I’d been alive, yes. But not really living. And dammit, I wanted to live.
I wanted…
Well.
Dropping my arms, I turned fully away from the window to face him.
I nodded almost imperceptibly, but Xander caught my consent.
He reached out a hand to cradle my face, and I leaned my cheek into the warmth of his touch.
As he bent down, my whole body thrummed.
I felt giddy and jittery and utterly swept up in the miracle of the moment.
Just then, the radio broadcast got staticky. The lights flickered on and off. At first, I thought it might be a side effect of the incredible electricity that was building between the two of us. Then—
Silence.
Darkness.
“The power’s out,” I whispered.
“Does it matter?” Xander whispered back. His mouth was so close to mine that his breath brushed across my face like a warm sea breeze.
I thought about that. Did it matter?
To part of me, all that mattered was feeling Xander’s mouth on my mouth, feeling his lips pressing against my lips. Just…feeling.
But to a different part of me, different things mattered. Duty mattered. I was in charge here. And it was important to me to show my parents, to show my friends—and maybe even to show myself—that I was up to the challenge.
There were certain protocols to follow when the B and B lost power.
I had to report the outage to the local utility company.
I had to unplug the appliances and electronics—or at least turn them off—to protect them from a power surge when the electricity came back on.
I had to switch the radio over to battery power so I could listen for any new weather alerts. And so on, and so on.
I reminded myself—or that other part of myself—that we were in the middle of a potentially dangerous nor’easter. Right now, what I needed to do was more important than what I needed.
Wasn’t it?
I closed my eyes and touched my forehead to Xander’s. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t do this.”