Snowed In With You

Chapter Seven

Sara

The sound of my phone ringing dragged me up into an upright position as I fumbled blindly for it within the covers.

Rob.

I groaned, I had been sulking in bed in silence, not even wanting to read, and yet still my brother’s impeccable spidey-sense alerted him to the best time to irritate me.

My annoyance momentarily faded as I considered the possibility that he was calling to say he was almost here.

‘Hey! Please tell me you’re on your way?’

There was a pause on the other end of the line and Rob sounded both apologetic and confused, likely because I’d never sounded more hopeful to see him in my life.

‘Um, I’m guessing you haven’t looked outside recently?’

‘No,’ I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and walking over to the heavy-curtained windows.

I gasped as I pulled them back and saw the amount of snow outside. ‘Fuck.’

‘Yeah,’ Rob said and lightly cleared his throat.

‘Our flight was grounded.

They’re saying it’s supposed to be one of the worst snow storms they’ve had in the bay for years.’

Naturally.

I had the worst luck, it was genuinely unreal.

‘You’re still coming right?’

‘Well…’

‘Rob, you invited me to come on this holiday and you’re now not planning on attending?’

‘No, no,’ he said quickly and I let out a breath of relief, ‘we will be coming, but the storm is supposed to last for a few days, so it might be a little while until we can get a new flight out.’

I rubbed the bridge of my nose between my middle and forefinger with a groan, ‘Okay well, keep me updated.’

‘Ye–I–Fletch–safe–’

‘What? Rob? Hello?’ I waited a beat but all that answered me was static and I cursed as I hung up and threw the phone back on the bed.

Great, no signal and snowed-in with the world’s most tempting poisoned apple.

Speaking of whom, I probably needed to break the news to Fletcher about Rob and Tanya – and then immediately run back up to my room and spend the rest of the trip in bed with my e-reader.

Maybe I could delay that conversation for a little while.

I settled down into the plush bedding again and gave a groan of satisfaction, at least one thing was good about being here – this mattress was to die for.

Ugh, I already felt old at twenty-seven.

It wasn’t fair.

The bed was way too big for one person though and I star-fished in it for a second before my thoughts took me back to the one person available to adequately fill it.

Not happening.

I curled on my side and tried to read but when ten minutes had passed and I hadn’t taken in anything I’d read, I sat up abruptly.

What if Fletch doesn’t know about the big storm? Surely my outburst in the shower rooms hadn’t scared him off that badly, but what if it had and he was now out there stranded in his stupid shiny SUV being swallowed by the snow?

No, the car doesn’t work.

I let out a breath of relief, he definitely hadn’t driven anywhere then and I was pretty sure Uber wouldn’t be picking up right now, even if we did have signal.

But what if he’d gone for a walk, to get some air or clear his head as guys were so often fond of doing?

I cursed my brain and rolled begrudgingly off of the bed, pulling on some extra thick, comfy socks and poking my head out of my bedroom door. ‘Fletch?’

Nobody replied and I wondered if he was mad and ignoring me.

‘Fletcher? Rob called.’

Still nothing.

Starting to feel a little worried now, I walked down the stairs, thinking maybe he was in the sauna again or one of the downstairs bedrooms and couldn’t hear me.

Both were empty and I was out of breath by the time I ran back up the stairs to the ground floor and scanned the lounge.

My eyes snagged on the coat hook and fear spiked through me, where was his coat? His boots? Oh God, Rob had told me to be nice to him, what if he had left and I had to break the news to my brother that his friend had gone out in a snowstorm and become an icicle? Plus, yes, I was mad at Fletcher but I didn’t want him to be hurt.

He’s fine, he’s probably just… on the balcony!

I ran to the back of the lounge and looked out of the floor to ceiling windows that led out to a balcony.

Nothing.

Shit.

Where was he? If he wound up hurt just because I’d yelled at him...

I hurried over to the front door and tugged on my coat and boots.

I peeked out of the long window next to me and grimaced.

There was snow as far as the eye could see.

It swirled through the air with an increasingly audible moan, the sky thick with white flakes.

Fletcher’s car sat safe underneath a ledge and I wanted to laugh as I realised he had been right, if we’d left it uncovered at the bottom of the drive it definitely would have been snowed-under.

I took a deep breath and jumped on the spot slightly before flinging open the door and falling short as I was about to plunge outside.

‘Where the hell have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you!’

Fletcher stood on the other side of the door, only his eyes were visible above the scarf he’d tugged up and over his mouth and nose, and they were comically round as they looked at me.

‘You have?’

‘Yes! Rob called, their flight has been grounded because of, well, all that,’ I said, gesturing behind him and Fletcher nodded, an odd gleam in his eye that made me step back suspiciously.

What was he up to? He gave a light shiver and I retreated further into the entryway to let him in, he closed the door behind him and immediately shucked off his boots with a low groan.

‘Are you okay?’

He panted a laugh as he unwound his scarf from his face and a swooping sensation started in my stomach as I saw his sweetly pinkened cheeks.

‘Yeah, I will be as soon as I can get the snow out of my socks.

My feet are freezing.’

I stifled a giggle, not wanting to laugh with him when I was still mad – near-death by popsicle incident aside.

‘What were you doing out there?’

Fletcher gave a light shrug, as if being out in the middle of a snow storm was no big deal.

‘I had a feeling there was a storm coming in and we didn’t have any supplies, there’s a supermarket about a twenty-minute walk away so I headed out.’

I stared at him, ‘You must have been gone for longer than an hour though.’

The pink in his cheeks deepened and I couldn’t pull my eyes away, ‘Yeah, I, um, got lost.’

‘You’re such an idiot, Fletch.’

‘Well, I didn’t want hunger to give you an excuse to be grumpy with me,’ he said with a roll of his shoulders after peeling off his coat.

‘I don’t think I really need any more excuses, do you?’

We fell silent until my stomach grumbled loudly and he laughed.

‘Good thing I went out and got us some food, otherwise you’d be forced to eat me.’

Don’t blush.

Don’t blush.

Don’t blush.

The tell-tale sting of my cheeks horrified me as I remembered consuming him veeeery slowly the last time I’d seen him.

Fletch coughed to cover a laugh but mostly ignored my reaction as he carried bags towards the kitchen.

‘What do you want?’ he called behind him and I froze between steps as I followed him into the small kitchen.

‘For dinner,’ he amended as he stuck his head out of the doorway to look back at me and then rolled his eyes.

I couldn’t help but read into every single thing he was saying – why was he not as freaked out as me that we were stuck in here together for at least the next few days with nothing but each other, the past, and our libidos for company? ‘Okay, well, I’m thinking soup because I’m not really sure how to use this oven or anything yet.’

‘Sounds good,’ I croaked and sat down at the dining table big enough for ten, it ran the length of the back wall in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, at least we wouldn’t have to sit next to each other.

Fletcher emerged from the kitchen a few minutes later with two bowls and spoons in his hands, setting them down on the table before plopping himself down next to me.

So much for separation, I sighed.

‘I hope tomato is okay, they didn’t have a huge selection and I wasn’t sure what you liked.’

It was disconcerting that he cared enough about me to think about soup that hard, what was his angle?

‘Tomato is good, thanks.’ It was quiet for a moment as we ate in silence, I kept my eyes on the room in front of us, trying to ignore the demanding presence right next to me.

It was very pleasant in here really, there was a large white mantelpiece above the fireplace which was already stacked with logs.

The sofas were large and plush in a sweet cream colour that was soothing against all the dark wood in the room –

‘Are you going to ignore me forever?’ Fletcher asked, his voice a little quieter than usual, and I chanced a look at him to find his eyes on his soup and a frown tugging at his bottom lip.

‘I just don’t understand you,’ I said honestly.

‘We sleep together and you leave the next morning, telling me to forget it ever happened via a note, but suddenly you care enough to want to know what sort of soup I like? I don’t buy it.

If you’re just trying to sleep with me again–’

He cut me off with a sigh, running his hand across his face before looking up at me with a stark expression, ‘I never meant to leave.’

I choked on a laugh, what did that even mean? How could you accidentally write a note and walk out the door? His eyes roved over my face, his jaw tightening at whatever he saw on it.

‘What I mean is, I was always going to come back.’

I stared at him, not sure if he meant what he was saying or just trying to ease the tension seeing as we were now stuck together for the next few days.

He continued on when I said nothing, ‘I was still drunk when I left, I barely remember scrawling you that note and I definitely didn’t mean it how you took it – or how I wrote it, I guess.’

‘Why leave at all?’ I finally managed through my dry mouth.

‘I needed to talk to Rob.

I’d gone behind his back and–’ Fletcher glanced at my mouth and then away, clearing his throat, ‘I needed to do it all the right way.

I had no intention of coming to your room that night but, well, you’re very charming when you want to be.’

I wasn’t sure I believed him, but God, I wanted to – and that was what made it worse.

Even if what he said was true, how could I trust that he wasn’t going to leave again as soon as our stint in this snowy-prison was done? My head was spinning with his words and I pushed away from the table with a quarter of my soup still left in my bowl.

‘I-I need to think about… things.

I’ll see you in the morning, all right?’

‘Sara–’

I shook my head and made my way up the stairs to my room.

I had a feeling I was going to have a very sleepless night ahead of me.