A January Chill by Rachel Lee

Author:Rachel Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2001-10-29T16:00:00+00:00

12

Joni turned on the TV and was glad to see they had cable. Immediately she hunted for the Weather Channel, and what she saw didn’t make her feel any better. The predictions were far worse than they had been that morning. A major storm was stalled over five states, dumping record amounts of snow, and it wasn’t expected to budge for at least another twenty-four hours. That meant they might be stuck in this motel yet another night.

The idea made her uneasy for a lot of reasons. The first and foremost was that she really didn’t want to be cooped up with nothing to do but think for two days. It hadn’t been so bad at Hardy’s house, because she had her job to distract her, and if it had gotten really bad, she could have gone out for a walk. But after three days of basically running on automatic and thinking the same thoughts over again, she didn’t know if she could stand two whole days of her own company.

Then there was Hardy. He could certainly distract her. But she was afraid of the ways he could do that. Afraid of the barely acknowledged longings in her own heart and body. Well aware that giving in to them might be the biggest mistake of her life.

He wouldn’t want her, of course. Being with her must be like rubbing salt in a wound. She was rather surprised that he could stand it at all.

Sighing, she went to pull the curtains back and look out at the snow. It was really blowing hard, looking like a dense, white whirlwind. Even if it stopped overnight, there was a chance the plows wouldn’t be able to clear all the roads until late tomorrow.

She ought to use the time to take a nap. Since her mother had dropped the bomb, she hadn’t slept well at all, tossing and turning for much of the night, and having nightmares when she did sleep. Too much stress, too much anxiety, too many shocks.

She turned to look at the double bed, thinking how good it would feel to just stretch out. Maybe, with the TV on, she could keep herself distracted until sleep managed to catch up with her.

She propped herself up against some pillows and stared at the TV, flipping through channels, hoping to find something that would hold her interest just enough to keep her from thinking, but not so much that she couldn’t fall asleep.

Of course she was out of luck. It was the middle of the day. The movies were all old and too familiar to appeal to her, the soaps had never really engaged her, and the other programming didn’t catch her eye. Finally she returned to the Weather Channel, telling herself that she might as well get ten-minute updates on the storm.

Which reminded her that she needed to call her boss and warn him that she probably wouldn’t be in tomorrow. He was understanding, and three minutes later she was staring at the tube and trying not to think.

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