Snowed In by Hawthorne Rachel

Author:Hawthorne, Rachel [Hawthorne, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

11

I shoved Josh’s shoulder, breaking us apart.

“We can’t do this,” I said, scrambling away from him, getting to my feet. “You’ve got a girlfriend.”

“Don’t you think I know that?”

“Based on the past couple of minutes, I’d say you forgot.”

“Ash, wait!”

I was skidding onto the trail, desperate to get to the skis, trying to figure out how I could move the quickest—by ski or by foot.

He grabbed my arm. I jerked free. “Don’t! Nathalie was my first friend here. I’m not going to do that to her,” I said, pointing back to the place where we’d been kissing. The snow was no longer pristine there. It had obviously been disturbed.

“Look, I’m sorry, I’ve just wanted to kiss you ever since that first morning—”

I shoved him hard, he staggered back. “That’s the reason you didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend. You were flirting with me.”

“No. I mean, okay, maybe I didn’t intentionally mention Nathalie because I thought you’d put up barriers. I know it makes me sound like a jerk, but I don’t want to hurt Nathalie. I mean, she’s been my girlfriend since I was twelve. I care about her.”

“Oh, yeah, that was real obvious back there.”

I jammed the toe of my boot into the ski, locked it in place, and reached for the other.

“I’ve never kissed another girl,” he said.

“Yeah, right.” I shoved the other boot into place.

“I swear, I never have. I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ve never wanted to.”

“Then why me?” I spun around to face him, lost my balance, and landed on my butt.

He was beside me before I could blink.

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I honest to God don’t know.”

He wrapped his hand around my arm, helped me to my feet, or my skis, rather. Whatever. He helped me stand.

I was frazzled, upset. I didn’t want to be the other woman—the other girl—the person who tore them apart, who might be responsible for…

Omigod! What if they broke up and it was my fault?

“That’s never going to happen again,” I said determinedly.

“Okay.”

I heard the resignation in his voice.

“Okay,” I said, hearing the disappointment in mine.

I watched him drop the flashlight into his backpack before shrugging it onto his shoulders. He put on his skis, concentrating on a task that I figured he could probably do in his sleep.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “But I can’t be the other girl.”

He glanced over at me and gave me a sad sort of smile. “I know.”

“She’s crazy about you.”

He squeezed his eyes shut like the words hurt. He heaved a deep sigh. “We need to get back.”

He started to move past me and I grabbed his arm. “And Josh, I don’t do boyfriends.”

“Okay, already. I get it.” I heard the irritation in his voice. “Let’s just go.”

“No.” Shaking my head, I held his gaze. “I didn’t say that right. What I mean is that I don’t want a boyfriend. I like to date, but I only go out with a guy a couple of times. I don’t want anything permanent.

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