Free Snowed In by Rachel Hawthorne Page A

stared at the melting butter, wishing I could disappear as easily.
    All these people knew one another. They were laughing and talking about things that didn’t 96
    include me, like the first time Josh ever dared to play snow volleyball sans shirt, and the guys on the other team had tossed him into a snow bank.
    Laugh, laugh, laugh.
    Or the time that old Mrs. Hooper—whoever the heck she was—paid Josh and Chase to clear her attic of bats.
    Or how when a group of tourists came over for the day and . . .
    Ha! Ha! Ha!
    All I could do was smile, nod, and pretend I knew what they were talking about.
    Finally, I got tired of listening and backed into the living room. A fire was crackling in the fireplace. My hands were still cold so I walked over to it and knelt. I put my mug on the floor and put my hands near the dancing flames. The wood-burning fire generated a lot of heat. It felt really good and smelled even better.
    I knew log fires were a lot of trouble, but I wondered if Mom would consider converting our gas fireplaces to wood-burning ones, for the atmosphere . . . and the warmth.
    I was so absorbed that I didn’t know anyone was near until I heard knees pop. Josh crouched beside me.
    “You okay?” he asked.
    97
    “Sure, why wouldn’t I be?” I didn’t look at him. I was pretending to be dazzled by the fire, because I didn’t want him to see the lie in my eyes.
    “I don’t know. You just looked . . . surprised out there when . . . uh . . . Nathalie and I . . . you know.”
    Where had the smooth-talking lumberjack gone? He seemed to be as awkward as I felt.
    “You never said you had a girlfriend, so yeah, I was a little surprised.” I couldn’t bring myself to be totally honest about how it had stunned me, because he might correctly read that I was beginning to have an interest in him that went beyond painting walls.
    “But you and Nathalie are friends. Didn’t she tell—”
    “That she had a boyfriend, yeah, but she never told me who he was.” I did look at him then. He looked as confused as I probably had out at the volleyball net.
    “So, what? She never mentioned me by name?”
    “Right. She just said ‘my boyfriend.’ My boyfriend this. My boyfriend that. My boyfriend, my boyfriend, my boyfriend.”
    He furrowed his brow deeply. “Huh.”
    “Yeah,” I said. I almost added that it was like he 98
    was a trophy, but I had a feeling he was already thinking that.
    “So, when you and I were talking . . . you didn’t think I was coming on to you, did you?”
    “Oh, no, of course not,” I lied.
    He seemed to think about that.
    “I was just being friendly,” he finally said.
    “Me too. Totally.”
    “I mean, I have a girlfriend.”
    “Which I now know.”
    “What if I didn’t?”
    I went completely still. Not even breathing. I seemed to do that a lot when he was around.
    “What if you didn’t what?”
    “Would it make a difference if I didn’t have a girlfriend?”
    “I don’t believe in playing what-if games.”
    “It’s not a game.”
    “It’s not reality, either.”
    He narrowed his eyes.
    “Hey, you two,” Nathalie said, dropping down to the floor so she was sorta wedged between us, and almost sitting in Josh’s lap. “What are you doing?”
    “Just trying to get warm,” Josh and I said at the same time.
    Weird. Great minds and all that. So if we both 99
    thought alike, why didn’t I realize he had a girlfriend? Why hadn’t he figured out that I didn’t know? And why hadn’t Nathalie ever said anything? She had to know he was working at my house.
    Nathalie took Josh’s hand and began rubbing it. “His hands stay cold for so long after he plays volleyball. It’s insane, isn’t it? That the guys play winter volleyball half dressed?”
    “Totally,” I agreed.
    “Have you ever seen anything like it?”
    “Nope. This much snow and this much cold is a totally new experience.”
    “You know what? You should go cross-country skiing with us tomorrow. It’s the best way