What I hadn't realized at the time was that it was freezing cold, and the snow had no intention of letting up. Sitting on the porch, freezing and trying to read the book I'd started on the bus, I shuddered a little and let my eyes turn skyward. Hugging my coat to me, because once a jacket became covered with enough snow, it sort of lost it's effectiveness, I ran a hand through my hair and let my head fall. So, basically, I was going to spend the first week or more of my time in Canada with pneumonia and it would take forever for me to even be able to look for work. Or even worse, I would become nothing but a Aubrey flavored popsicle. I was already well on my way, it seemed.

"You know you won't see anyone that lives at that house until at least ten, right?" I heard a slightly amused voice coming from the yard next door. "The latest I've seen someone slink up the driveway is like two in the morning, so if you're waiting for someone you might want to just go home..."

I turned and looked at them—him, I now saw, and chuckled a bit. "Well, I live here, now, too, so looks like the earliest you've seen someone coming up the driveway is two p.m.," I flashed him a slight smirk. Yeah, he was cute. Tall with dark brown, sort of shaggy hair, kind of pale and awkward looking, but really, really cute. "What are you, some kind of G Major stalker or something?" I asked him with a wink.

He laughed and shook his head no. "Hardly..." he leaned against the wall of the house he was standing next to, then gave me an up and down look. "So, you live here? I've never seen you even come to visit the Harrison's before..." he pointed out.

I raised an eyebrow at him and put my hair behind my ear. "That doesn't exactly support your theory that you're not a stalker," I teased, but decided to give him the courtesy of answering his question. "I'm Aubrey McDermott. I'm a friend of Sadie's...she invited me to stay here until I got on my feet..." I told him with a smile, watching carefully as he nodded in acknowledgement. "Okay so, you know that I'm not a psychotic, freaky, weirdo now...my turn..."

He smirked a little, and I had to admit, it was really kind of sexy. "Jamie Andrews..." he said, seeming to go into thought for a second. "I've been Jude's f—er, the Harrison's neighbor for years now..." he offered up as an explanation. And while, judging by the look on his face, I could see that wasn't the whole story, he didn't give me a chance to ask for anything else. Though from where he stopped, I could see that he and Jude were having trouble. "So, either you're certifiable and like being outside in subzero temperature and horrible snow or you don't have a front door key yet...and I'm assuming it's the latter..."

"Don't assume things, Jamie Andrews..." I gave him a playful smile, unmoving from my place on the front porch. I was almost sure that he wasn't going to offer to help me, anyway.

He returned my smile and shrugged a shoulder. "Oh, okay. And here I was about to invite you inside for some warmth and food, but clearly, if you're certifiable and like the cold, you don't need it, do you Aubrey McDermott?" he teased right back. Someone other than Sadie who could handle my sense of humor? I was beginning to think that Toronto was the best decision of my life.

I stood. "Well, I wouldn't say that..." I chuckled a little bit. "If you don't mind...a little warmth probably won't kill me..." I gave him a hopeful glance and hugged my coat a little tighter. "Sadie drove off before I had a chance to get the key from her..."

He stepped down from his front porch and smiled a little bit more. "Sure. My nana's making chicken stew for supper tonight, so that should help you warm up a bit..." he offered, grabbing up one of my suitcases from the floor of the porch. "Let's go..."

Another plus about being here in Toronto, people seemed a lot nicer. At least in this neighborhood. Not to mention far, far more attractive. I followed Jamie into his house and took a quick glance around, smiling and following Jamie to where he set my bags down in the corner. "Thanks...any longer and I probably would hand ended up with frostbite or something..."

"James is that you?" I heard the voice of an elderly woman coming from the other room. I remembered him mentioning something about his nana outside, so I figured that must have been her, and I smiled when I saw her face."Oh, hello there...I don't believe we've met..." she addressed me with a pleasant smile, which I returned.

I extended a hand to shake hers and smirked. "I'm Aubrey McDermott...I'm a friend of Sadie Harrison's. I just moved in with Sadie and Jude..." I told her with a small grin. "I hope it's no trouble that I'm here...I managed to find myself locked out, since I don't have a key yet..." I bit my lip. It was an embarrassing situation. My first day in town and here I was locked out of the house in a snowstorm.

"Oh dear...well it's nice to meet you, Aubrey...you can call me nana," she smiled softly. "Will you be staying for supper?"

Jamie nodded and looked at her. "Yeah, she will. If that's all right..." he looked out into the kitchen. "Do you need any help with anything, nana?"

She shook her head and smiled. "Why don't you show her around the house, James..." she offered and nodded toward a hallway leading a little farther into their place. I swear, I had stepped out of hell and into heaven.

Jamie nodded and started down the hall, beckoning me to follow. "The ground floor is nana's. But this is the bathroom if you need it during supper, this is nana's room, the spare room and the laundry room..." he shrugged them off, chuckling a little. "And then we go upstairs..." he started up the stairs. "The upstairs is mine..."

"Usually, I don't go into a guy's room until the second time I meet them, at least," I joked, watching as Jamie seemed to suddenly be having a kind of difficult time going up the stairs, tripping over either his foot or the next step up and practically face-planting. I stifled a laugh and smoothed a hand through my hair, biting my lip and looking at him as he tried to regain his bearings. "You okay?"

He cleared his throat, nodded his head and tried to shake it off. "Oh. Um, yeah, I'm all right..." he said, not looking at me right away, but in his reflection in the window, I could see that his face was almost as red as a tomato. He didn't acknowledge the comment I'd made; instead continued up the last couple steps and nodded at a door down the hall. "That's the bathroom...that's my room and this is the den..." he opened the door and let me go in first. "We can watch a movie, play a video game...anything...it's up to you..."

I smiled at him and shrugged. "What would you normally be doing right now?" I asked. I didn't want to mess with his everyday schedule or anything.

He chuckled. "Oh. I have a...sort of recording studio in the basement...I'd probably be tinkering down there with...the artists that I don't have..." he said with a laugh and a roll of his eyes.

"A studio?" I asked, eyes widening. Was everyone that Sadie knew musically inclined? Made me kind of feel left out.

Jamie went sort of coy and shrugged a shoulder. "It's...nothing really..."

I gave him a look. "I'll be the judge of that..." I told him somewhat sternly, but with a grin on my face to keep his spirit light. "Show me..."

"Okay, um, follow me..." he said, nodding out the door and brushing past me. His subtle, sort of awkward shyness was really attractive. The way he shied away from any touch right off the bat was even more so. Not only was he kind of a nerd (which wasn't a bad thing, really), but he was a cute, nice nerd. It seemed to me that there was absolutely no downside whatsoever to living in Toronto. At least not so far.

I followed him down the stairs, past the kitchen where the smell of the stew that his nana was making had started to radiate through the entire floor and it was making the fact that I hadn't eaten since before I'd gotten on the bus in Iowa even more prominent. But I didn't say anything, instead followed silently as Jamie opened up the door to the basement and showed me down the stairs.

Sure enough, it was set up like a music studio. Computers and mixers like the things Sadie had shown me in pictures from G Major, only on a much smaller scale. It looked far cozier than what I'd seen of the G Major studio, like something any artist would want to perform in, really. "I don't know what you're talking about Jamie. This is...really great. If I had any musical talent, I'd sign with you, just to get the chance to perform here..."

With a bit of a smile again, Jamie shrugged his shoulders and sat down in the chair in front of the computer, turning and looking at me. "Thanks...we have a couple potential signings in the works...but nothing concrete yet..." he told me, leaning back in the chair.

"I'm sure it wouldn't hurt G Major if you pilfered a couple of their artists, either..." I winked and took a seat on the couch, turning to face him with the same look on my face. I didn't know why I couldn't stop smiling around Jamie, but it seemed as though he brought out more smiles than anyone had in a long time. Even Sadie.

He laughed nervously. "Funny you should mention that..." he bit his lip.

"Oh?"

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "That...uh...stays between us, okay?" he showed me a pleading glance.

I nodded and gave him my best attempt at a comforting smile. "Secret's safe with me, Jamie."

He smirked, looked down at his shoes and then glanced up at me without really raising his head, so only his eyes were facing me. "So, what about you, Aubrey? What brings you up to Toronto?"

I shrugged a shoulder and made myself a little more comfortable. "I don't know. I was in desperate need of a change of scenery and a change of pace, so what better way to get it then moving from Iowa to Toronto?" I asked with a little smile.

"Iowa...wow, that is a change..." he blinked a couple times.

I laughed and nodded. "You're telling me. The town I used to live in had two hundred people in it in tourist season, so right now, I'm loving my life. I was made for the city, I decided awhile ago," I smiled, watching as his grin turned to a smile and feeling my heart flutter a bit...which was weird, because I was by no means a wishy washy girl. "So, Sadie offered my a place to stay and...yeah, I jumped on it."

Jamie laughed a little and crossed his arms, leaning forward a little bit. "I would have never thought of Sadie Harrison as the charitable type..." he quipped.

I laughed, because honestly, when I'd first met Sadie, I'd thought she was nothing but a blonde brat who lived for nothing but self indulgence. "There's a lot people don't know about her. But Kwest knows it all..." I added with a huge smirk.

He laughed again, and I caught the first real, good glimpse of the look on his face when he laughed...and the smile on my face grew even wider, to the point that it hurt a little. I had been about to say something to him when I heard his nana calling from upstairs, telling us that supper was ready. "Shall we?" Jamie asked with a small smile. And without hesitation, since I was so damn hungry I felt my stomach might implode, I stood and watched as he stood too, looking up at him and starting toward the stairs.