Chapter 23

I was in the shower the next morning when my phone rang. At first, I wasn't going to answer it, but when the caller called back a second time, I figured it was something serious. I turned off the faucet and flung the shower curtain back, grabbing a towel so that I could dry my hands off just enough to pick up the phone and see who it was.

Jake. What did he want this early in the morning?

"Hello?" I said uncertainly.

"Have you left yet?" Jake asked breathlessly, skipping any sort of greeting in favor of getting directly to the point.

"Uh-uh. I was just getting ready. Is everything okay?"

"No. The roads are a freaking joke," he replied. "I'm not even halfway to the office yet."

I pulled the phone away from my ear long enough to look at the small digital clock on the right-hand corner of the screen. 6:25.

"Jesus. How long ago did you leave?"

"I don't know. Maybe a half hour ago. Look, I don't want you or Alejandra driving out in this. I'm going to close the office today."

Someone honked in the background.

"What about all your appointments?" I asked, cradling the phone between my shoulder and my ear so that I could wrap the towel around myself and step out of the tub. The hot steam was starting to evaporate, and it was getting chilly. "One of us needs to come in and call everyone to reschedule."

"I'll handle that. At least the cancelling part," he added after a moment. "I might have to tell them to call in tomorrow to reschedule, if that's okay."

"That's fine," I said. "Are you sure you don't need me to come in and help. I have four-wheel-drive." My jeep would do a lot better in the snow than his BMW.

"Yes. I don't want either of you to risk getting in an accident when I'm already out here. Speaking of, I've got to call Alejandra and let her know not to come in."

"Okay." I paused, trying to decide whether or not it was appropriate to say what was on my mind. Throwing caution to the wind, I asked, "Will you call or text me when you get there so I know you made it safe?"

"Of course. I've got to go. Talk to you soon."

I said goodbye and hung up the phone, then finished drying off.

Woohoo! An unexpected day off! And I knew just how I was going to spend it.

XXX

Ten minutes later I was dressed in my favorite work t-shirt and faded blue jeans and ready to start my day.

"Erik!" I hollered as gathered my short hair into a stumpy ponytail and bounced down the stairs.

He appeared in the doorway to the hall that led to the kitchen. I was slightly disappointed to see that he was fully dressed again, cloak and all, but I wasn't going to let that deter my excitement.

"Guess what!"

Erik folded his arms and looked up at me expectantly. "What?"

"I have the day off! Which means I get to spend it with you working in the kitchen!"

His eyes lit up and a large smile spread across his lips. "Is that so?"

"Yep," I replied as I brushed past him on my way to the kitchen. "Just give me a few minutes to make some coffee and finish waking up and then I'm…." I almost blurted out 'and then I'm all yours' but stopped myself at the last second. Blushing furiously, I finished, "and then we can get started."

I didn't want to linger to see if he'd noticed me making a fool out of myself, so I hurried into the kitchen and busied myself with measuring out the right amount of water and coffee grounds. Since I'd be home today, I decided to make a full pot. I was the type of person that could drink coffee all day if given the opportunity. While I waited for it to brew, I made myself some toast. I'd need the energy today. I wasn't a big breakfast person, but I figured skipping breakfast wasn't such a great idea with all the physical labor I'd be doing.

Toast and coffee in hand, I made my way to living room and sat down on the couch. One day I'd have my kitchen table back, and when I did, I probably wouldn't even know what to do with myself.

For whatever reason, Erik chose not to follow me, so I occupied myself with my phone while I ate. There was a text from Jake waiting for me, saying that he'd made it to work okay. I breathed a sigh of relief and typed back that I was glad. Then, for lack of anything else to do, I texted Maddie and Rochelle in our group chat.

C: Did you guys make it to work all right?

Rochelle responded right away.

R: Hell no. I wasn't going out in that. I called off sick today.

Maddie wasn't far behind.

M: I took my laptop home last night in anticipation of this storm being really bad, so I'm working from home.

C: I'm home too. My office is closed.

R: Hooray for no one having to drive in the snow! But when the weather clears, you think we could all get together? It feels like forever since we all got to hang out.

My eyes skipped away from the screen, and I frowned. It had been a while since we'd hung out with Rochelle, I thought guiltily. The last time Maddie and I got together was for my surprise blind date. It was well past time for a girl's night.

C: I'm all for it.

M: Me too. Let's chat in a couple days and see what we can work out.

We all agreed to touch base sometime during the weekend and the conversation died as we all went back to what we were doing beforehand.

Or so I thought.

A few minutes later, my phone rang.

"Hello?"

"So, does this mean you're not mad at me anymore?" Maddie asked. Her voice was tight, as though she were expecting me to snap at her.

I stifled a sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I should be furious with you. You had no right to go behind my back and schedule a date with a guy I had told you I wasn't sure about seeing. But…I've been too busy to be mad."

She immediately picked up on the lilt in my voice at the end of that sentence. "Busy how?"

I stayed silent. Let her suffer for a minute. She deserved to wait in suspense.

"Christine Davies! Busy how?"

"We went to dinner after work on Monday."

"I knew it!" she exclaimed in a squeal so high-pitched I had to yank the phone away to stop her from blowing out my eardrum. "And? And?"

"And, we kissed," I revealed. "Once after dinner and a few times before I went home last night."

"YES!" She released another squeal, followed by what sounded like her stomping her feet on the floor. "So…how was it?"

"Oh my god, Maddie, it was so good! It feels like ages since I've been kissed like that."

"Better than Ben?"

I made a noncommittal sound. "I don't know. Ben was a good kisser. This was different. But not in a bad way. It's definitely something I want to do again."

"See? I was right. Aren't you glad I took the initiative for you? When are you going to see him again?" she prompted without waiting for me to answer the last question.

"I'm not sure. I haven't gotten much of a chance to talk to him outside of work."

"Well, you don't work today. You said so yourself. He closed the office. Now's the perfect chance to get together."

"It's a blizzard outside!" I exclaimed. "Have you seen it?"

"All the more reason to snuggle up on the couch in front of your fireplace sipping hot cocoa."

My eyes drifted to the cold fireplace and my thoughts involuntarily turned to Erik and how I'd almost accidentally spilled my guts to him last night. What would he think if I invited Jake over?

He probably wouldn't think anything because he doesn't think about you like that.

"We'll see."

"'We'll see,' she says," Maddie laughed. "Promise to tell me all about it if you do?"

I agreed and we hung up. Shoving my phone into my back pocket, I dusted the crumbs off the front of my shirt, picked up my coffee cup and empty plate, and headed back to the kitchen.

Erik was busy lining up the tools that we'd need for the day and looked up when I walked in.

"Ready to begin?" he asked.

"Absolutely." I put the plate in the sink and set my empty cup next to the coffee maker. "So, tell me how this is going to work."

He pointed a long, delicate finger at the tile. "We need to finish breaking up and removing the old tile and mortar. I'll use the sledgehammer while you take the shovel and clear away the debris. Together, we'll work our way around the kitchen like so," he said, sweeping his hand in a clockwise motion around the room. "Do you have a something that we can put the broken pieces in?"

I warily glanced out the kitchen window. The sky was still dark, but the lone light above the shed door showed me that the storm had only gotten worse during the past few hours. "I do…but it's in my tool shed."

Erik followed my gaze. "Ah. I see."

Opening the wooden back door, I peered out through the glass of the screen door and slowly took stock of the situation. It had dumped at least another six inches overnight. The wind had pushed the snow drifts around, creating a valley of sorts between the house and my shed, with all the drifts on the south side being slightly higher and curvier than the ones on the north. Thankfully the roof on the house and the shed had high, dramatic pitches, or I would have had to seriously think about how the hell I was going to get all the snow off. I'm sure there were people all over the city this morning that were worried about the heavy snow caving in their rooves.

I jumped as Erik's silky voice reverberated in my ear. "I could help you, if you'd like."

While I was busy fretting about the snow, he had come up behind me and was now standing so close to me that if I leaned backward just a little, I was sure I could've pressed my back against his chest.

"Jesus, Erik!" I yelped, more to cover my heated thoughts than out of surprise. I twisted around to look at him and narrowed my eyes playfully. "I need to put a freaking bell on you."

The smile that crossed his lips as his eyes dropped down to meet mine made my heart flutter and my knees go weak.

"Apologies, my dear." He retreated a few paces and the air instantly cooled between us. "I merely wished to offer my assistance if you need it."

I cleared my throat. "That would be great. Thank you."

He nodded. "Go and fetch your coat then."

I gladly accepted his dismissal and practically jogged into the front room, eager for a chance to calm down and catch my breath. Sweet Jesus, that man had no idea what he did to me. Plucking my coat off the back of the couch, I hurriedly put it on and returned to the kitchen, and together we braced ourselves to go outside.

The snowflakes were like a thousand tiny knives driving themselves into my face as I stepped through the door and into the snow. The drastic change in temperature immediately sent me into a coughing fit. I quickly buried my nose in the collar of my coat, hoping that my breath would be warm enough to ease the spasm in my chest. The snow was nearly thigh-high as I trudged through the bank between my house and the shed.

"Way to go, Christine," I muttered. "You are officially an idiot."

"Come again?"

"Oh nothing. I was just congratulating myself on my decision to leave the snow shovel in the shed, because that wouldn't have been handy right now or anything."

Erik chuckled softly and I smiled. I don't think I'd ever grow tired of hearing him laugh.

I was an icicle by the time I reached the shed door and pried it open. The air wasn't much warmer inside, but it at least provided shelter from the bitter wind outside, and for that I was eternally grateful. I stood there for a moment, rubbing my hands together to get some feeling back in them before I pulled the wheeled bin out from underneath the long shelf in the back. The cart was the type that had originally been used by hotel staff to collect dirty towels and bedsheets from the guests' rooms. I'd found it at a yard sale a few years ago and quickly scooped it up, knowing that it would come in handy as a makeshift dumpster for all my home improvement projects.

"You have quite the collection of equipment," Erik said in an awed tone. "I am continually amazed by your knowledge and desire to learn new things."

The blush that crossed my cheeks could have melted the snow outside. "Thank you," I beamed.

"Shall we?" He swung his arm to the side and the motion made his cloak fan out in an arc in front of him.

I nodded enthusiastically, anxious to get back inside where it was warm. I threw the flathead shovel into the bin and then grabbed the snow shovel so that I could carve a pathway for Erik to push the cart back to the house.

Time flew by after that. It didn't take us long to fall into a rhythm, anticipating each other's moves without ever having to say a word. As he'd done the night before, Erik stripped off his waistcoat and overcoat, preferring to work in his shirtsleeves. Every so often I'd catch myself staring at him as he swung the sledgehammer, completely mesmerized by the way the muscles in his arms and chest tightened underneath that white shirt. There was something about watching him work that was just oh so sexy and exhilarating. He'd caught me ogling him a few times, and each time he did I pretended to be winded and would make a comment about how shoveling the tile was way harder than I expected. I don't know if he bought it, but he never said anything.

Slowly but surely, patches of brown started showing through the dust and mortar and as we uncovered more and more, the more my excitement grew. By the time we reached the point where we had to move the kitchen table and shuffle the sawhorse and cabinet doors to the other side, I could barely contain myself.

"Okay, wait. Stop," I said as I tossed the shovel into the cart and pushed a strand of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail away from my eyes. "I want to see it."

Erik paused, looking from me to the floor with a peculiar expression.

Without taking time to explain, I ran down the hallway to the formal dining room and grabbed the shop vac, hauling it back with me.

"I can't wait any longer. I want to see it."

Making no attempt to hide his amusement, he nodded and silently moved out of my way. I quickly set about vacuuming up the fine dust and smaller particles of mortar that the shovel left behind. As I moved around the kitchen, I thought I heard a series of loud thumps over the high-pitched whirring.

I turned off the vacuum and glanced up at Erik. "Did you hear something?"

He shook his head 'no.'

I shrugged and leaned over to turn the vacuum back on when I heard it again. Three very distinct knocks.

Our eyes locked as we both froze, identical expressions of horror on our faces.

"Someone's at my door," I blurted, immediately wincing at how stupid I sounded for stating the obvious.

Dropping the vacuum hose, I whirled around and hurried down the hall, all the while wracking my brain on what kind of salesman would be dumb and desperate enough to brave the storm of the decade just to try to sell me something.

I opened the door, all prepared to give my "sorry you came out in the snow, but I'm not interested" spiel to the unlucky guy, but the words died on my tongue. There was Jake, standing on my snow-covered porch with a pretty blue muffler wrapped around his neck and the lower part of his face, holding two steaming cups of hot chocolate from what just so happened to be my favorite local coffee shop.

"Jake?" I sputtered. "Wh-what're you doing here?"

He worked his face out of his scarf and plastered me with a sheepish grin. "I hope you don't mind, but I looked up your address in the personnel files while I was at the office, and I thought I would surprise you with some hot chocolate and an offer to help you shovel out your walks and driveway."

Oh, there was no doubt about it. I was definitely surprised. He was the last person I'd expected to see standing on my doorstep.

"Can I come in?" he prompted when several long seconds had passed by and I had yet to say anything.

"I…uh…." I cast a hesitant glance toward the kitchen. I could certainly use the help with all the shoveling but at the same time I was having fun with Erik and really didn't want to stop. Still, I felt bad he'd come all this way in the snow and didn't feel right about turning him away. I stepped aside, swinging my hand to invite him into the house. "Sure."

"Thanks." He handed me one of the hot chocolates and stepped over the threshold. Using his free hand, he pulled the muffler away from his face and loosened it until it hung limply around his neck. Even in the muted light I could tell how much the blue brought out the blue in his eyes. Then he took a sip of his own hot chocolate, smacking his lips together in satisfaction before he said, "Can you believe this storm? When was the last time you remember it snowing like this?"

"Years, probably," I replied, shaking my head. "I think I was still in high school."

"What was that, like two years ago?" he grinned.

"Oh stop!" I teased, playfully smacking him on the shoulder. "I'll have you know, sir, that flattery will get you nowhere."

"Oh, no?" he said with a predatory grin, reaching for my hand.

A shadow moved in my periphery, and I immediately pulled my hand away from his grasp. I turned to find Erik leaning against the doorframe that led into the hallway, his arms folded across his chest and a scowl resting on his bottom lip.

Jake seemed to sense my unease. "Am I…am I interrupting something?" His eyes scanned the room. "Is someone here?"

I couldn't exactly tell him the truth, so I shook my head and said, "Nope. Just me. No one's here."

For some reason I felt horrible for saying that. Trying to pretend that Erik didn't exist grated, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I had somehow offended him by lying about his presence. I shifted my weight subtly, positioning myself in between them. It was a ridiculous gesture, given that Jake couldn't see Erik anyway, but I still felt the need to protect Jake from Erik's odd show of hostility while at the same time shielding Erik from Jake's prying eyes.

Jake let out an uncomfortable laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. I think I'm feeling a bit guilty because I basically resorted to stalking so I could see you today."

Normally I'd flirt back and tell him: Yeah, that was a bold move but I'm glad you risked it because I'm happy to see you. But at the moment all I wanted to do was break up this little triangle of tension.

"Let me get my coat and I'll meet you outside," was all I said instead.

Jake appeared somewhat wounded but agreed. "Okay. I'll see you in a sec."

As soon as the door shut, I let out a sigh of relief. Spinning on my heel, I turned to find Erik glaring at the door.

"Sorry," I whispered with a pained grimace.

Erik blinked. His eyes travelled to mine, his expression softening. "You don't need to apologize."

"Yes, I do. I was having fun with you. We had the whole day planned."

The corner of his mouth twitched. "And it will be here when you're done. Go. It would be foolish to turn away help with shoveling all this snow."

"Okay," I reluctantly agreed. "As long as you're all right with it."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Was it just me, or did the smile he gave me in return look a little forced?

I let out a brittle laugh. "Right. Okay, then. I'll see you in a little bit."

With that, I grabbed my coat and hot chocolate and hurried out the front door before I had a chance to regret it.

XXX

Damn him! The nerve of that pompous upstart, showing up on her doorstep without invitation, presuming to think that she had no other plans. His presence had obviously caught Christine off guard, that much was certain. But there was also an unspoken familiarity between them, one that indicated that she wasn't entirely upset by his intrusion.

It was Christine's quiet apology and genuine concern that finally broke through my haze of resentment and made me realize how completely boorish I was being. What right did I—a dead man—have to take up her time? Not when a living, breathing, undamaged man was standing right in front of her.

Christine's peal of laughter pulled me from my caustic thoughts, and against my better judgment, I crept over to the window and cautiously pulled back the lacy curtain. Her back was toward the house. She was brandishing the snow shovel in front of her like a weapon as her male counterpart slowly advanced on her.

"No! Don't you dare!" she screamed coquettishly.

Disregarding her half-hearted protests, the man charged, knocking the snow shovel from her hands as his arms wrapped around her petite frame and they both collapsed into one of the large snowbanks they'd just created. My hands involuntarily clenched into fists as the sound of her delighted cries filled the air and I averted my gaze, unable to watch a moment longer.

An all-too-familiar feeling settled into the pit of my stomach and its existence was as alarming as it was incomprehensible. I had admitted to myself long ago that I had grown quite fond of Christine. Our friendship had been the highlight of both my life and death. But what I was feeling now was positively unconscionable. It was utterly ridiculous to even entertain the notion that I was developing romantic feelings for her.

And yet, there it was. The tiny tendrils of longing had already begun to take root inside my heart. Turning back to the window I placed my palm against the glass and silently vowed that she would never know. It wasn't fair to burden her with the knowledge, and I'd be damned before I let my desire and jealousy ruin the best thing that had ever happened to me.