“We usually have some stuff around the house for kids or for inclement weather,” Josh said. “There’s a whole cabinet of card and board games. There are DVDs and some craft stuff. Rosie’s always up to baking Christmas cookies.”
Ian could sense the silent groaning his kids were doing, but they were too polite to let them out. “We could always jump in the truck and go explore the town.”
“Maybe you missed the part about it being fifteen below zero,” Jacob said.
“Don’t put your window down,” he shot back.
“Okay, little monsters,” Josh said to his kids. He tossed Bella over his shoulder and shuffled toward the door with Nate wrapped around his leg. “If you give me back my phone, you can each take a goofy selfie to send to Mommy.”
Three hours later, Ian was so bored he was on the verge of asking Andy and Josh if there were any projects around the property he could help with. Maddie and Jacob were sprawled on the couch in the living room, content to scroll on their phones and share videos with each other. His first instinct had been to make them disconnect and do something, but it was too cold to do anything outdoors. And, as he kept reminding himself, it was their vacation, too. If bonding over videos he didn’t see the humor in was what made them happy, he’d leave them to it. At least they were doing it together.
He had no idea where Rosie had gone. He hadn’t seen her in a while. The Hendersons had left the house on snowshoes, but he’d heard their voices outside and wasn’t surprised they hadn’t been gone very long. He hadn’t seen Andy, and Josh had taken the kids back to their cabin to see if he could talk them into taking naps.
On his third scanning of the DVDs on the shelf, as if something he wanted to watch was magically going to appear, Ian heard the kitchen door close and decided it didn’t matter who it was. He was going to find somebody to talk to or something he could help with because the only alternative was a nap and he hated sleeping vacation days away. Even the wicked cold ones.
When he entered the kitchen and saw Nola hanging her coat on a hook by the back door, the rush of pleasure and anticipation hit Ian so hard, he stopped walking. Her nose and cheeks were pink from the cold, and he smiled when she pulled off her knit cap and the static made her hair fly up. After sticking the hat in the sleeve of her coat, she pulled her feet out of her boots and stepped into a pair of slippers from the pile off to the side.
When she finished and looked up, he braced himself for that jolt of connection he felt whenever their eyes met and yet it still took his breath his away. And the way Nola looked at him—as though just the sight of him had made her day immeasurably better—made him want to get down on his knees and beg her to be his forever.
He really needed to get a hold of himself.
“Looking for a snack?” she asked as he finally got his feet to move and started toward her.
“Not really. I’m bored and heard the door, so I was looking for company.”
“Will I do?”
His brain wanted to shout out just how much she did it for him, so he kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t stop his lips from curving into a wide grin, though, and her eyes sparkled as she neared him. Just when he was going to reach out for her, though, Nola opened the pantry door.
Maybeshewanted a snack?
Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the pantry with her. When she closed the door, it was dark, but his vision adjusted after a few seconds so he could see her face in the stripes of light shining through the slats in the door.
“What are we doing?” He hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “This feels a lot more clandestine than you being unable to reach something on a high shelf.”
“Clandestine is a fun word.”
“It is. I like being clandestine with you, so I hope we’re not really here for that jar of applesauce up there.”
“We’re not, though Rosie and Laney make really excellent applesauce.”
Then she hooked her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. He cupped her cheeks with his palms, intending to bury his fingers in her hair. But her face was still cold from being outside, so he left them there to warm her skin. His thumbs brushed over her cheekbones as her lips parted, allowing his mouth to claim hers.
Ian definitely wasn’t bored anymore. The heat in the kiss warmed her cheeks quickly, so he moved one hand to her hair and dropped the other to her waist. As the kiss deepened, he slid his hand from her waist down over her hip before reaching around to cup her ass. When he pulled her as close to his body as they could get while fully clothed, she moaned against his mouth and it felt as if his blood sizzled in his veins.
When the kiss ended, she sighed and rested her forehead against his shoulder while he wrapped his arms around her.
“I had no idea kissing in a pantry closet could be so much fun,” he said when he was sure he could talk without his voice cracking.
Pressed against him as she was, she had to tip her head back to see his face. “When I first saw you, I wished I was the kind of woman who would pull a guy like you into the pantry for a stolen kiss.”
“I guess youarethat kind of woman.”
“I’d accuse you of being a bad influence on me, but I think you’re actually being a very good influence.”
“I’ve never kissed a woman in a pantry before, so who’s really influencing who here?”
“It was the only way I could be sure I got a kiss today.”
