Page 23 of Abdominal Snowman

Sage sucked in a deep breath. Gabi wouldn’t believe her if she told her.

“I… uhm,” Sage hedged.

“Well? Spit it out!”

Sage didn’t know what to tell her. But something close to the truth would have to work, because Gabi knew Sage too well.

“I may have overestimated my abilities to drive in the snow,” she began after clearing her throat.

“Oh no,” Gabi groaned. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” Sage replied with a wince. “I wrecked it while trying to find the SnowBnB. Slid right off the road.”

“Well, are you okay? Did you call someone?” she asked like a worried mother. It made Sage smile.

“Some guy found me,” she said, trying to sound casual.

“Oh?” Gabi asked, dipping her tone suggestively. “A guy? Tell me it wasn’t some old geezer.”

Unbidden, an image of Soren standing naked by the bed in his monster form flashed through her head.

“Uh… he’s something. But not a geezer.”

Gabi squealed so loudly Sage had to pull the phone away from her ear. “Tell me more! This is why you’ve been off the radar? I want to know everything.”

Sage winced. “There’s not much” —too much— “to tell. I wrecked, he found me, let me sleep on his couch, and…” Now what?

“And now you’re chilling wine in the snow and making dinner together?” Gabi asked all swoony.

“Put your dick away,” Sage scolded with a laugh. “It’s not like that.”

Soren was attractive, but Sage was still… processing. He was a monster, but Gabi didn’t need to know that.

“Aw, but Sage,” she whined, dragging out her name. “I gotta live through you!”

“I think you’re more than likely to meet someone in California than I am in the secluded mountains.”

“But that’s no fun,” Gabi argued. “Someone saving you, a Floridian, from certain death in the treacherous mountains of… of…”

Gabi trailed off, waiting for Sage to fill in the blank. Stubbornly, she remained quiet until Gabi huffed.

“Fine, don’t play along,” she grumbled before morphing back into her story voice and continuing. “Saving you from certain death in the treacherous, snowy, mountainous, totally unfamiliar terrain for the sun kissed auburnette—”

“Gabi!” Sage interrupted with a laugh. “That’s not even a word. And I’m not one of your romance novels.”

“Hmm. You’re right. There’s certainly less tentacles so far.”

Sage couldn’t help but laugh. Gabi didn’t know it, but she was the best at cheering Sage up.

“So what are you going to do now?” Gabi asked, back to mom mode.

Standing, Sage glanced out the window and sighed. “Well, right now it’s still snowing. A blizzard came in pretty much the day I arrived.” She turned to face the room and eyed the mess of blankets in the bed. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Soren must have carried her up to bed the night before.

“You always did know how to arrive in style,” her friend teased. “So you’re just waiting for it to clear?”

I think so. I hope so?

“Yeah, probably.” She could add that to her list of questions to ask Soren.