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Although I really didn’t want to talk to Ryan, I needed to tell him about my parents, and see if he’d heard anything from Jeremy. I peeked out into the living room and saw that Ryan was sprawled out on the couch, his head tipped back, his eyes closed. He had earbuds in, and I couldn’t tell if he was asleep, or just lost in whatever he was listening to.
Rather than stepping out to wake him up, I took a second to really look at him. I spent so much time keeping my distance and avoiding contact with him, I rarely actually saw him. I decided to take my opportunity while I had it.
He looked as gorgeous as ever. He was wearing dark, perfectly fitted jeans, and a thick charcoal sweater that looked cozy but accentuated his chest and biceps. His dark hair was a little bit longer than I remembered it. He rarely let it grow out, because it was naturally wavy, and he had always hated the little curls. I thought it looked cute that way though. He also had some barely visible stubble on his face, which I knew from experience he wouldn’t shave while he was here.
The only thing I couldn’t currently see were his sexy dark eyes, which was a shame. The only time I got to see them was when he was glaring at me, or rolling them at something I said or did. Like breathing.
I couldn’t help noticing that he looked wonderful, but tired. Worn out. He drove me nuts, but I wasn’t so heartless as to not notice how hard this time of year always was on him. He’d been consistently more distant since his parents’ death, but the holidays, especially this one, seemed to haunt him. I felt a rare pang of sympathy for him and I vowed to be a tiny bit nicer to him if I could manage it.
My perusal was cut short when Ryan, who must have sensed my presence, suddenly sat up, his eyes blinking open. He saw me and slowly removed one earbud.
“What?” He already looked bothered that I even existed, so I had to take a deep breath and remember the promise that I had made only a moment before to be nice to him.
“I thought you would like to know that I heard from my parents. Their flight was canceled because of the storm. They won’t be here till tomorrow afternoon probably.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he muttered, running his hand through his unruly hair.
“Yep. This blows. What about Jeremy? Any word?” I asked. I hoped desperately that Ryan would tell me that my brother was pulling into the driveway at that precise moment.
“No. I don’t think so,” he said, picking up his phone and checking his messages. “Shit. Wait, yes. There’s a text. I must have missed it. He sent it an hour ago.”
Ryan tapped on the screen. Then he scowled.
“Well?” I crossed my arms over my chest impatiently. “What does it say?”
“The storm is really bad. They closed the road. I have to turn back. I’ll try again in the morning. See you tomorrow,” Ryan read out loud.
My stomach plummeted. That was it. The final nail in the coffin. We were stuck here overnight, completely and totally alone.
Ryan and I stared at each other in horror. I swore that I could already feel the walls closing in around us.
“What the hell do we do now?” I whispered.
I looked around helplessly. I was hoping that my parents were going to suddenly jump out from behind the furniture, declaring it all a practical joke.
“There’s nothing we can do. I can’t magic them here, April, can you?” Ryan snapped irritably.
“You are such an ass,” I immediately replied. “How my brother has stayed friends with you so long I’ll never know.”
I didn’t wait for his response. It didn’t matter, anyway. Instead, I went back to my room, slamming the door in frustration.
It was too early to fall asleep, so I just laid in the bed, staring at the ceiling while imagining fun ways to torture Ryan. I could blast terrible music all night so that he couldn’t sleep, but he had his headphones with him, and it would annoy me just as much. Or I could sneak into his room and steal his clothes and throw them out into the snow. But I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t kill me if he caught me in his room.
I ran through a few more fun, evil scenarios in my mind, until I was smiling again. I heard Ryan go into his room sometime later, which was right next to mine, and the faint rustling meant that he was getting undressed. And just like that, the visions in my head changed drastically.
I rolled over and sighed.
Nothing about my feelings towards Ryan Gardner were simple.
CHAPTER FOUR
Ryan
The freezing cold air woke me in the morning. I was wrapped in several blankets, but still couldn’t fight off the chill. It wasn’t a good sign. When I was unable to ignore the frigid temperature any longer, I rolled off the top bunk and put on a thicker pair of socks and a hoodie to go with my sweatpants.
Still half asleep, I walked out to find April already messing with the thermostat, and swearing under her breath at the device.
“As if this situation couldn’t possibly get any worse, I think the furnace died,” she grumbled.
