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Natalie’s head whipped up when the side door slammed. Declan’s grumbling echoed in the mudroom as he stomped the snow from his boots. She couldn’t help but smile when he entered the kitchen with his normal scowl on his face while brushing melting snowflakes from his hair.

“I can’t believe it’s snowing again.” He poured himself another cup of coffee and took a long sip. Black coffee. Yuck. How he could drink straight sludge from the pot was a mystery. She needed cream and sugar. Lots of it. All the caffeine, none of the nasty flavor. “At least the gate and your car were dealt with before the sky spit wet, cold shit at us again.”

Natalie laughed. “You own a house in the middle of the Adirondacks. It always snows here. Shouldn’t you know that?”

“Inevercome here during the winter. My brother likes it. He escapes the Arizona heat when the cabin isn’t rented out for the week. But I prefer the place in Florida where it’s sunny and seventy-five in the December.” He studied her over his mug as he brought it to his mouth.

She shouldn’t be staring. He’d had his lips on hers, but the way they wrapped around the edge of the cup made her curious about how they’d feel against her skin.

“Did you get in touch with the car rental place in town?”

She shook herself out of her stupor and met his gaze, fighting out of the fog of lust she’d fallen into. He tilted his head and his lips twitched, but he never broke eye contact. Did he know what she was thinking? Her cheeks heated, and she turned away from him before her face gave away her runaway thoughts.

“Yeah, they don’t have anything available until after Christmas.”

“Wow,” he huffed.

Was he upset about being stuck with her longer? She hated to impose.

“There are plenty of places to stay in town if you want to drop me off.”

“What?” His eyes narrowed. “You want toleave?”

“Uh…” She swallowed. Why did that make him mad? “I mean, didn’t you want a week with Chris?”

He nodded but then shook his head and took a deep breath. “Is this about last night? I thought we were okay.”

She paused as he shifted on his feet, his eyes darting from one place to another while avoiding her. Was he nervous?

“You mean because you kissed me?”

He swallowed and nodded. Hewasnervous.

“Declan.” Damn, his concern was cute. “The kiss was—”

“Donotsay nice.” He winced.

“I was going to say hot.” She chuckled when his eyes went wide and finally zeroed in on her. “And that doesn’t have anything to do with it. You want time with Chris, and I’m in the way.”

He shook his head.

“Do you want me to stay?”

“It makes the most sense. We’ve had fun. Chris’s issues weren’t actually about you. And I hate the idea of you alone in a random hotel room for Christmas.” He shrugged. “At least if you stay here, it might almost feel like Christmas. Now that the gate is open, we can get a plow in here to clear the driveway, but if it keeps coming down like this, we’ll have to hold off on getting a tree.”

“Tree?”

“Yeah, I promised Chris we would go cut down a Christmas tree. Which is fine. I’ll do it, but I’m sure as hell not doing it in whiteout conditions.”

“I don’t think it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.”

Chris had quizzed her earlier about making cookies much the way he had about the snowman. So if she was staying and didn’t make the cookies happen soon, he’d be disappointed.

“We could bake Christmas cookies today. I checked earlier, and I think we have all the stuff. Even found some red, white, and blue sprinkles in the cabinet.”

“My mom probably left them here when we celebrated the Fourth of July.” His eyes widened. “Do you think they’re still good?”

She waved off his worry. “Yeah, sprinkles stay good forever. They’re almost pure sugar.”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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