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He followed her gaze toward the lone bulb outside her back door. At first, he saw nothing. But then a tiny fleck passed in front of it. Then another. And another.
It was snowing.
“Looks like you got your wish,” he said.
“Now the evening reallyisperfect.”
Another shiver rattled her. It was time to get them back inside before she caught cold. He tucked her under his arm and angled for the back porch. “So, what do you think? Maybe I could stop by next weekend, grab dinner together at the Sweet Mash or—OW!”
Pain shot through Alex’s half-numb left foot. He looked down to find he’d missed the turn in the sidewalk and had kicked a large rock tucked into her landscaping. Biting back a litany of expletives, he released her to tend to his throbbing toes.
“Are you okay?” Mia asked.
He whistled through the pain. “Hopefully, I will be in a min—”
Light as bright as the sun washed over the backyard.
“Who’s out there?”
Alex cringed. Beside him, Mia had frozen.
“That better not be you, Danny Eichert,” Mrs. Harper called. “So help me, I will call your motherandthe police this time!”
“We’d better get inside before the cavalry arrives.”
Mia cupped his cheeks, planted a quick kiss to his lips, then tugged him toward the door. Broken toes or not, their trip outside had gotten Alex exactly what he wanted. Now to see if they could somehow actually make this long-distance thing work. Discretely, of course. He’d hate to ruin a schoolteacher’s squeaky-clean reputation.
The back door slid open as they were rounding the back porch. “Hey, Alex? Your phone’s ringing—uh, why are you guys walking like that?”
“Shh,” Mia said. “Alex stubbed his toe.”
“Brooklyn, what’s all the commotion about?” Mrs. Harper called.
Alex grimaced. “I think the cat is about to be out of the bag.”
“It’s all good, Mrs. H—you can kill the light. Mom and Alex were just taking out the trash.”
Darkness fell upon them once more as soft laughter rang out from the two-story behind them. “Sure they were, kid. Sure they were.”
Chapter Seven
Alex hobbled hisway upstairs to return his father’s call and get cracking on his edits. It was that or drag Mia into her room and scratch this damn itch, which he knew he couldn’t do with Brooklyn here. That kiss they’d shared in the dark had been the cherry on top of an amazing weekend and left him wanting more. Much more.
But, no, he was going to do this the right way. Date first, sex later. He’d waited far too long for this opportunity to let desire trip him up now. Since she’d just agreed to give this chemistry brewing between them a chance, he was going go full steam ahead to try to win her over. If that meant courting her for the next few weeks before taking things further physically, then so be it.
He had no doubt his first time with Mia would be well worth the wait.
Alex dropped into the office chair at his temporary desk and kicked off both shoes. Thankfully, his wounded toes were only red, not black and blue. So far, it didn’t seem anything was broken. Since a trip to the ER didn’t appear to be in his future, he picked up his cell. He hoped nothing had blown up badly enough at work for his old man to be calling on a Sunday night.
“Hey, Dad, sorry I missed your call,” Alex said. “What’s up?”
“We missed you at dinner tonight, son. Is everything okay?”
Alex frowned. “Uh, yeah. Did Mom not pass along my text about the Rover?”
“No,” his father said. “Did the power windows stop working again?”
Alex scratched the stubble on his cheek. He had remembered to call his mother last night, hadn’t he? Yes, he remembered telling her he’d had issues with the Rover, feeling guilty about the lie, and her wishing him safe travels back. Maybe she misunderstood. Darn, now he was stuck trying to come up with something fast to tell his father.
