AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I think you do know the answer.”
“Yeah. This is better,” she said. “Every time I think I’ve found my center, when I’m healthy and happy, they turn up to take a little of that away.” Even beneath the coat and the blankets, he could see her shoulders sag. “It was stupid to take this trip. Nothing good ever comes from spending time with people who look down on you. I’ve been engaging in some magical thinking and I’m convinced the storm is nature’s way of telling me I should have stayed home.” She frowned and shook her head. “What about you? Got anyone at home right now, missing you?”
“Is that your subtle way of asking if I’m single?”
“No. I wasn’t being subtle.”
He barked a laugh and someone a few cots down shushed them. He waved apologetically. “I’m single. And no family in town.” He pushed aside the flicker of pain the words brought. “My mom moved three years ago and my sister moved shortly thereafter.”
“Personally, that sounds like heaven, but you sound sad about it.”
“I am.” He rolled onto his back. “So what’s your favorite Christmas movie?”
“Die Hard,” she said without hesitation.
“Now is that because you really think it’s a Christmas movie, or do you just want to start an argument?”
“Both.”
He stifled another surprised laugh. After that, the subject of family was gently set aside and they talked about their favorite movies for a while, which was nice. Eventually though, her voice got scratchy and her eyes began to droop closed.
“I’m falling out,” she whispered.
“Then go to sleep.”
She seemed to be considering something. “Um, are you okay with platonic cuddling?”
A thrill jittered through him. “I’ve been told that I'm an amazing cuddler.”
“Oh thank god. ‘Cause you look warm and I like hugs.” She turned away from him and pushed closer until they were spooned up, her bottom, padded as it was by the coat, pressed to him.
“Is it alright if I put my…” He wasn’t sure how to describe it so he just let his arm hover over her.
She grabbed his forearm and pulled it around her. “Oh, you’re so warrrrrrm.” A soft moan crept out of her and he stared across the terminal, to the wall with the giant “Luggage Claim” sign on it, trying to not replay that moan in his head. What was wrong with him? She was a perfect stranger. A perfectly lovely stranger with a voice that caressed him, and the sweetest dimples he’d ever seen. With a filthy mouth and a sugary smile. And based on the few things she said about her family, maybe a little broken. He pulled her close and held her tight.
He knew about broken.
CHAPTER TWO
Gabriel sipped his third cup of coffee and grimaced. No amount of sugar ever truly made the bitterness of coffee palatable for a sweet tooth like his. If hot cocoa would have kept him awake he’d have preferred that, but he was exhausted and sore from sleeping on the airport floor, and cocoa just didn’t have the caffeine he needed.
Not that he regretted sleeping there.
He stared out the revolving doors for the hundredth time, but there was nothing to see. The storm continued, somehow worsening overnight.There was a wall of white between the hotel and the airport. Between them.
Talia had woken up while he was packing his bag and had watched him quietly. He asked her to come to the hotel and spend the day there, rather than the airport, but she said she didn’t want him to feel obligated to babysit her.
He’d wanted to argue that it would have been fun if she’d come over. That he liked seeing her face. But that was the kind of thing that sounded cute your head, but when said out loud to someone you hardly knew, it could come across as creepy.
At least she’d given him her number. They’d been texting ridiculous memes and silly things all day. He’d even felt comfortable enough to send some god-awful cheesy dad jokes that were rewarded with rows of tearful laughing emojis.
His phone jangled in his pocket and he sat down the coffee. “An actual phone call?” he said, instead of hello. “I thought young people don’t do that anymore.”
“I’m hardly a young person,” Talia said. “I only play one on the internet.”
“They say forty is the new twenty.”
“Tell that to my back. She says forty is still forty.” Her yawn carried through the phone. “I’m so bored. I’ve read the whole internet. Tell me a joke.”
