Page 49 of The Reluctant Roommate

That was the Morgan who was worming her way into Heidi’s life in a good way. A very good way.

She refocused on Thanksgiving and breakfast. Christmas morning in Australia, she and Fiona had always made breakfast for the rest of the family. What had started purely as a way for her and Fi to escape the cleanup later, was now a Lincoln familytradition. Chunks of potato, pan-fried, then baked with whatever they found in the fridge, all topped with eggs and smothered in hot sauce always got them through the day until the late-afternoon dinner.

Potato mess was about to go intercontinental, although maybe with less hot sauce.

When Morgan appeared in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes and finding her way to the coffee machine by blind instinct, Heidi was whisking eggs in a bowl.

“Good morning! Happy Thanksgiving! Is that what you say, or is there some secret handshake or something?”

“Happy Thanksgiving is fine.”

Heidi left the eggs and went across. “Then Happy Thanksgiving.” She pressed a kiss to Morgan’s cheek and pretended not to notice how Morgan’s skin was soft under her lips, and the fine tremor that ran through her when she stepped away again.

“To you as well. Is that breakfast? It looks…interesting.”

“It is. And it will be about ten minutes. Long enough for you to guzzle that coffee. Also, it snowed in the night, and it’s your turn to shovel the path. But if you ask me nicely, we can do it together, seeing how it’s a holiday and we don’t have to work.” She paused. “That is, I’m assuming you don’t have to work? Your overseas clients don’t expect that?”

“No work for me. Just overeating and now, it seems, snow shoveling.”

Heidi slid the tray into the oven. Out of the corner of her eye, she took in Morgan’s flannel pajamas, dark green printed with yellow ducks. They were cute and entirely not what she expected Morgan to wear. The top was also misbuttoned, and one side of the top sagged, showing pale skin and a hint of a curve of the top of her breast. Heidi dragged her eyes away, focusing on the spice rack behind Morgan’s head. Morgan wasdelicious. How had shenot noticed it in the first ten seconds of meeting her? She poured herself another coffee for something to do with her hands that wasn’t reaching out to touch her.

They ate breakfast looking out at the backyard covered in a few inches of snow. Clearmont Street was quiet, with only the occasional crunch of tires along the snowy road or the clatter of studded snow tires.

Then Morgan went off to video chat with her parents in Vermont, and Heidi called Fiona to get her recipe for pan-fried brussels sprouts that made her most hated vegetable almost edible.

~ ~ ~

They decided that since the snow had stopped, they’d work up an appetite for dinner by shoveling snow. Once the turkey was in the oven and the sides had been prepared, they went outside dressed head to toe in winter gear and armed with snow shovels. Five inches of powder covered the steps and front yard.

“Let’s have a race.” Heidi settled her scarf more tightly. “One side of the path each, first to make a clear shovel width to the end wins.”

Morgan smothered a smile. She’d seen Heidi shoveling snow on days when it was her turn, and she was confident she’d win this. “What does the winner get?”

Heidi shrugged. “You choose.”

“Loser has to clean up after dinner.”

“Ooh, you’re confident.” She took position on the left-hand side of the steps.

Morgan took the right-hand side. She eyed Heidi. Her jeans clung to her curvy thighs, and her new snow boots were still pristine. A beanie perched on top of her head, only a swoop ofgreen hair—the latest color—falling over her forehead. Cute. So very cute.

“On the count of three,” Heidi said. “Three, two, one, go!” She started shoveling, throwing the powder snow off to the side. The loose powder tipped off her shovel as she threw, and as much fell back on the path as off it.

Morgan watched her for a moment.Too easy.She faced the road and set the shovel blade down, angled toward the grass. As she walked steadily forward, the blade acted as a snowplow, pushing the powder snow off the path. She reached the end in only a couple of minutes, while Heidi was still less than halfway along. Her head was down, breath puffing in the cold as she flung powder haphazardly away from the path.

Morgan leaned on her shovel and waited. In another couple of minutes, Heidi reached the end and flung her shovel down, breathing hard. “How did you finish so quickly?”

“Skill and experience. It’s hopeless trying to shovel powder snow. Your way works when the snow’s wetter, but not when it’s this cold. So I scrape.” She demonstrated.

“For that, you can do the sidewalk while I catch my breath.”

Morgan soon cleared a path along the sidewalk, continuing on to their neighbor’s section. She returned to where Heidi stood at the end of the path, cheeks ruddy from the cold, a dusting of snow on her jacket. Her chest rose and fell under her clothes.

“Your good deed for the day.” With a wave, Heidi indicated Aileen’s section of sidewalk.

“She’s away.”

“I guess I’m on cleanup duty, then. Ha!” Heidi bent and scooped up a handful of snow, then tried to shape it into a snowball. She flung it at Morgan but it disintegrated, falling between them.