Page 23 of Big Package

“So I’ve heard.”

He rinsed the plate like he hadn’t just made every nerve in my body wake up at once.

I should have been annoyed. I was annoyed. I was also attracted to him in a way that was becoming difficult to dismiss as temporary, storm-related insanity.

My phone buzzed.

JANICE: Heard Delaney checked the shop. So I guess you’re stuck there a little longer. Tragic.

Cole glanced over his shoulder. “What?”

“Nothing.”

I turned the phone facedown before he could see it. Whatever was happening in this kitchen, it was absolutely nothing I intended to share with Janice or anyone else anytime soon.

CHAPTER 6

COLE

Emmy was getting restless.

She’d checked the road conditions, the town Facebook page, and the weather app often enough that I finally reached across the table and took her phone out of her hand.

“Hey. Did you seriously just confiscate my phone?”

“Yep.” I set it on top of the refrigerator.

Her mouth fell open. “You did not.”

“You’ve been monitoring the same snowplow for twenty minutes.”

“It moved.”

“Three feet.”

“It was progress.” She rolled my desk chair toward the refrigerator.

I caught the back before she could climb onto it. “Seriously? It has wheels.”

“I need my phone.”

“You need something else to do.”

She rolled the chair back with more force than necessary and crossed her arms.

The problem wasn’t the shop. Emmy needed a problem she could put her hands on and solve, preferably one with a list and a deadline. Sitting around waiting for a road crew was about as close to torture as I could imagine for her. I understood that better than I wanted to.

“Let’s build your tree.”

She blinked. “My wishing tree? You’ll help me put it together?”

“May as well.”

She jumped out of the chair. “I could kiss you right now.”

My whole body tensed.

Emmy froze too, then blushed. “Figuratively speaking, of course.”