Alec stared across the kitchen at Rebecca, his gaze dropping to the towel she twisted. Had he heard her right?
“I mean—” Her face flamed. “Can you stay over until the snow stops?”
He’d been reaching blindly for his down vest but let his hand fall back to his side. His chest squeezed at the distress on her face. Though she’d been curious enough to ask about his father, she seemed intent on ignoring the kiss and their mutual attraction—in other words, him.
She might not trust herself in another relationship yet, which was a shame because she had so much going for her. But to keep his word to Rob, he had to put physical distance between them. He’d almost kissed her again this morning, and her closeness behind the shrubs had nearly driven him crazy. Obviously, he couldn’t trust himself.
Before he could formulate a reply, she waved her hands as if erasing words on a board. “Never mind. I’m sure you have things to do and never expected to spend your morning thawing my water pipes.”
“Becca—” He settled his hands on her shoulders in what he hoped was a calming gesture, but she turned her head. Her silky ponytail brushed his fingers, and his words stalled.
“Forget I asked. I was being a wimp.” She retreated from his hold and straightened, chin up. Her pretty mouth trembled. “I can shovel snow, and I won’t have to worry about the wildlife bothering me.”
“You know that’s not true. Deer and rabbits come down off the mountains and raid people’s gardens in the winter.”
“I was talking about bears, not rabbits. Any self-respecting bear will have retreated to his cave since it’s gotten colder.” She sent him an exasperated look, but her fingers tightened on the back of a kitchen chair and she frowned.
“I got it.” He flexed his biceps in a bodybuilder pose. “You’re only interested in my shoveling muscles.”
She completely missed his teasing note. “How could you think that after…” She waved her hands toward the den and the tree. “All we’ve been through.”
He waited for her to mention the kiss, but instead she rearranged the row of individual salt and pepper shakers lining the shelf under the window.
He leaned a hand on the counter and peered into her face. “Are you all right?”
She pulled the elastic from her hair and wound the band around her wrist, offering a little laugh. “Depends on what you mean.”
He frowned, mystified. “You have a problem?”
“Not really.” She squared her shoulders. “I have to get ready. Can’t believe these guests I’m supposed to entertain are coming tonight.” She walked to a section of the long counter and lifted the red-checkered kitchen towel draped over a cookie sheet. “And I want to finish making the gingerbread house when I get back from the store.”
Alec rubbed his jaw. So being with her tempted him, so what? He didn’t need to run away like a coward. If anything happened between them, he could handle it fine. No problem. “I could help you put that together, if you want?”
She spun, her face alight. “Then you’ll stay?”
“Only if we buy more coffee.” He tugged on his vest now. “I have to go home and check on something, but I’ll drop you at the mini-mart first.”
* * *
Becca was studying the two kinds of frozen biscuits in the refrigerated unit when the bell over the entrance chimed. From where she stood, she couldn’t see whether or not Alec had returned to pick her up and went back to studying her choices.
Within minutes, her high school best friend breezed up beside her. “Are you buying for the storm, too?”
Storm? Becca tightened her fingers on the hand basket. “We’re only getting two or three inches. That’s not enough for a storm.”
“You know we always get more than they forecast in Angels Glen. That’s why I’m in here buying supplies.” Tula reached into the cooler and grabbed some sandwich meat and cheese. “You sound stressed. What’s wrong?”
“My guests are coming today.”
“Oh, that’s right. You told me that was why you came to town.”
Becca grabbed a package of each biscuit brand and showed Tula. “Have you used either of these?”
Her friend gaped at her. “You’re baking? I got the impression you eat all your meals out these days.”
“I can cook, you know.” Becca chose the brand she recognized and dropped two cans into her hand basket. “I have to. It’s a bed-and-breakfast inn, and apparently, the cook and the housekeeper quit at the same time as the manager.”
“I heard they left before she did. It takes a certain kind of person to want to live here or one who’s going through a transition, like me.”
“You said you were applying to teach with some school systems.”
“Not until spring.” Tula grabbed a jar of juice and a gallon of milk. “I didn’t see your little red car outside. Did the battery die again?”
“No, Alec gave me a lift.” Becca added packages of sausage and ham to her haul.
“What was Alec doing at the inn?”
Becca propped a hand on her hip. “Boy, are you nosy.”
“I’m friends with you and Alec. Friends care about other friends, and you both need someone who cares about you.”
“You can’t go around making judgements about someone else’s life.” Becca scrutinized Tula’s serious expression. What did her friend see that she didn’t? “Why are you even saying this?”
“You both have dogs for companionship.”
“Well, gah!” Becca pretend-smacked her forehead. “That doesn’t mean anything. Mrs. Nettles has a pet pooch.”
“Maybe she’s lonely, too.”
“I doubt that. She’s got a family.” Becca walked around the end of the aisle and spotted the powdered sugar. “I told you I was off men when I first saw you.”
Alec had kissed her out of sympathy, commiserating with her about her near-tragic mistake with the assistant. Surely he hadn’t planted one on her out of loneliness.
He’d nearly kissed her a second time this morning outside the pump shed. He thought she hadn’t noticed, but she had. But he knew she’d be going home in a few weeks and that was why he’d hadn’t followed through. A lonely guy would likely not care. He’d take what he could get when the getting was good. Right?
Becca set the confectioner’s sugar in her basket. “He’s helping me with some things. That’s why he was at the inn.”
“Are you blushing?” Tula’s eyes danced with glee. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
“It means I didn’t know what I was getting into when I drove down here.” She doubted she would have stayed home even if she had known about the decorating chores or the frozen pipes. She’d tackle them all over again to prove herself worthy of her dad’s trust.
The bell over the store door jingled, and she recognized the male voice speaking with Mrs. Nettles’s daughter at the register.
Tula recognized Alec’s voice, too. She put her hand against one side of her mouth to hide her whisper. “You could do worse than Alec.”
“Oh, definitely.” But looks didn’t make the man—not with Alec, anyway. She appreciated so many other things: his easygoing manner, his unstinting kindness, and okay, even his teasing.
His footsteps took him down a different aisle, but he soon found them. He’d taken the time to shower and shave, and he smelled good.
“Hey, Tula. You stocking up, too?” He took Becca’s basket and added his graham crackers and marshmallows.
“Yup, gotta prepare for being snowed in.” Tula grabbed several cans of potted meat.
“You think we’ll be snowed in, Alec?” Becca chewed her lip.
“Who knows?” He dropped some chocolate bars into the basket. “But we should make tracks. Snow is getting thick.”
Becca crossed her fingers she wouldn’t be entertaining guests stuck inside all day, but she grabbed a few more food items as insurance just in case. “I guess that’s all,” she said, not at all confident she’d covered all eventualities. She waved to Tula and followed Alec to the register. “I hope I haven’t bought too much to feed my guests. They’re not staying long, and I’ll probably leave when they do.”
She waited for him to make a comment or ask exactly when she might go home—anything, really—so she’d know if hope existed that he might want her to stay longer. No, wait. She wanted to discourage his interest, didn’t she? Honestly, where Alec was concerned she didn’t know her own mind.
At the inn, he carried in the groceries and went back to his truck for an overnight bag. She had tied on an apron and set out a bowl by the time he stamped the snow from his boots and came inside. He stowed his things and hung his vest then came over to her.
“What’s this?” He lifted a corner of the dishtowel covering the pan. “Ah, the gingerbread house.”
“Eventually.” She set out the sugar for the frosting. “Why don’t you read me the directions while I get out all the ingredients?”
His dark eyebrows rose. “Don’t tell me you haven’t made one of these before?”
“Okay, I won’t.” She grinned. “Gingerbread houses aren’t something you make often, you know.”
“I wouldn’t know.” He leaned his hips against the counter. “The extent of my baking is pretty much restricted to frozen pizza. Here you go: step one.”
Following his directions, she mixed the frosting and filled two plastic zipper bags, at the same time explaining she’d seen a video on how to improvise a pastry nozzle. Alec used the pattern sheets included in the kit to cut the sides and roof from the sheets of gingerbread. She gave him one frosting bag, and he drew windows and doors on what would be the front. “Now what?” he asked.
“We set the pieces upright on the back of this foil-wrapped white tray.” She laid down a line and stood the house façade upright in the sugary glue. “Hold that.”
He put a finger on the roof peak, and she placed the adjacent gingerbread side. “Can you hold that one, too?”
“How long does the icing take to harden?”
Becca shrugged. “I don’t know. A few minutes?”
“I have an idea.” He twisted awkwardly to glance over his shoulder. “Find some small objects to prop up the pieces, and we won’t have to hold them in place.”
“Let me look.” She opened the cabinets and found two whiskey glasses she then set inside the house to keep the standing pieces upright. “This works perfectly.”
Together they finished erecting the house, and Becca added a line of gumdrops along the peak of the roof. Alec helped her wash up, and then he strolled outside to the porch.
She looked past him from the doorway. The bare branches of the oaks could have been lines of gingerbread under layers of frosting; the lilac bushes, a row of snowmen. “The snow has really been coming down.”
“It looks like we’ve had more than a foot already.” He came inside and grabbed his vest. “We should try to keep the walk shoveled. You’re in luck since we have two shovels.”
“You mean now?” Her spirits sank. “The snow’s still falling.”
“It’s not coming down as fast as it was when we left the store.” He helped her into his sheepskin jacket.
She grabbed her knit hat from the adjacent peg, and Alec handed her the shovel nearest the kitchen door. She was going to have to make good on her boast that she could shovel snow as well as he.
He cleared the steps, and she followed him into the yard, swiping at flakes landing on her face. A white blanket cloaked her car twenty yards away in the parking lot, and all she could see of Alec’s truck were the curves of the fenders. This would take them all night. “I know what we can do.”
“Clear snow.” Alec slid his blade under the white stuff at his feet, ignoring her.
“Well, yes, but why don’t you keep working on that side, and I’ll clear the right half? We can race to the cars.” He didn’t even turn around, but she filled her shovel. “Ready, set, go.”
She tossed her load and hurriedly scooped more. “Watch out, or I’ll get ahead.”
“You sure you want to race?” Alec’s blade scraped against the sidewalk loudly. “Your brother and I used to make spending money doing this. I’m quite proficient.”
“Ugh.” She strained under the weight of the snow and had to dump out half before she could lift the load. Snowflakes melted on her cheeks and nose. She cast the shovelful into the backyard and tucked the loose strands of wet hair under her hat. “This is harder than I realized.”
Alec had passed her, though, and she dug in with energy to stay even. “This is hard work. I should pay you for this.”
He scoffed. “I knew shoveling would be involved when I agreed to stay.”
“I feel bad playing the pity card.” Becca flipped aside another smallish pile.
“You were quite sure you could do this on your own, but—” Snow thumped softly onto more snow behind her.
“But what?” she asked.
“Nothing.” Alec rested his arm on top of the handle, looking back at her lack of progress. “We’re getting wet.”
Becca tossed another pitiful heap of snow off the walk. “I’m not the Wicked Witch of the West. I won’t melt.”
“If you say so.” Alec chuckled and went back to work.
He had a lot of gall. She dropped her shovel and scooped a handful of snow. After packing the light powder into a ball, she crept up behind him, waiting for him to toss his shovelful. “Alec?”
“I don’t hear you. Are you giving up?” He turned, and she fired her missile. The snow splattered his nose, and she raised her arms, laughing. “Bullseye!”
“You want to play dirty, huh?” He reached down for a handful.
“Snow isn’t dirty.” She heaved another missile at him, hitting his shoulder. He reared back his arm, and she barely managed to duck the incoming shot. His snowballs started to come in faster than she could evade them, though, and she raised her hands. “Uncle.”
“You’re giving up?”
“Y-yes.” She staggered in the snow drifts and leaned over, hands on her knees, breathing hard. Who would have thought a few days ago that she and Alec would be having such fun together? Or was she misremembering? There must have been a reason she’d tagged along behind him as a kid. She straightened, and a smile stretched her face. “You’re a better shot than I remember.”
“I was a quarterback in high school. Same skills.”
She considered the sidewalk behind them. Where they’d dodged each other, they’d trampled snow from the yard back onto the cleared section. “I’ll clear up our mess. Can’t have my guests slipping.”
He pushed a sleeve from his watch. “When are they coming?”
“Could be any time.” She brushed off the snow clinging to her legs, but one step on the slick pavement sent her sprawling. Her breath swooshed out, and she lay there, limp.
He leaned over her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She laughed and reached for his extended hand.
He helped her to her feet, steadying her with an arm around her waist.
“Thanks.” She balanced herself and looked up—straight into sparkling brandy-brown eyes—losing her breath all over again.
“You’ve got some snow…” He brushed a finger across her cheek, his touch featherlight, and then drew her closer. His fingers were cold on her face, but she hardly noticed before losing herself in his kiss.