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Edwin
“Come on!” he screamed at the tv as he watched an old Strikers match from more than ten years ago.
With no service, streaming a show was impossible. Luckily for him, there were stacks on stacks of DVDs in the cabin to watch, a good portion of them, old soccer games. He’d already watched several and he had to admit, even knowing the outcome, it was a pretty great way to spend his time away.
It had been more than twenty-four hours since he’d arrived and he was already feeling better. He’d taken the time to make himself a delicious meal the night before and did the same with his breakfast that morning. Cooking was relaxing when he didn’t have anything else to do for the day. The worst part for him was normally the cleanup, but alone in the cabin with no internet and nobody to keep him company, it gave him something to do.
He’d slept amazingly in the king-sized bed in the bedroom. He’d left the shades open all night, something he’d never do back in the city, to let the moonlight stream in. He’d wondered if he’d even fall asleep with that much light but surprisingly, he had.
And the best part, he hadn't thought of Hannah once.
At least not in a naked, want to fuck her way.
It was going to take more than one night at a secluded cabin to strike her fully from his mind.
Snow had started falling about an hour before and from what he’d heard on the local radio station, it was going to be falling well into the night. They were expecting six to eight inches, if not more. He wasn’t worried. He had enough food to last him weeks and the cabin had a generator if the power went out, plus there was always the fireplace.
He planned to hunker down and enjoy the solitude.
If only he was better company.
He moved to the kitchen to start preparing dinner and was just finished slicing avocados when he heard a noise outside the front of the house. After wiping his hands on a towel, he went to inspect, but before he got there, the front door opened with cold air spilling inside and a person standing there covered in snow.
Not just any person. Hannah.
Their gazes locked.
“Edwin?” she asked.
“Hannah,” he said, completely confused.
Neither of them moved.
He had to be dreaming. There was no way she was standing right in front of him. Covered in snow and looking so goddamn gorgeous. This was definitely a dream.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
Not only a dream but a porno. This was how his favorite one with Hannah started. She comes in, asks what he’s doing there, and then they fuck right by the door.
In his dreams, he was never this cold. And there had never been snow.
The sound of the door slamming shut, brought him out of his trance. This was no dream. She was real and standing right in front of him. Immediately, he stepped forward and took the bags from her arms.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
She shook off the snow, removing her coat, hat, and gloves. “Allana lent me this place for a few days.”
Shit. He turned away from her, setting her bags on the floor out of the way. “Shane did the same for me.” Slowly he turned back to face her. Like always, his thoughts scattered when he looked at her. She was so beautiful to him. He knew that she wasn’t what most people would call beautiful but to him, she was. He loved her pale skin and ever-changing hair color that was currently blond with red streaks. The freckles that covered her face and neck were sexy and he’d dreamed many times of uncovering her body and seeing if they were everywhere else. On her stomach, between her legs, and everywhere in between.
He ached to undress her, to examine every inch of her body with his eyes, and then do it again with his tongue.
Her body was lush and her curves were mouth-watering. The woman liked to eat and he wanted to be the one to feed her. By hand. Forever.
Get it together man, he told himself. He was supposed to be here forgetting about her, not waxing poetic about her in his mind.
“I guess we have a problem then,” she said. “And while I’d love to stand here and figure it out, I really need to pee.”
That made his brain start working. “Oh, it’s the door on the right.” He pointed down the small hallway.
Hannah gave him another quick look before walking away. When he heard the door to the bathroom shut behind her, he sagged back against the chair he was closest to. Hannah was there, in the cabin, alone with him.
This was some sort of universe interfering shit if there ever was any.
Needing a drink, or maybe ten, he went to the kitchen and grabbed his beer from the counter. Knowing that she would also want a drink, and knowing what she liked, he poured her a glass of bourbon. When she stepped out of the bathroom and came into the kitchen, he handed it to her.
She eyed it suspiciously.
“I figured you’d need this.”
She took it from him, their fingers touching for a brief, half-second.
It was the best half-second of his life since their kiss.
“Did you poison it?” She smelled it before tentatively taking a sip.
“Of course I did. You know I always carry my poison with me.” For just a second, it was as if they were friends again. Joking had always been part of their relationship. One of the best parts.
She laughed and a small amount of the tension he was feeling dissipated. “So what are we going to do about this?” She looked around, waving a hand in the air. “Allana said there was only one bedroom.”
“That is correct.” He took a sip from his beer, looking toward the front and the window that showed the snow coming down. “That snow means we are going to have to make do.” No way would he let her drive in these conditions.
“It was already starting to get bad the last half hour of my drive. The road up to the cabin was treacherous, so much so that I wasn’t paying any attention and didn’t even notice another car or the smoke from the chimney.” She shook her head. “I’d make a horrible detective or even Girl Scout.”
He tried not to laugh but it was impossible. Hannah always had the ability to make him laugh. “You do make great cookies.” He saluted her with his beer. “Maybe they’d let you in on that skill alone.” More than once, Hannah had sent him a package filled with cookies she’d made while they’d been on the phone together. He used to savor every one, never wanting to eat the last cookie for fear it might be the actual last one she ever made him.
Which was why he still had one in his freezer at his house.
The last batch she sent him after they’d won the championship. Before he’d dropped her as an agent and friend.
Before he’d tried to save his heart only to fail.
“Funny you should mention my cookies,” Hannah said. “Because I brought all the ingredients to make some while I’m here.”
He let out a groan at the thought of eating her cookies.
And maybe eating other things.
Nope, not going there. “So I guess we're both staying,” he said.
She shrugged. “Looks like.” She bit down on her bottom lip and he held in a second groan. “Look, Edwin, I know things are strained but we're both stuck here at least until this snow stops and clears. Maybe this is a good time to talk.”
Talk. He’d wanted to do that in Chicago but ended up kissing her instead. He was not going to make that mistake again. “There’s only one bed but you can have it and I’ll sleep out here,” he said instead of answering her straight on. He looked at the counter and all the food he had out. “I was just making dinner. You could help, if you wanted.” He knew she enjoyed cooking, same as him.
“I insist you take the bed. I can take the couch and I’d love to help with dinner.” She moved closer, setting her glass of bourbon on the counter. “What are you making?”
“There’s no way I’m letting you sleep on the couch.” Did she think he was crazy? He wasn’t sleeping in the bed when she was there. But he’d leave it alone for now. Pointing to the counter where he’d already begun cooking, he said, “This is going to be a simple cucumber, tomato, and avocado salad and then I was planning to grill a steak.”
She looked at him incredulously. “In this weather?”
“Not outside.” He pointed to the stovetop. “There happens to be this nice indoor grill top on the stove.”
Her eyes widened. “Damn, this place might be small but it really does have everything. Allana sort of alluded to that, but I had no idea it was this nice. I mean that bathroom alone is bigger than my bedroom.”
He started chopping more avocado to have something to do with his hands. It was either that or kiss her again and that was not allowed to happen. “I sort of had this idea in my head about what this place looked like but when I walked inside, it was blown to hell.”
She moved around the counter, quickly washing her hands and then grabbing a knife to start cutting the cucumbers. She didn’t speak for several minutes and then as she chopped, she asked, “Why’d you come to Chicago?”
The million-dollar question. “After New Year’s Eve, I thought we needed to talk.” That was the truth.
She paused her chopping. “But we didn’t talk.”
“I guess not. Although, technically, we used our mouths.” Now, why had he gone and said that? He was a fucking idiot.
Or he thought so until she laughed uncontrollably.
He loved her laugh.
Could survive on it alone for days at a time.
If she was laughing maybe things weren’t as bad as he thought.