After they’d layered up in their coats, hats, and gloves, Liam and Jake stood for a bit on the covered porch, and Liam couldn’t help but admire the peaceful, untouched beauty of the snowfall. About four feet of snow must have fallen in the six hours they'd been in the house. The front yard looked like a winter wonderland; snow was weighing down the droopy branches of the towering pines, and it glistened under the warm lights streaming from the house.
Liam had parked his car close to one of the tall pine trees, and luckily, Jake and Ian had been coming out periodically to keep the walkway to the house cleared. So while there was quite a bit of snow covering his car and the distance it would need to go down the driveway, it would be relatively easy to clear off enough so that Liam could pull out into the mostly-plowed road.
“Alright, man, let’s get to work.” Jake was standing next to him in a blue ski coat, ski gloves, and a dark beanie. His eyes twinkled, and he looked entirely too excited to be clearing out snow.
Smiling over at him gratefully, Liam followed Jake carefully down the icy steps, and before long they fell into a nice rhythm, each taking a side of the wide driveway and a half of Liam’s SUV.
Liam enjoyed the slight burn in his muscles and was happy that Jake didn’t feel the need to talk too much. The silence combined with the methodical work allowed his thoughts to settle into reliving memories of the evening: sitting next to Sadie, talking to Sadie, watching Sadie lick that whipped cream off a spoon.
He was both dreading and anticipating driving her home, being alone in a car with her. What would he say? What wouldshesay?
Once they’d finally finished shoveling, they made their way to one of the snowbanks, planting the shovels in the heavy snow.
“I guess you better get going,” Jake said, leaning on his shovel and looking over at Liam inquisitively. “It looks like the snow’s getting heavier—your car will be buried again before too long.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Liam said, looking up at the fat flakes falling from the dark sky. “Hey, thanks for your help.”
“It actually did me a lot of good,” Jake said with a casual shrug. “I don’t like to sit still for too long.”
“Huh. Well, thanks. I guess I’d better get Sadie.” Just saying the words caused emotion to swell within Liam, and he excitedly turned to walk back the house, his boots pressing down on the layer of new snow.
“Hey, Liam, wait a minute … there’s something I think you should know.”
Liam turned and gave Jake a questioning look. He looked decidedly uncomfortable as he shifted his weight away from the shovel and shoved his hands in his coat pockets.
“Be careful with Sadie tonight.” Jake looked at Liam with an intensity, as if he wanted his face to communicate something that he didn’t want to put into words.
“What do you mean?”
“She and I used to … kind offlirt… before Lena and I were a thing,” he clarified quickly. “When our flirting ended, and Lena and I were official…. Well, let’s just say Sadie didn’t take it very gracefully.”
Liam was a bit dumbstruck by this news, and more than a little annoyed. Annie had said something had happened between Sadie and Jake, and now this weird warning.
“I’m just driving her home,” Liam said defensively. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“She can just bepushy,” Jake said in a placating voice, thick with warning. “And you’re a really nice guy. I’d hate to see her take advantage of that.”
Anger and resentment bubbled up inside of Liam. He didn’t know if it was because Jake was so obviously insulting Sadie or if it was the wholenice guycomment.Like she’s going to take advantage of me or something?
“I can handle her,” Liam said firmly, his eyes narrowing on Jake. “I’m her boss.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you can, man,” Jake said, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Let’s get you guys loaded up before we have to dig you out again.”
Liam smiled tightly, following Jake to the front door.
Nice guy, my ass.
5
Sadie
Warm,dryairpumpedon Sadie’s face through the vents in Liam’s car, and low acoustic music hummed steadily in the background—he’d immediately connected his phone to the Bluetooth when they’d sat down, as if he wanted to avoid even a millisecond of silence.
Sadie felt like she was wrapped in a tight cocoon, bundled up in her pea coat, pink hat, and scarf; her gloved hands wrapped around the tall, round bowl on her lap, which held what remained of her trifle.
As the car started to move down the driveway, she lifted a hand to wave goodbye to Annie and Ian where they stood on the front porch under the spotlight of the car’s headlights. Annie looked exhausted, leaning into Ian’s chest and weakly lifting her hand to wave them off.
She kept her head facing straight ahead but shifted her eyes towards the driver’s seat, looking at Liam from under her lashes. He looked over his shoulder as he slowly backed out of the driveway and onto the snow-packed road.