He didn’t tell her that he was stuck here, because there was something fragile about her expression that told him that was the wrong thing to say. He didn’t want to see her cry again and he sure as hell didn’t want to be the reason that she cried. When he saw that first tear roll down her face he’d felt like someone had suckered punched him. He hated that feeling. Hated the way that her tears had affected him and he hated that he had no idea why they’d bothered him so much.
She was the pain in the ass neighbor that he’d been doing everything in his power to avoid for the past year and now, but suddenly the idea of leaving her alone like this didn’t sit well with him. Deciding to focus on one disaster at a time, he forced himself to focus on what needed to be done.
“Do you have any chopped wood for the fireplace?” he asked, instead of explaining that he couldn’t leave.
Still avoiding his gaze, she reluctantly shook her head.
Great.
“Do you have a generator?” he asked, already guessing that the answer was no.
“Only for the freezers and refrigerators downstairs,” she mumbled.
Great, he thought dryly as he headed towards the kitchen to see if any of those generators could be used for the heat. “I’ll be right back.”
She didn’t say anything else as he headed for the kitchen and he counted himself lucky, because he had absolutely no idea what to say to her.
*-*-*-*
“What are you doing?” she had to ask, because it looked as though he was planning on staying here for the long haul and that just couldn’t be possible, mostly because of the before mentioned fact that he couldn’t stand her.
“It’s barely forty degrees in here now. The temperature will drop to freezing tonight,” he said with a stern expression on his face as he tossed a duffle bag and a rolled up sleeping bag on the living room couch before shifting his attention to the fireplace that hadn’t been used in more than forty years.
She already knew that the temperature was going to drop since she’d frozen her ass off last night when the temperature had suddenly dropped, but that didn’t really explain why he was here. It was also the reason why she’d decided to call a cab and stay at a hotel until the power was turned back on. She’d just been waiting on the stubborn man to come outside so that she could thank him first before she headed somewhere with crisp sheets, twenty-four hour room service and free HBO.
“That’s why I planned on heading to a hotel until this whole thing is over,” she informed him, gesturing to the small suitcase that she’d packed and set by the front door hours ago, but the obstinate man wasn’t paying attention to her. He was too busy sticking his head in the fireplace and pointing a flashlight up the chute.
“The roads are blocked by fallen trees, the lines are ripped from the poles and laying somewhere beneath the snow. There’s no way out of here until they clear the roads and take care of those power lines,” he informed her with a heavy sigh while she stood there, taking in everything he said and realized that she was stuck here.
“Shit,” he snapped, bringing her attention to one of her many problems.
Him.
“What?” she asked, wondering how she was going to get rid of him.
She’d worry about surviving another night freezing her ass off afterwards.
“The chute’s been sealed off,” he said, shaking his head in disgust as he turned off the flashlight and moved away from the fireplace.
“They had to seal it off,” she said absently, trying to figure out the polite way to kick a guy out.
Was there even one?
She pondered that for a minute before deciding that there probably wasn’t. If her grandfather had been home she wouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing. He would just throw Duncan out on his-
No, he wouldn’t, she realized with a pathetic sigh.
If it was anyone else besides Duncan Bradford, her grandfather would tell him to get the fuck out of his house, yes, those exact words, and if they didn’t listen the first time then he’d show them the way to the door in a manner that would probably cause them to spend a night in the hospital. Unfortunately for her, her grandfather had figured out pretty early on how she felt about Duncan. She wasn’t sure how he’d figured it out, but he had and ever since then, he’d done his best to get her to, “Grow some balls,” yes, his words, and go for it.
So, perhaps it was for the best that her grandfather was away right now.
“We’re going to have to hold up in your room until the power comes back on or they clear the roads so that I can get you out of here,” Duncan said, apparently at some point appointing himself her boss.
“I’m sorry. What’s this now?” she asked, positive that she’d misheard him, because there really was no way in hell that the guy who’d turned avoiding her into an art form was now volunteering to stay with her not only in her house, but in her room…
Where there was only one bed.
Yeah…umm, even though she’d fantasized about how it would feel to have him hold her at night and wake up with him in the morning, the whole glaring thing hadn’t been part of it. There was absolutely no way that she was trapping herself in a small room with a man that couldn’t stand her and yes, she’d finally accepted it.
She didn’t have a chance in hell with him.
To him, she would always be the pain in the ass neighbor who couldn’t do anything right and that definitely didn’t sit well with her. She’d been raised to be independent, levelheaded and above all, to know her worth and she was worth a hell of a lot more than some guy’s pity.
With that in mind, she finally decided to end this now. She’d made a fool of herself for long enough and it was time to move on. More determined than she’d ever been before, she took a slow breath, faced him and said, “I think it would be for the best if you left.”