Page 34 of A Winter Thaw

Elaine touched her coffee mug to Audrey’s with a grin. “To adventure.”

She felt a ripple of happiness. She could still feel Christmas spirit in the air everywhere she looked, and now she got to experience it somewhere new and exciting.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Theo shoved his hands into his pockets, whistling as he walked down the sidewalk. He kept trying to convince himself that The Birchwood House was basically on his way to the post office, when in reality, it would have taken him about ten minutes less to take an entirely different route.

It was a bitterly cold day, and Theo found himself wondering what he hoped to accomplish by walking past the hotel. Did he think Michelle would be sitting on the front porch, and he could wave to her?

He whistled louder, determined not to talk himself out of his intended path. It might not have made much sense to go out of his way to walk past the hotel, but he was determined to do it anyway.

Who knows? he thought. Maybe I’ll even be able to convince myself to walk up to the front door and go inside to talk to her.

As he neared the hotel, however, he saw that such an action wouldn’t be necessary. Michelle was in the driveway of the hotel, battling the fresh layer of snow with a yellow plastic shovel. He could hear her grunting with frustration from forty feet away.

“Hey,” he said when he was closer. “That doesn’t look like much fun.”

Michelle looked up, brushing her hair back from her forehead. “Oh, hey Theo.” She was panting and her coat was unzipped despite the cold, implying that she was warm from exertion. “It’s okay. I need to make sure the guests have somewhere to park. We’ve got a bunch of new people coming in this afternoon.”

“Yeah? Good thing your mom and grandma are coming back from Boston today, huh?”

Michelle wrinkled her nose. “No, they’re not. There’s a storm over there too and their flights have been cancelled.”

Michelle’s distress was apparent on her face, and Theo’s heart went out to her. “Let me help with the shoveling,” he said, stepping forward. “You’ve already done half of it, let me take over.”

Michelle shook her head, brushing her damp hair back from her forehead again. “I can handle it myself, but thanks.”

“Okay.” Theo watched her struggle with the shovel for a few moments. “I’m sure you can, I respect that.”

Michelle grunted again as she stabbed at an icy patch of snow. The snow didn’t budge, and after one more thrust, Michelle slipped. As she was tumbling toward the driveway, Theo leapt forward and caught her just in time.

For three electrifying heartbeats, he simply stood there holding her in his arms. Michelle made a kind of squeak and he helped her get her feet steady on the driveway again.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Theo said, picking up the shovel that Michelle had dropped when she slipped. “I’ll finish shoveling this driveway in order to earn some time playing with the little fluff monster you keep in there.”

Michelle sat down in the snow on the side of the driveway and gave him a quizzical look. “That doesn’t really seem fair,” she pointed out.

Theo decided to pretend to play dumb. “What?” he protested, putting his hand over his heart. “I think it’s more than fair. That dog and I still haven’t properly bonded, and I’ve been feeling terrible about it. A little shoveling is more than a fair exchange as far as I’m concerned.”

Michelle looked up at him laughing, sitting there in the snow, and Theo felt an odd ache in his chest.

“Come on,” he said, feeling a sudden need to be funny so that he didn’t feel something else. “You wouldn’t take that away from me, would you?”

Michelle sighed and gestured toward the shovel. “Have at it,” she said. “I’m not formally asking you to do it for me, but I do intend to just sit here for a while, so if you end up shoveling while the shovel isn’t in my hands, that’s not my problem.”

Theo grinned. “That’s the spirit,” he said, and began to shovel with a will. Since he spent a lot of his time doing tough physical labor on the cars that came into the auto repair shop, he’d built up a fair amount of muscle, and the shoveling wasn’t difficult for him. Because the temperature had fluctuated during the snowstorm, some of the lower layers of snow were icy and difficult to remove, but for the most part the snow was still light and fluffy. Theo worked quickly for a few minutes, and it was a while before he admitted to himself that he was trying to shovel as fast as possible in order to impress Michelle. He had to admit it to himself, however, when he glanced in her direction and felt his heart leap up when he realized that she was watching him.

“How are your mom and Elaine feeling about being snowed in?” Theo asked, feeling as though he needed to start talking or he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from grinning triumphantly. “How bad is the storm over there?”

“Well, it sounds like it’s not so bad in Boston itself, but it’s in between us and them so the airlines don’t want to fly the planes through it.” Michelle sighed. “I’m happy for them—it sounds like they’re going to have a fun day browsing Boston. I do wish they were coming back today, though. I was kind of banking on them being here. I managed to get all the rooms cleaned that needed cleaning this morning, but I definitely cut some corners and it was a lot of work.” She rolled her shoulders back, and Theo realized that she’d been working hard for many hours, not just since she started shoveling the driveway. He felt glad that he’d been able to come along when he did. Michelle clearly deserved a break.

“I’m sure none of the guests will realize you cut corners,” he said, tossing a shovelful of snow over his shoulder and smiling at her. “The whole mansion always looks so clean. One little dust bunny under a couch somewhere isn’t going to ruin anybody’s vacation.”

Michelle laughed. “More like I didn’t actually scrub down the bathroom sinks, just made sure they looked clean. And usually I dust the Christmas trees, but I didn’t have time for that.”

Theo stopped his shoveling and stared at her. “You dust the Christmas trees?”

Her eyes shone, and she seemed to be enjoying the way he was flabbergasted. “Just easy dusting—with a feather duster. You know, the cute pink things with all the feathers.”