Page 55 of Solo

Drew

The second storm hits hard, but fades fast as some unexpected warm front blows across the mountains. By Sunday, Katherine’s car has finally emerged from its polar ice cap. I’m looking from it to her and back again, my expression skeptical.

“Are you sure you can get back home in that thing?” I ask her over my shoulder. She’s sitting behind me, on the couch, curled up with a book in front of the fire.

“That thing has been getting me back and forth for a long time now,” she informs me without looking up.

“Yeah, I know. That’s the problem. Too long,” I mutter.

She sighs as she puts the book on the coffee table and comes to join me in front of the big picture window.

“Look, it runs—when sneaky reporters aren’t messing around with it,” she says with a teasing smile, hooking her arms around my waist and pulling me close to her. And then she looks up at me with those incredible eyes. They’re the color of the Atlantic and just as tumultuous, I’ve discovered.

“Drew, I don’t want to go back to the real world any more than you do, but we don’t have much of a choice. Classes are back in session tomorrow. I’ve got to work the breakfast shift and you’ve got to hand back all those midterm projects. You know, the ones you have yet to grade?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I groan and roll my eyes.

“Drew, you know we can’t. That we, you know…”

“I know. I know. This has to end here,” I agree, speaking the words that she can’t.

She nods.

“Can we revisit this in a couple of months after you graduate?” I ask hopefully.

“Absolutely. That is, assuming I do graduate. I have it on good authority that I’m on ‘very thin ice.’”

“Hah!” I snort. “Yeah, well, I hear the ice has firmed up quite a bit with the recent cold temperatures. So, I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” I murmur and lean down to kiss her, but her firm palm on my chest stops me in my tracks.

“Hey, I’m serious, you cannot show me any special treatment. None. If I’m late, I’m late. If I pass, I pass. Anything else is unfair, not to mention suspicious to anyone who’s paying attention.”

She’s right and I give her a curt nod of understanding.

“I know,” I whisper, unable to take my eyes off her soft, pink mouth. “Miss Brenner,” I say, leaning down again to kiss her, “I expect you to follow all the rules. Or you’re going to be in some serious trouble…Miss Brenner.”

She puts both palms to my chest and holds the distance between us.

“Oh, Dr. Markham,” she chides me with one incredibly sexy raised eyebrow, “you’re not doing anything to discourage my bad behavior.”

I rest my forehead against hers and close my eyes. When I open them again, she starts to giggle.

“What? What could possibly be so funny during this incredibly, tragically, romantic moment?” I ask with a teasing grin.

“You really need to step back. You’ve got this one big freaky looking eye when you get that close to me. It’s gross,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

I straighten up and look down into her smirking face. “Seriously? I’m here baring my heart and soul to you and you’re envisioning a Cyclops?”

Her smile fades into something much different.

“No sir. I’m envisioning a lot of things and a Cyclops is definitely not one of them,” she murmurs, standing on her tippy-toes to put a soft, warm, frustratingly chaste kiss on my cheek.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Kate

It’s not lost on me that we’re exactly where we were on Friday, me in the driver’s seat of my car, him hanging in the window. Only this time I’m not trying to keep him out. In fact, I’m wishing I could just take him home with me. Or stay here with him, in this perfect little bubble we’ve created for ourselves. But we both know that’s not possible. Not now, anyway.

“So, tomorrow morning…” he begins.