Three

Jack Ziglar

Snow-Where to Go

My plan wasn’t working.

For a year, I’d been working to get Jill pissed enough at me to have a conversation. Even if it was a yell-fest. God knew, I couldn’t get her to have a real conversation with me. The second I tried, she shut me down, which was pretty awful since I fucking loved the annoying, beautiful woman.

Call me dense, but I was beginning to believe she hated me and I’d never get her back in my life and in my bed. Not optimal considering I’d planned to propose to her last year and be married to her by now.

The look on her face last night…

She’d smiled, but I could have frozen solid from the cold in her eyes. Maybe, today, I’d make some progress. Maybe, I could convince her to have dinner with me. To fucking talk to me.

“Are you even listening to me?” Aimee demanded from the other end of our call.

“What?”

“Jack! You are the worst brother!” she exclaimed.

“Well, maybe, you should have called Dirk or John since you think I’m the worst of your siblings,” I suggested.

She sighed heavily. “You know I can’t. John is flying a plane somewhere over the Atlantic, and Dirk will tell me to get Mom a gym membership for Christmas. Ever since he became a personal trainer, he thinks we all should have one. Even me. Me! Like I don’t spend half of my life at the gym already?”

“How is New York, by the way?” I asked, sidetracking her. She lived in eastern Michigan like the rest of my family, but this week, she and her ice-dancing partner, Anatoly, were skating in some Christmas show in the Big Apple.

“Fine. Boring. Toll doesn’t want me to explore the city. The way he acts, you’d think he was my boyfriend and not my skating partner. I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to talk about him at all. What should I get Mom? I can go shopping while I’m here.”

“I don’t know.” Slipping on my coat, I sighed. I loved my little sister, but I was going to be late for opening the bookstore.

“Well, what did you get her? I’m sure you got her gift and even had it wrapped a month ago. You’re so freaking efficient.”

“I—” I stepped out my front door to walk to work and froze. “Aimee, I need to go. I have a situation. I’ll call you later.”

I hung up without waiting for her protest then shoved the cellphone into my pocket.

What the actual hell was this? Along the curb in front of my house were two giant mountains of snow, one to either side of my driveway, taller than anything I’d ever seen outside a store parking lot. A shocked laugh gasped from me. Seriously, it had to be every bit of snow from the whole neighborhood very neatly hiding my house—and especially, my yard—from view.

I should be pissed, annoyed and demanding to know who did this, but all I could do was chuckle and shake my head. I knew exactly who had done this, and it meant I’d finally gotten under her skin. Finally .

Through the narrow opening left for my car, I saw Jill leaving her house to head to her own shop. After locking her door, she turned then stood for a moment to stare at the ice walls edging my yard. Even from across the street, I detected the glee in her eyes and saw her lips roll together while she obviously held back a laugh.

Man, she was beautiful with her cloud of blonde hair falling around her slim shoulders. Beneath her red puffer jacket, her jeans hugged her legs perfectly, highlighting her shapely figure. I could easily imagine a wedding dress formed around her. I could even more easily remember what that body had looked like naked beneath me. I wanted that back. Now.

“Good morning,” I called, raising my hand in a casual greeting, steadfastly pretending nothing was amiss.

“Morning.” She ducked her head, and I suspected it was to hide her mirth. Little did she know I’d grown up with three mischievous siblings, who’d learned everything they knew from me. Even though Jill and I had dated for a year, she’d only met two of them and they hadn’t shown their true colors. She’d fit right in with them, though, and I loved her for it.

“Do you think we’re going to get more snow today?” I asked conversationally. I stepped past the snow mountains, planning to walk in the street, so I could chat with her since she seemed communicative that morning. Hopefully, she wouldn’t shut down on me.

Jill snorted and covered her mouth with her gloved hand, pretending to cough. She cleared her throat. After a moment, she shook her head. “I haven’t heard the weather report.”

“Hmm, well, I hope we don’t get more. Seems like I—we—have enough. But you never know with lake effect. So do you have plans for lunch today?”

She stopped her progress down the sidewalk and gaped at me. “What?”

Suddenly, we seemed too far apart. It was utterly ridiculous to be having this semi-yelled conversation from opposite sides of the road. Making sure I wouldn’t get hit by a rogue snowplow headed down the street to dump more snow in my yard, I crossed over to walk beside Jill. She started moving again, not waiting for me, but my legs were longer than hers. I easily caught up in a few strides.

“Do you have lunch plans today?” I repeated.

Her tongue dampened her pink lips. She didn’t look my way. “I’m working.”

“But you gotta have lunch.”

“I thought I’d grab something from Brewly Yours then eat in my office. I need to work on my website.”

That perked up my attention. Programming was my jam, my favorite hobby. I’d designed several people’s websites as a favor, and she knew it. I’d also built the one we used to share, but now served Zigzie’s Books . “Are you building one or are you hiring it out?”

She gnawed on her lip, and I knew it galled her to answer me. For a moment, I thought she might ignore the question as she’d ignored so many other attempts at conversation over the past three-hundred-sixty-some days.

“I haven’t decided,” she finally admitted.

“Why don’t I bring over lunch, and I can help you?”

Her brow furrowed, and she glance back toward our houses as we rounded the corner toward Main Street. “Why? I mean… We’re competition. Why should I believe you’d want to help me?”

I shrugged. “You like to knit.”

Everyone knew she did. Many had been gifted with her creations, and she made little caps for the newborns at the hospital.

“So? What does that have to do with anything?”

“And I like computers. You know I’ve built a ton of websites. If nothing else, I can point you in the right directions, help you buy a domain name and get a server host, then I can give you some tips for SEO.”

“I don’t even know what most of that means.”

“Have lunch with me, and I promise I’ll explain it all.”

“Look, Jack—”

“I didn’t cheat on you,” I blurted, unable to hold back the unbidden words that were always on the tip of my tongue. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but I swear on everything, I didn’t. I haven’t been with anyone, not even on a date, since we met. I want you back.”

She shook her head when we stopped at the next corner. I was sorely tempted to lean in and kiss her cheek, but her words stopped me. “I know what I saw. Lying to me won’t change that.”

“I’m not lying!” I exploded before I could stop my anger.

She crossed her arms, defense rolling off her. “I saw you kiss her. In your driveway,” she reiterated. “Tell me why I should believe you.”

“Because it wasn’t me. I wasn’t even in town. You know I was in New York.”

“So you say. Next thing I know, you’ll try to convince me you have some twin.”

Oh, shit. “Uh, actually…”

She shook her head, holding up her hand as she walked away from me and this long overdue conversation. And I had a phone call to make.

“I’ll be at your shop with lunch,” I called after her. “If nothing else, we’re neighbors. And in a small town like this, we help each other, right?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “I’m not helping you shovel all your snow.”

“I have a feeling that’s everyone’s snow, but okay. I won’t ask for help with that in return for the favor.” I could think of a whole lot of other things I’d rather ask.

Jill didn’t reply as she shook her head and walked away. She hadn’t said no, so I took that as a yes.