Opening her eyes, she grabbed what she needed from the shelf and emerged from the pantry to find Josh standing in front of her open refrigerator, peeking inside. She stopped and admired him for a little while, ho
lding in the sigh that wanted to escape. He was so tall, with broad shoulders and narrow hips, long legs and a strong build. Dark brown hair, matching brown eyes, and always with a ready smile.
Well, that smile had made an appearance tonight, though not as readily as in their past, not that she could blame him. He looked awfully grim most of the time, but he had wrecked his truck all because of her stupid cat and was now stuck with her for hours.
Hours.
Good Lord, what would they do? Could they even hold a civil conversation? So far, it had been okay, but they might run out of idle polite remarks quick. Would the evening end up being filled with broody silences and old resentments rising back to the surface?
She really, really hoped not.
“Looks like you have salad stuff,” he said as he shut the fridge door, turning to face her. “Were you planning on cooking the chicken?”
Her cheeks heated. It’s like he knew she was standing behind him checking him out and that was beyond mortifying. “I was. I’m going to bake it. Special parmesan chicken recipe that I can always count on.”
“Sounds good.” He nodded, shoved his hands in his jeans’ pockets, not moving from where he stood directly in front of the refrigerator.
Which meant she’d have to approach him and make him move out of her way. Great.
“Listen, this feels super-awkward,” she blurted, wishing she could slap her hand over her mouth to stop herself. Too late now. “I know you don’t like me much after what…what happened between us so long ago. I get it. But maybe we could pretend for the next few hours that none of that ever went down? That we can go back to how we got along before? Like a retro Josh and Mindy, the early teen years?”
He stared at her like she grew three heads. “You make it sound like a corny TV show.”
“Those times had been sort of idyllic.” She shrugged, then waved her hand at him, deciding that keeping busy was the best way to hide her utter humiliation. “Could you move, please, so I can get to the fridge?”
Josh didn’t move a muscle as she grabbed hold of the door handle, making like she was going to open the refrigerator. He wasn’t intimidated in the least, studying her with that particular way of his. As if he could see right through her and knew exactly what she was thinking.
It was disconcerting.
“You thought our teen years were idyllic?” He sounded incredulous.
“Well, before all the drama, yeah I did.” She rested her hands on her hips, glaring at him. “Are you going to move or what? You’re like a damn tree, blocking my way.”
Chuckling, he stepped away from the fridge and she opened the door, grabbing everything she needed before shutting it with a nudge of her shoulder. She carried all the items to the counter and then preheated the oven.
Josh went to the counter and settled his big body on a bar stool, looking perfectly comfortable with watching her cook.
So she pretended he wasn’t there and went about her usual routine. The television in the living room was on with the local news playing, and she focused on that. Talks of the biggest snowstorm of the decade and a true white Christmas, though that was normally the case around these parts.
But this year was an exceptional one, they were saying. Nothing but heavy snow was in the weather forecast from now through the twenty-seventh. Considering it was only the twenty-second of December, they were in big trouble.
If this meant she’d be snowbound with Josh Powers for the next five days, she didn’t think she could stand it.
“Where are your boys?” Josh asked out of the blue.
Mindy slipped the baking sheet with the prepared chicken on it inside the oven, then set the timer for twenty minutes. “I told you already. They’re with their father.”
She pressed her lips together, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions. She really didn’t want to talk about Marty marrying his girlfriend.
“Are they in town?”
“Um…no.” She focused on slicing the cucumber for the salad, letting the knife hit the cutting board with extra force. “They’re leaving for Hawaii.”
“Hawaii? Wow, that’s some Christmas vacation.”
Setting the knife down so hard it clattered against the cutting board, she turned to face Josh, her shoulders sagging with defeat. “He’s getting remarried.”
Josh raised his eyebrows in seeming disbelief. “You’re kidding.”