Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95256 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
We’d have to share the bed.
“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Gianni said.
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’d freeze.” I gestured to the bare floorboards. “There isn’t even a rug. We can be adults about it and share the bed.”
“Can we cuddle?”
“No.” I shivered again. “God, it’s fucking arctic in here.”
“I can try turning up the heat.” Gianni tossed his gloves on a small table to the left of the door, set down his bag, and looked around for the thermostat.
Leaving my snow boots by the door, I wandered to the left and pushed open the door to the bathroom. Flipping on the light, I half expected to see a knotty pine toilet seat and tub, but it was the usual tiny motel bathroom—everything that was once white was slightly yellowed with age, but it appeared to have been freshly cleaned. The towels hanging on the bar weren’t thick, but they were bright white, and when I sniffed, I could smell bleach and—what else?—pine-scented cleaner.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I went back into the room, where Gianni was still bent over the thermostat. “I turned it up, but I think this might be as warm as it gets in here,” he said. “We might freeze to death after all.”
Suddenly all the shitty things that had gone wrong tonight hit me with the force of the storm outside. I dropped my face into my mittens and, to my utter humiliation, started to sob.
“Shit, I was only kidding.” A moment later, Gianni’s arms came around me, both of us still wearing our winter coats. He rubbed my back. “We’re not going to freeze, Ell. Don’t cry. We’ll be fine.”
“It’s not that.” Under normal circumstances, I’d never have let Gianni hold me, but his embrace was comforting. Or maybe it was just his body heat—I’d take it.
“What is it?”
“Just—everything! This whole night was such a shit show! Nothing about it went right. I had all these high hopes and big plans, and now I’m going to die of hypothermia in room thirteen at the Pineview Motel with you.”
“But it’s better than dying alone, right?”
I sniffed. “Is it?”
“Listen, I know tonight didn’t go as planned, and I’m sorry about that, but let’s look on the bright side.” While he talked, he kept stroking my back.
“What bright side?”
“Well, we’re not stuck on the side of the road, right? We have shelter for the night. We have some heat. We have snacks and—”
“Wine.” I picked up my face from my hands and looked up at Gianni. “We have a few bottles of wine left over from the dinner party. It’s in the car.”
“Be right back,” he said, letting me go and taking his keys from his pocket.
When he opened the door, an icy wind rushed in and I hurried behind him to close it. There was a window right next to the door, and I pushed the plaid curtain aside, watching as Gianni opened the hatch and poked around in the back of his car. The snow was still coming down, and cars on either side of Gianni’s were covered. A minute later, he shut the trunk and came hustling back toward the room with a box in his arms.
Quickly, I opened the door and slammed it behind him. “Jesus! The windchill has to be twenty below!”
Gianni set the box on the floor and blew on his cold hands. “Seriously. My fingers are frozen and I was only out there a minute.”
Without thinking, I pulled my mittens off and walked over to him. “Here. Mine are warm.” I wrapped my hands around his best I could, since his were considerably larger than mine.
“Thanks.” He looked down at our handclasp. A moment later, our eyes met, and the room actually seemed warm for a moment.
I let him go and took a step back.
“Shit. Do we have an opener?” he asked, glancing at the wine. “I could try running back to the gas station, but Milton said he was closing up soon.”
“I always have a wine opener on me,” I said, going over to my bag.
He laughed. “Of course you do.”
“Hey, my mom’s a pain in my ass, but she did teach me a few useful things.” I pulled out my little corkscrew. “I never go anywhere without one of these, a spare pair of panties, and a toothbrush.”
“Smart.” He pulled off his boots and left them at the door next to mine. “My dad told me never to go anywhere without a condom.”
I rolled my eyes as I opened a bottle of pinot noir. “Because everywhere you go, girls want to have sex with you?”
“Hey, I can’t help it if I’m too hot to handle. And it’s good advice.”
“It is.” After working the cork free, I took two small glass tumblers from the cabinet above the stove and filled them.
“Want to give me your coat? I’ll hang it up for you.”