“I’ll be ready.”
“I was hoping to get over to see you tonight, but it’s a mess out there. And Andy went out in the tow truck with Butch to pull morons out of ditches, so it’s just your mom.”
“I’d rather you stay home where you’re safe,” she said, and almost laughed at herself. It was a very girlfriend thing to say. “I’ll see you tomorrow, anyway.”
“Five o’clock. Good night, Katie.”
“Good night.”
She was still smiling when Hailey knocked on the window. After turning the sign around, Katie locked up and they went up to her apartment together. After shaking the snow out of their hair, they hung up their coats and put their boots on the mat she kept by the door.
“Just as I was leaving,” Hailey said, “the phone rang.”
“And you were dumb enough to answer it.”
“Yeah. Can you believe this woman threw a fit when I told her I was closing? She said she was going to call the town and file a complaint.”
Katie shook her head. “What did you do?”
“I gave her their number.” She laughed and started rummaging through the cabinets. “Doesn’t your mom send you home care packages?”
“I’m not away at college. I don’t think grown-ups get care packages.”
“Well, that sucks.” She pulled out a package of store-bought cookies. “These will do. So tell me what’s going on?”
“With what?”
“Paige told me about the offer on the lodge. And that Josh decided not to sell. How’s he doing?”
Katie shrugged, snagging a cookie out of the package. “He seems okay with it, actually. He called me right after you did and he was in a good mood, except for having to clean up all this snow.”
“So do you think he’ll be ready to commit to you now?”
“Whoa.” Katie frowned, holding up one hand. “What do you mean by commit?”
“If he’s going to stay in Whitford, he should just marry you and get it over with.”
“You’re so romantic, Hailey. One, I don’t want to be a consolation prize. And, two, there’s no talk of marriage. He just called himself my boyfriend for the first time about ten minutes ago.”
“You know, you’re not as salacious as you used to be.”
Katie laughed. “He wants me to go out in the groomer with him tomorrow night. Is that salacious enough?”
“Riding in the groomer?” She grimaced. “That’s so boring. I did that once with a guy I was trying to impress about ten years ago. The fact he thought it was the greatest date ever was the end of that relationship before it even really started.”
“Josh did mention once he had a little fantasy about me and him in the groomer.”
Hailey made a hmm sound. “That could be salacious. If it is, you’ll tell me, right?”
“Maybe.”
“Do you love Josh?”
Katie frowned, snagging another cookie. “Of course I do.”
“No, I mean do you love him, love him?”
“I’ve loved him like that for years, Hailey. You know that. And now that we’re together, yeah. It’s been harder in some ways, because now I’m not just doing it from afar. It’s messy and there’s the lodge thing and everything, but it’s worth it.”
“Even if he breaks your heart? Because I hate to say it, but refusing that offer wasn’t like some kind of fairy dust that cured his need to roam.”
“I should have sent you to voice mail. This is not fun snow-day talk.” When Hailey only waited, still giving her the look that said she was only looking out for Katie’s emotional welfare, she sighed. “Yes, it’s worth it even if he breaks my heart. Which is why I’m not overthinking it to death like you apparently are. I’m taking it day by day and if the bridge crashes and burns in front of me, I’ll cross that river when I come to it.”
Hailey tilted her head, her eyebrows almost meeting over her nose. “I think you totally screwed that up.”
“It’s the sugar rush. Now shut up and turn the TV on. See if you can find something salacious for us to watch.”
*
By mid-Tuesday morning, the snow had stopped falling and Josh got to work removing it all from the driveway and parking areas for the third—and hopefully last—time this storm. With Andy using the snowblower to clear the walkways, they were done by a little after noon, which was even earlier than he’d predicted.
Luckily he was better at predictions than the weatherman, who’d said four to six, so he was going to have plenty of time to jump in the shower before he picked up Katie. Spending seven hours in a groomer with a guy who smelled like sweat and two-stroke fumes probably didn’t put a woman in a loving kind of mood. He might even grab a quick power nap, since he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.