snob.”
“Sounds like him.” He tilted his head as he looked at me in my heavy coat, and I tried not to let on how cute that was. “So I guess there hasn’t been a miraculous heat wave since last night, then.”
I laughed. “Not even close.”
He pursed his lips. “Is it that bad?”
“About two and a half to three feet.” I shrugged. “It’ll be okay once the streets are plowed, but they do the main ones first, and there are only two plow operators for the whole town.”
“Oh.”
I felt a little bad about laughing now, seeing him so crestfallen. “I’ve got some snow shovels. We can dig the Jeep out and make a path to the main road if we need to.” It would suck, because I was at the far side of the cul de sac, but we could do it.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. “No, as long as it’s clear tomorrow, I should be okay. The highways will be even cleaner, so I’ll still be able to make it back to New York in time for my afternoon meeting. I need to spend a few hours on my presentation, though. I meant to work more yesterday, but time got away from me.” He sounded a little chagrined.
“That’s fine. I’ve got plenty to do working on the house.”
“Oh, I’m still going to help you with things here today,” Max said with a grin, scooting a little closer to me. “We’ve got hours and hours to spend together. You know what we should start with?”
Was he saying what I thought he was saying? A few choice images had heat creeping up my collar—Max smiling that wicked grin as he stripped his shirt off, Max pulling me in for a kiss with one hand as the other one reached down for the button of my jeans. “Um…what?”
He leaned in and whispered in a sexy as hell voice, “Putting up insulation.”
“Oh my god.” If he didn’t have a hot mug of coffee in his hands, I would have hit him with a pillow. Or tackled him back into bed and see if he was up to reenacting the erotic reel my brain had been playing since last night.
“Because there’s no good reason for you to have to put up with a freezing cold house right now, especially when you’ve got me to help.” He took another sip of coffee. “Right?”
He had a good point. “Breakfast first, though.”
“Definitely breakfast first.”
I called Hal to let him know we were snowed in, to which he replied with enough innuendo to make me blush and make Max laugh at my reaction, then made a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast. It was nice, sharing the space with someone else, especially now that I was over my early morning shock. I was glad Max hadn’t noticed it—explaining my issues with surprises to people was about my least favorite thing to do, especially to guys I was interested in.
And I was very interested in Max.
…
After food was demolished, we got to work hanging insulation against the bare walls in the front room. It wasn’t my neatest work ever, but after a few hours, it began to feel considerably warmer in my house. Max’s work, I couldn’t help but notice, was also quite a bit neater than mine, even though I’d been working on this house every day for the past month and a half. Was he just naturally amazing at things? “If you decide you get tired of the rat race in New York, you could probably make it as a construction worker.”
“I’ve always enjoyed the work,” Max said as he measured a stud bay. He grabbed one of my utility knives and began to cut the batt of insulation to fit. “Not enough to make it a career, but I spent a lot of time at work sites with my dad when I was a kid, and that helped me pick up the basics.” He smiled, faint but real. “It was fun. I enjoyed spending time with him back then.”
That must have been before Maxfield Senior ran for mayor. He’d sold his company after he got elected, if I remembered right. And just a few years later, everything went to shit.
Max’s smile was gone. He looked lost in an unhappy memory, his hands moving more slowly than before. I opened my mouth to say…something, anything to lighten the mood. Max got there first.
“You might consider getting a little professional help when you redo the