Snowbound - Harlequin.com

146 SNOWBOUND
convincingly. And yet, she did agree, which Fiona
thought might be a good sign. Did she even look surprised,
as if she hadn’t realized that maybe she’d been
having fun, too?
Fiona smiled at John. “See what an extraordinary
host you are? We don’t want to leave you.”
“Glad to know that.” His gaze lingered just long
enough on her face to cause her cheeks to heat before
moving to the kids. “You’ve been good guests.”
“Yay us!” Kelli declared.
“Anybody want cookies and cocoa?” John asked.
He was almost flattened in the stampede that ensued.
Only Erin rose from the armchair with dignity, carefully
put a bookmark in place and strolled past the two adults
toward the kitchen.
Echoing Fiona’s thoughts, John murmured, “Fortyyear-old
in a seventeen-year-old’s body.”
“Um,” Fiona agreed, looking after the petite girl.
She and John followed her, Fiona keeping her voice low.
“What I can’t figure out is whether she’s really that
together. The sad part is, I’ll probably never know. One
of the frustrations of teaching. You see what they might
become, then most of the time, you never find out if they
did. If that makes sense.”
“Surely in a private school you’ll hear.”
“Maybe. Yeah, you’re right. In Portland it was different.”
The kitchen door swung shut behind Erin, leaving
the two of them alone.
John gripped Fiona and turned her to face him, his
easy manner gone. “We didn’t get a chance to talk.”