Snowbound - Harlequin.com

148 SNOWBOUND
“If I get him, I’ll be sure to ask whether the school is
still standing.”
“Maybe it snowed so much, the gym roof collapsed.”
Kelli sounded hopeful. “No more P.E.”
“The gym roof is kind of flat,” Troy said. “Hey, you
never know.”
They launched into an entertaining litany of other
possibilities: the principal had quit, parents had moved
and left no forwarding address, colleges had gotten
together and announced that henceforth SAT results
would no longer be required for admission decisions
and the quarterback of the football team had heard that
Kelli was missing, perhaps dead, and realized he was
forever, tragically in love with her.
“Of course, he’d have to know who I am for that to
work,” she admitted practically.
“He does know, he’s just suppressed the knowledge,”
Tabitha contributed.
“Who is the quarterback?” Dieter the nerd asked.
Even John was smiling as they razzed Dieter.
When only crumbs remained in the cookie container,
the kids wandered back to the living room and their
various games and books. Erin had found a book of
Sudoku puzzles on the shelf, many unattempted, and
she and Troy huddled over it. While eating cookies,
he’d grumbled about the battery on his iPod being gone.
History. No charger. No music. Evidently he was consoling
himself with number puzzles.
Fiona pretended to read. It seemed an eternity before,
in twos and threes, the teenagers headed upstairs. Fiona
had quit worrying about what configurations of gender