Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON
79
than the scandals during Ulysses Grant’s administration.
We Americans are ultimately hopeful.”
“Are we.”
“You wouldn’t have joined the National Guard if
you hadn’t thought you could make a difference.”
“Maybe I just wanted the extra pay.”
“Did you?”
In the face of her challenge, he shook his head. “Our
decisions are rarely that simple, are they?”
“No, they aren’t.”
Coming into the kitchen right then, Dieter asked,
“What decisions? Do we have to start, like, rationing
food or something?”
Fiona laughed. “We’ve been here less than twentyfour
hours. I presume we haven’t yet eaten Mr. Fallon
out of house and home.”
“’Cuz I’m hungry,” the lanky sixteen-year-old confessed.
“What’s for dinner?”
Fiona glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall. “The
dinner we won’t be having for at least a couple of hours?”
He grinned unrepentently at her. “Yeah. That one.”
“Spaghetti,” John said.
“Really? Cool! Um—” he looked around “—can I
have an apple or something?”
John gestured toward the counter. “Help yourself.”
The boy grabbed one from the bowl that sat there.
“So what are you talking about?”
“I was telling him why I became a teacher.”
He took a bit crunch of apple. Around it, he said,
“Yeah? How come you did?”
“Because she liked the smell of chalk,” John supplied.