Irresistible (Cloverleigh Farms #1)(17)

His brow furrowed. “I could try, but your car is pretty well buried. Might take me a while to dig it out. Was it okay on the roads earlier? The streets haven’t even been plowed here yet.”

“It wasn’t awesome,” I admitted. My Beetle was adorable and fun in the summer, but every winter I regretted not choosing something bigger and better in the snow.

Mack sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Snowflakes were melting on his shoulders, scarf, and hair—he’d gone out without his hat. The tips of his ears were red from the cold.

As we were standing there, the phone rang, and Millie whooped. “Snow day! Please, please, please!”

Felicity made it to the phone first and picked it up. “Hello?” Then she nodded excitedly and did a little dance. “Snow day tomorrow! No school!”

While the girls cheered, Mack looked at me over their heads, his expression grim. “I need a beer.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “I don’t blame you.”

“Dad, can Frannie spend the night?” Millie asked.

“She can sleep in my room!” shouted Winnie, clapping her hands.

“She doesn’t want to sleep with you,” said Millie. “You wet the bed.”

“Do not!”

“Do too!”

“Dad, Millie said I wet the bed and I don’t anymore!”

“Enough!” Mack put out his hands. “I need to think.”

“But can she sleep over, Daddy? Please?” Felicity clasped her hands beneath her chin.

He looked at me. “I hate to say it, but I think you might be stranded at the zoo for the night.”

“I don’t mind. I just need to call my mom and let her know.” I rolled my eyes, thinking that at twenty-seven, it shouldn’t have been necessary and probably made me sound even more like a child. “Otherwise she’ll freak out.”

“I get it,” he said.

“Yay! Then we can bake something in the morning for breakfast. Frannie knows how to make gluten-free monkey bread!” Millie danced around the island.

He unwound his scarf. “Well, I guess that settles it. I can’t turn down monkey bread.”

My heart was thumping hard as the girls crowded around me. Which was silly—I wasn’t staying because he wanted me to. I was stuck here.

Still. We were going to sleep under the same roof. It gave me a thrill I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Was that pathetic?

I removed my coat and boots and took my phone out of my purse to text my mom.

Going to stay at Mack’s house. His car won’t start and mine is buried on the street.





She called me immediately, and I imagined she’d been waiting nervously with her phone in her hand. Gritting my teeth, I answered it.

“Hello?” I moved into the dining room, where it was less noisy.

“Do you want Daddy and I to come get you?” she asked right away.

“No, that’s okay.” I glanced up and saw Mack pull a beer from the fridge, then hold it up as if to say, You want one? I nodded. “I’m fine here.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. The girls are all excited about baking something in the morning. And I don’t want Daddy out driving tonight. The roads are terrible and you know how bad his eyes are in the dark.”

“That’s true,” she conceded.

“I’ll text you in the morning. The kids don’t have school, so Mack and I will probably bring them over to Cloverleigh.” Mack and I. That was fun to say. “We might be a little late, though.”

“That’s all right. Just be safe.”

“We will.”

“Goodnight, dear.”

“’Night.”

I wandered back into the kitchen, where the girls were putting a bag of popcorn in the microwave. After I tucked my phone into my bag, Mack handed me a beer. I took it, and he clinked his against mine. “Cheers.”

“I told my mom we might get to work a little late tomorrow. At least we can sleep in.” As soon as I said it, I was embarrassed because it sounded kind of like I thought we’d be sleeping in together.

“Ha,” he said with a grin. “I can tell you don’t live with kids. I don’t even remember what sleeping in feels like.”

“Daddy, can we watch a movie?” Felicity asked.

He took a pull on his beer. “What movie?”

“Hotel Transylvania!”

Millie groaned. “No. We always have to watch that. It’s not her turn to pick.”

“Whose turn is it?” he asked.

“It’s Winifred’s, I think,” Millie answered, “but since we have a guest, maybe we should let her pick it.”

They all looked at me. “Oh!” I bit my lip. “Uhhh, what about something classic like The Wizard of Oz?”

“Winnie’s scared of the wicked witch,” Felicity said with a snicker.

“I don’t like her,” Winnie confirmed dolefully. “That witch is mean.”

“Well, what if I sit right next to you the whole time?” I suggested. “You can close your eyes during the scary parts.”

She beamed. “Okay.”

With that settled, the girls dumped popcorn into bowls and poured themselves some lemonade. Mack went into the living room to see if he could find the movie on demand, and I put the leftover chili into a large plastic container and stuck it in the fridge.