Sympathetic Magic(46)

She glanced over at him. They were sitting side by side, probably not even a foot apart, and she’d been doing what she could to ignore that dangerous proximity the whole time she’d been eating breakfast. Maybe it had still played with her mind, getting her to make an offer she knew she shouldn’t have. His eyes met hers, and her heart gave a painful little thump.

How long was she going to keep pretending?

Not very, it seemed. “Yes, I am,” she said, speaking so quietly the words were barely above a murmur.

A long pause. Then she felt his left hand brush along her right knee, and a shiver went through her. “I can’t tell you how glad it makes me to hear you say that,” he told her, his tone also quiet, but no less intent for all that.

Unsure how to react, she reached out and picked up her now-lukewarm mug of tea, then took a large swallow. “Well,” she said, attempting to adopt a teasing tone and not sure how well she was doing, “I did tell you the other day that you’d started to wear me down.”

“And that’s all it is? You’re just tired of fighting me?”

Her fingers suddenly felt cold, despite being wrapped around the mug, which was still faintly warm. “I think we both know it’s more than that.” Should she set the mug down? She was afraid that if she did, Lucas would reach out to her, and while some part of her wanted that, she still needed the fragile distance between them to tell her she still had some control of the situation.

He let out a breath. “I — Margot — ”

Shaking her head, she cut in, “Can we just leave it there for now, Lucas? I mean, it’s barely eight o’clock in the morning. I try not to make any huge life decisions before ten, most days.”

Despite the tension between them, he actually laughed at that. “I’d say that’s a pretty good policy. Okay, we’ll revisit all this once we’ve really had a chance to let the caffeine kick in. In the meantime, that driveway’s not going to blow itself.”

She couldn’t help herself — she laughed out loud as well, and Lucas stared at her for a second before he realized what he’d just said.

“You know what I mean.”

“Of course I do. Well, it should still be interesting to watch you blow a driveway.”

He sent her a pained look, but then he got off the barstool and took his plate over to the sink. As he reached for the faucet to turn on the water, she said,

“I’ll take care of the dishes. I figure you’re going to be busy enough this morning.”

“That’s for sure. I’ll get suited up, and just come outside whenever you’re done in here.”

She nodded, then began with the washing-up as he left the kitchen, presumably to get “suited up,” whatever that meant. Not quite ten minutes later, as she was putting the clean pans on the counter to air dry, she heard a metallic whirring outside, and knew Lucas had just started with the driveway.

After fetching her coat and gloves, she went outside. It looked like he’d shoveled the walkway before starting on the drive, but even so the footing was treacherous. She was glad her boots had rubber soles, or she would have been in even more trouble.

Stepping carefully, she made her way to the edge of the driveway. Lucas was in the middle, pushing a bright red contraption, snow pluming up and away from him so it could pile up far enough away from the drive that there would still be room if he had to do this all over again. Goggles protected his eyes, and a red and white ski hat was mashed down on his head. He wore what looked like rubber wading boots, and Margot wanted to laugh at the sight of him. Not exactly the debonair figure he usually cut, but she thought she loved him even more like this.

Then she went stock-still. “Loved?” Since when did she love him? She’d barely begun to admit that she liked him. It was hard enough accepting that she was attracted to him. But it was a huge jump from liking someone and being attracted to him to thinking you were in love with him. That you loved him.

You’re not in love with him, she told herself severely. You hardly know him.

And whose fault was that?

She sighed, and although of course he couldn’t have heard such a small sound over the noise of the snowblower, something made Lucas turn toward her and wave, then give a thumbs-up sign.

Why did he have to be so adorable?

Because it would look odd if she didn’t, she lifted a hand, waving back and smiling. He paused, turning the snowblower down to a dull roar. “This is probably going to take me at least an hour,” he called out to her. “I doubt you want to be standing out in the cold all that time.”

“You are,” she pointed out.