A Gift of Snow Read Online Free Page A

He’d picked up mine and left them folded on
the couch, though. I walked into the kitchen and discovered coffee
has been made, too.
    Sweet to the end.
    With the blizzard over and the roads being
cleared, my family would probably be up here today. Christmas would
continue. I went to work on preparations with a smile.
    ****
    Over the next week, I thought about my life
up to now and where I wanted it to go. The contrast between Lee and
Will was too great to ignore and the truth came rushing to
mind.
    Lee and I had moved up here because I fell in love with it. He still worked off the mountain, hung out
with friends off the mountain, drove to the beach for the day while
I wrote… He had looked on foreplay as a necessary chore and the
main event like a race. After a while, he didn’t try to get me off
anymore and I faked more than one climax just so he’d let me
sleep.
    When he got laid off and we couldn’t afford
the gas trips up and down, he started to drink. At first, it was a
couple nights a week at the bar. I didn’t mind at the time because
I thought he was socializing, making friends. I was deep in a
manuscript and the time alone kept my fingers on the keyboard. Only
when he started drinking at home, instead, did I realize there was
a problem. By the time I tried to help, it was too late.
    I hadn’t written another book since.
    The guilt had kept me shut away from living,
from my true self. I’d been conforming to the wife I thought Lee
wanted before he died—mostly without realizing it. But, looking
back now, I saw the slowing of my proliferation as an author along
with my attempts to make him happy. It wasn’t my fault he turned to
booze, though. That was his choice, and his choice to get in
that car.
    I’d wanted a way to escape my self-imposed
cage. Will just found where I’d dropped the key.
    Now, I no longer felt like hiding on top of
the mountain.
    ****
    It’d been five days and Jen hadn’t called,
yet. I couldn’t get her out of my head or my dreams, and it was
driving me crazy wondering if she regretted our time together, or
was just busy. We didn’t know much about each other, of course, but
the girl was already in my blood. My favorite high. I knew if she’d
just see me again, we could create something fantastic.
    ****
    My mother was hosting a New Year’s Eve party
at her house. Wanting to avoid heavy traffic, I started for Los
Angeles in the morning, the note in my pocket. I stopped for lunch
at a diner within city limits and used the pay phone. The person on
the other end of the line picked up after two rings.
    “Yeah?” Will’s voice.
    I sighed in relief that it was a real
number.
    “Hello?”
    Speak , Jenny. “Oh, hi…I mean, this is
Will, right?”
    “Jen?”
    Was it my imagination, or did he sound
excited to hear from me? “Yeah.”
    “I was starting to think…um, what’s up,
love?”
    I bit my lip. “Well, I know it’s last minute,
but…do you have plans tonight?”
    “When and where.”
    I grinned and did a little dance in the
booth. “My mom is having a party, so it’ll be mostly old people,
but--”
    “I’d love to. Come and pick me up.”
    I wrote down directions to his apartment and
hung up after agreeing on seven o’clock. Finished with lunch, I
drove to Mom’s to change clothes. It had to be a good sign he said
yes so quickly, right? I’d debated all week whether to call him or
not, the note mocking my hesitance from the refrigerator.
    Getting ready in my old bathroom lent a sense
of déjà vu to the whole thing. How many times had I prepped in
front of this mirror for a date hoping this guy would
actually get me?
    “Wow, sexy dress just for Mom’s party,”
Shelley said.
    I applied lip gloss and assessed my
reflection. “This old thing?”
    My sister smirked at me. “If it’s old, you
might want to cut the tag off.” She reached for scissors in a
drawer and snipped the tag off the back of my dress.
    “Thanks.”
    The dress bad a deep V in the back. I’d