“Not bad,” I tell him.
“Beast mode,” he explains, tossing another shovelful out of the way.
“Are you dying?”
He straightens. “What if I say yes? Does that get special TLC?”
“No. But flirting will get you a snowball in the face.”
He smiles and bends to scoop another load of snow. “Why is that, Taylor? You doubt my sincerity?”
I push past him, breaking through the snowbank to climb on the hood of my car. I scoop a dustpan full of snow from its roof and toss it away from Levi. “Yes. I doubt your sincerity.”
“You’re supposed to say no.” He straightens again. “Why would you doubt me?”
“As far as I know, you’ve been reporting from remote regions and mostly spending time the last couple of years with soldiers. Male soldiers. I can’t blame you for being so overcome by my hotness that I seem like a good option to you. But you have to think through the long-term consequences.” I scoop up more snow. This time I aim it square at his chest.
He grunts when it hits him but brushes it away and stares up at me. Then he starts laughing.
“What?” I demand.
“You think I don’t have options when I’m on assignment?”
I shrug. “Maybe with aspiring Baba Yagas.”
He grins and shovels more snow. “Eastern Europe has some of the most gorgeous women in the world. I get opportunities.”
A slightly scruffy American with a perfect jawline and eyes that are always smiling? I should have guessed, but I’ve never once imagined Levi with anyone. It’s throwing me. I don’t want to know if he’s taken any of those opportunities, but there’s something in the way he said it that makes me think he has. I don’t like the way it feels, and I remove more snow. Viciously.
“That upsets you,” he says. “You should consider why.”
“I’m not upset.” I hit him in the chest with more snow.
“Clearly.” His voice is dry. “Would it help if I tell you that I’ve always known you’re objectively hot, but there’s something that feels different being around you right now, and it has nothing to do with a dating famine?”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes, you do. You should process this.” He shovels another load of snow. “I have. And I’ve reached some conclusions.”
“Process what? And when did you process this?”
“Since the second I found myself heading straight to you instead of my parents when I got off the bus. I saw you, and I felt like I got hit by the Obvious Truck. And then we had game night, and the Obvious Truck reversed and backed over me again.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” I shove snow to the ground, but I’m paying way more attention to Levi than to clearing my roof.
“It means it was the most obvious thing in the world that I would come see you first. And when I realized that, it was obvious that I should kiss you. So Santa provided a way. And I thought that kiss would make everything obvious to you, but sounds like no?”
“No.” Such a liar. Santa’s bringing me coal.
“So interesting,” he says.
“Stop saying ‘interesting.’”
“No. It’s interesting that I always thought you were the smarter one between the two of us, but I’m the one who’s figured this out first.”
I take several seconds to think.
“Did you figure it out yet?” he asks.
