Seriously. I was waiting for some divine intervention to offer up an explanation.

I stared down at Syd, totally convinced that when I entered Snowshoe I must’ve walked into some kind of warped reality where seeing Syd half-naked occurred, watching her get drunk off her ass, and then having her try to kiss me was run-of-the-mill.

I was absolutely struck stupid, and kind of pissed, too. If I hadn’t been with her tonight, she would’ve hooked up with some random ski instructor. And fucking Zach at that? Acid burned in my stomach. Holy shit, that didn’t sit well with me at all.

And I was also sort of turned on, but then again, she had just been wiggling in my lap like any number of the girls back at school did. And she’d felt really damn good wiggling in my lap—too damn good, and real hard to turn down.

Man, I had no business even thinking about this. Of course I was attracted to her, but I couldn’t go there, because if I really started to acknowledge that, then I’d have to get real about other things.

I scrubbed my hand over my face. Syd was drunk, really drunk. The girl needed to stay away from Jose.

She shifted, her brows pinching as she whimpered softly.

I was by her side before I even realized I’d moved. “Syd?”

No response from her, and I could tell she wasn’t comfortable. Straightening, I bit back a curse. I couldn’t leave her like this. And what if she got sick? Grabbing a pillow from the head of the bed, I slipped a hand under her head and placed the pillow underneath. She didn’t wake, but flopped onto her back.

I grinned and wondered if she even knew she had lain down the wrong way on the bed. I was going to go with a no. Moving to the head of the bed, I sat down and gently tugged off her boots. They were some kind of fake sheepskin or something and came up to her knees. The wedge soles were damp from the snow.

Placing them near the chair in the room, I turned in time to see her trying to sit up. “Syd?”

She mumbled something and the only thing I made out was the word, “Hot,” and then she started tugging at the hoodie I’d made her put on. Within seconds, she got it stuck around her head.

I laughed as her arms dropped to her sides.

Her voice was muffled but it did not sound friendly. Then she bent over, trying to pull it off that way. Good God, she was going to suffocate herself.

“Hold on,” I said, sitting beside her. “Let me get this off.”

She smacked at my hands, but I got her head free and she went for her sweater underneath.

Sighing, I grabbed her wrists. “Syd, let me get this for you.”