“Day one, and I have to wear pink sweats,” he muttered as he shuffled into the bathroom to take off his wet jeans. “I hope Jesse doesn’t get here before my jeans get dry.”

“Cody? Where are you?” Stevie raised her voice.

“Bathroom.” He cracked the door and held out a hand.

She put a rolled-up pair of sweats in his hand, and he quickly closed the door. He laid everything on the back of the toilet, unrolled the gray sweats and found the toothpaste and brush.

“These are not pink,” he said as he looked in the mirror. “I’ll get back at you for this, Stevie.”

Most blond-haired men couldn’t grow much of a beard, but Cody was the exception, and a day’s worth of his stubble was equivalent to a week for most men. His hair stuck up in all directions, and his eyes had bags under them. He pulled a comb out of the hip pocket of his jeans and tamed his hair with a little water, brushed his teeth, and wished for his electric razor.

“At least Jesse won’t find me in pink sweats,” he said with a grin.

The sweats were soft and warm, like Stevie had been when he held her in his arms those few months they had dated. He’d missed that feeling when he went to college—maybe even more than he’d missed his family, because he could talk to them anytime he wanted.

Stevie had caught his eye back in junior high school, but it had taken him several years to get up the nerve to ask her out. Looking back, maybe it would have been best if he hadn’t ever made that first phone call after they had started school that fall of his senior year. By spring, he had really developed feelings for her, and knew that he had to choose between his dream and Stevie. He couldn’t ask her to give up her plans, and Doctors Without Borders didn’t need veterinarians.

He brought the sweatshirt to his face and inhaled deeply, and wondered what his life would have been like if he’d made a different choice.

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

In my wildest nightmares, I never would have thought I’d be stuck in a blizzard with Cody Ryan,” Stevie said as she picked up her bag and dug around in it, hoping that she had tucked in a candy bar, but all she located was a couple of pieces of peppermint that came in the sack with the last hamburger she got from Sonic.

When Cody came out of the bathroom wearing gray sweats and white socks, he asked, “Are you color-blind?”

“Just messin’ with you,” she said.

She turned away as if she didn’t want him to see her expression, but he thought he heard a catch in her voice.