A Hard Winter's Night

Chapter Six: Mr. Gorgeous Grinch

The next morning, Linda found herself awake a bit earlier than the alarm. It annoyed her so much when that happened every minute of sleep was valuable to her how dare her body cheat her out of 10 minutes. Rolling over to her back, she stared at the ceiling again thinking about yesterday. It was eventful to say the least and very unexpected. A wave of ickiness washed over her; she never liked to yell at anyone. But let's face it, the guy got on her nerves. she sighed to herself. He was a big road blocking, rude, temperamental asshole. 

She finally sat up, frowning. It was too bad that he was so hot. She seriously thought it needed to be a law about assholes that were able to be so attractive, especially with her history. She always seem to attract them. When she first laid eyes on him in Maddie's pet clinic, amongst all the delectable assets the man has, it was his eyes that caught her attention. She could still close her eyes and remember them. Gorgeous light green eyes that pinned her where she stood. She couldn't really place it before but the more she thought about it, the less that she saw actual anger behind the fire in his eyes and more sadness. Something... that fuel, that fire that wanted to claw into anyone crazy enough to get near. There was something familiar about it; a familiarity she wanted to forget. "Arrgh!" she threw her covers off her. " He was a dick, so forget him, Forget those light green peepers of his. And forget that fit, towering physique that only belongs to men on TV.  Forget...ugh. Fuck it.  She stood up and finally proceeded to the shower.

It was pretty surprising to Linda, but her house today of all days was not the crazy zoo that she'd come to expect. Not to mention there was a lot of coordination to get things going this morning with her being without a vehicle. She kind of expected a little more chaos, but now things are kind of falling as they should. Luckily Evelyn was able to swing by and plan to pick up Sandy and take her to school, which only left Linda to her devices to get a co-worker to bring her to work later. She also had to make arrangements to call what's his face to have her truck brought back to send to another mechanic to work on. She had a lot of things on her plate, but with Sandy actually up, cleaned, dressed and eating breakfast well before Evelyn was on her way to get to the house, she was feeling pretty freaking proud of herself. Maybe losing that extra 10 minutes was worth it.

Linda poured herself a cup of coffee and watched Conrad laid beside Sandy.  She swung her feet as she ate her pancakes and bacon. She expect her little bug to be a little bit tired; they did stay up a bit later than usual to get as many decorations up as possible. They did not disappoint because the place look like Santa and his elves threw up Christmas all over the living room. 

She poured more batter onto the griddle and she sipped her coffee when a knock on the door disrupted her groove. She jumped at the surprise fearing that Evelyn was super early. She turned and looked at Sandy who looked back at her.

"What?"

 "Bug, please answer the door for Evelyn.  Let me flip these pancakes so they don't burn. I'll be right there." Sandy leaped from her chair and made a beeline running for the door along with Comrade. Linda just turned a corner when she heard Sandy first gasp and greet cheerfully "Hi!"

"Honey, is that Evelyn?" she asked before she stepped behind Sandy. Like a deer in headlights, she stopped cold at the sight of their guest.

Standing there on her porch was Mr. Gorgeous Grinch himself. His shaggy dark hair sculpting his chiseled face that sported a day's stubble. He seemed massive compared to their small porch. His exhausted eyes watched her intently, and suddenly feeling naked, Linda tightened her robe.

"Hi." Winter replied to the cheerful Sandy. He didn't smile, but there was a subtle calmness to his features. "I was hoping to talk to your mom for a moment."