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‘My point,’ Holly said bitterly ‘is that I lied to myself all these years and never realized it until this minute’

‘Well, you’re realizing wrong We didn’t fight Never’

‘You’re the one who’s wrong, Nick We fought I did, anyway It’s just that I never let the anger out I kept it all bottled up because I was this—this good little girl anted to please you To make you look at me the way you… Oh, this is stupid! It doesn’t matter anye with it’ She turned away, her back rigid ‘And I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am for that!’

‘Holly, wait a minute—’

‘Goodnight, Nick If we’re lucky, and they plow the road during the night, please have the decency to be gone before I get up’ Her voice trembled ‘Actually, if you really had any decency at all, you’d—you’d take those blankets and that pillow and make your bed in a snowbank!’ She stormed up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door behind her

Nick stood there for a longblindly at the empty hall and the closed door Then, very slowly, he made his way to the sofa, sat down, and buried his head in his hands

CHAPTER FIVE

MAN, it was cold!

And late, too At least three or four in the ured No question but that he had to have been tossing and turning for hours, ever since Holly had stormed out of the room

He lifted his arhted dial of his atch

Midnight? It was only ht?

Nick groaned and fell back against the pillow, except the pilloasn’t there The ared to connect it perfectly with the bump on his head He winced, mouthed an oath, and rubbed his skull with the tips of his fingers

‘Great,’ he reat’

What a night this had turned out to be! The laugh of it was that he’d cos were going, he’d have found more relaxation if he’d decided to camp out in the middle of Times Square

And the weekend was only just beginning

Nick rolled over, picked up the pillow and punched it into shape