Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

Chapter 817

As she spoke, she was already rolling up her sleeves, eager to get started.

"Professor, let's forget the snowball fight-let's build a snowman! Please?"

Owen Reynolds paused, caught off guard.

"Haven't you said you can do anything? Come on, let's make a snowman-even bigger than this one..." Roseanne didn't wait to see his reaction. She started scooping up snow, recalling how the two kids earlier had done it and mimicking their moves.

When she realized Owen hadn't said a word for a while, Roseanne stopped and glanced up at him.

"Professor?"

"...A snowman?"

"Yes!" Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

"...Alright." He crouched down beside her.

Things weren't going quite how he'd imagined, but there was no harm in giving it a try.

As for the result...

Roseanne stared at the two lopsided lumps of snow in front of her. They were awkwardly stacked, neither round nor square, the top smaller than the base. Forget about a carrot nose or button eyes-even calling it a "snowman" was a stretch.

Honestly, it just looked like... two sad piles of snow.

She looked at Owen, her expression somewhere between baffled and speechless.

He rubbed his nose, clearly embarrassed. "Um... I guess I'm not as consistent as

I thought."

"It's fine," Roseanne said, trying to reassure him.

But the more she covered for him, the more mortified he felt.

and freezing out here. How about we head

Owen

now he'd

climbed the stairs and

into her living room when, after a two-second

out laughing. She just couldn't hold it

Owen closed his door, sank onto his sofa, and immediately pulled

phone. He opened his messenger app

ever teach me how to

you say you could do

Stoddard: [???]

to build

[Are you kidding

whole vacation, is that what you

giving up

Stoddard: [shocked emoji]

Owen: [Great, it's settled.]

[Wait! Forget snowmen-I'll teach you to build a snow elephant if you

flopped onto his

double the

next morning, he

everything for the net

hurried to the lab,

discover...

The snow had melted?

Melted?!

who'd also arrived early, looked at

you see... it's not that I

Owen said nothing.

that

"It's gone."