“Mark?” She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering.
He looked at her, then pulled off his jacket and set it around her shoulders. He rubbed her arms, watching the space between them.
“What are we doing here, Riley?”
“Freezing?”
That drew his eyes up to hers, anyway.
“Sorry,” she said. “I know what you meant.”
“I can’t do this.” He shook his head. “I can’t pretend to not feel things I do, and I can’t even feel about you the way I want to because you’re leaving without any plans to come back. So, tell me, why did you come tonight? To tell me you’re friends with Christmas? I’m happy for you, Riley. I really am. Nobody could be more relieved for you than I am.” His gaze searched hers, begging her for answers. “But is that really why you came?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” she said. “‘Courage is knowing what not to fear.’ You said that.”
“Plato said that.”
“Then you said it.”
He shook his head in frustration, but she continued before he could say anything.
“All this time, I thought courage was putting up walls against the things and people that hurt you. That courage was anticipating how you might be hurt and preventing it before you got close. Even with my grandma, I thought it was strength to push away this thing, this holiday she loved so much, to protect myself from feeling that pain year after year—”
“You were just a kid.”
“I’m not a kid anymore. You were only a couple years older than I was when you lost your mom. You didn’t shut out the best things about her.”
His gaze intensified. “No, but I shut out almost everything when I lost Jay.”
She paused. Her voice wavered. “I think I’ve been doing this wrong. I’ve been afraid of the wrong things.”
He waited, watching.
“I want to be brave,” she said. “Will you help me?”
His piercing gaze never left hers. “Since the fires, I’ve been trying to work my way around the idea of living again. Then you came and threatened me and laughed at me and ordered me around, and I stopped trying to work my way around living and just started . . . living. Waking up and making plans for how to spend time with you, how to make you smile, how to make a life, how to make you love me—”
He’d stopped himself as her breath caught.
Her voice softened. “You love me.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Yes, you did.”
He stepped closer, his complexion mottled. “I said make—”
“—you love me,” she finished.
“I said you—”
“You.”
He pulled her close. “Love.”
Her pulse raced. “Love.”
His lips neared hers. “Me.”
“M—”
His mouth met hers, and she wasn’t able to finish her argument—or win it. Or maybe she had won, because this kiss warmed her all the way to her toes, and she forgot snow and sky and mountains or maybe felt them all at once—
He broke the kiss, his hands cradling her face. “If you hate it here, if you can’t stand this place, then yes, leave. Find somewhere that makes you happy. I’d follow you. I’d take all the looks and stares and follow you anywhere, if you’d let me.”
She swallowed hard, knowing what that would mean for him.
“But, Riley”—his eyes pled with hers—“if you like this place? If you love this place? If you love me—” He stopped, his chest rising and falling.
“If I love you,” she whispered, searching his eyes, begging him to trust her.
“If you could be happy here, then stay here. Stay with me. Make more memories with me.”
She saw a thousand hopes in his eyes. And more courage than she’d ever known.
She was out of arguments. “I’ll stay. With you.”
He smiled his beautiful, breathless smile. “Then get used to more of this.”
She laughed as he picked her up, kissing her again.
In an instant, the deck space flooded with Christmas lights as indoor curtains were drawn back on the wall of windows behind them, revealing one side of the dance area and plenty of eyes.
They heard a shout, and somebody whistled.
“Way to go, fireman!”
“Get her inside—she’s gonna freeze!”
Mark’s deep laughter pulled a smile from her. “We better do what he says.”
“I kind of like it out here,” she said, still looking down at him.
He set her feet on the deck.
“Kiss her again!” someone shouted.
“I know where I’d like to throw a few of those candy canes,” Mark grumbled. He lifted his head and shouted back, “I’m trying to!”
“Mark?”
He turned back to her, frowning. “Hmm?”
“My lips are cold.”
He slowly smiled. “Ms. Madigan, I am going to love keeping you warm.”
Mark closed his eyes under the blindfold as Riley pulled it tight. “Ouch.”
“Can you see anything?”
“My eyes are closed.”
“Good.” Riley grabbed his hand and led him out of the house and down the porch steps.
“Hey, slow down. I can’t see, remember?”
“You know this place like the back of your hand.” She didn’t slow.
He did his best to keep up with her. “Are we going to the storage building to make out?” he asked. “’Cause if we are, I’m kind of digging this blindfold idea.” He grabbed for her with his free arm.
She laughed, evading his grasp. “Not this time. It’s a surprise. Be good.”
“Oh, I’m good.”
She laughed again.
They left the path to the storage building and began tramping into the snow.
“This isn’t some sort of survival test, is it? You leave me with a knife and duct tape? Like you said, I know this place like the back of my hand. I’d be back before dinner. I’d even keep the blindfold on.”
“I’m sure you would. Now shush.”
“Hey.” He planted his feet. Her hand pulled hard in his, but he held on, and she stopped.
“What?” she asked, a little impatience in her voice.
He smiled. “Come here.” He pulled on her hand, and she gave in.
He wrapped her in his arms, smelling her scent mixed with winter air, knowing exactly where the top of her head reached his nose, exactly where her lips would be if she looked up at him. Her arms wrapped around his middle.
“Do you
