Frozen: A Winter Romance Anthology

by Melange Books, LLC

  Why was she feeling so melancholy? She got what she came for. He signed the divorce papers.

  Chapter Nine

  Noah pulled back into camp, stripped off his snow gear, stoked the fireplace and placed the rocking chair directly in front of the mesmerizing flames. Tears pooled in his eyes. Since he was alone, he let them fall.

  His tight chest nearly squelched his beating heart. He was such an idiot, believing he could win her back in less than forty-eight hours and under such circumstances. Yet when he handed her the signed papers, he still hoped she’d tear them up.

  It bothered him to no end that her memory flooded back the second she saw Brian. Why was that? Why didn’t she recognize him first? Had she grown to hate him so much, he’d become that insignificant to her? He sighed. What did it matter in the end anyhow?

  He leaned back and closed his eyes. Visions of the early morning hours invaded his brain. She had felt so wonderfully good in his arms he could barely stand it, and when her soft lips touched his, he could hardly contain himself. He wanted her in the worst way, and it took every bit of strength he had to tuck his selfish needs aside.

  The roar of a snowmobile hummed up to the porch, then quickly hummed out of earshot. It sounded like Brian’s snow machine. What in the hell was he doing here? He was supposed to be taking Casey to the clinic. Before Noah could reach the window to see what was going on, the door swung open, and Casey stepped through, ripping the helmet from her head as she moved toward him.

  Judging from the fire in her eyes, he figured he was in real trouble, but how could he be? He signed the damned papers. That’s what she wanted.

  She slammed the door. “Noah, how could you?” was all she asked before tears streamed down her cheeks.

  He wanted to go to her, to comfort her, but he held off, figuring that was the last thing she wanted, especially from him. At a loss as to why she returned, he risked the questions, “How could I what? Why are you here?”

  “This,” she said as she unzipped her jacket, pulled the divorce papers from its inside pocket, and held them inches from his eyes.

  He dislodged the lump in his throat. “I signed the papers just as you asked me to. What’s the problem?”

  Using her free hand, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. She shook the divorce papers in front of him. “These are the problem...how could you make me fall in love with you all over again and then sign these?”

  His heart slammed in his chest causing his blood to rush through his veins at the speed of light. Did she really just say she loved him? He hoped his ears hadn’t deceived him. With his confidence being at an all-time low lately, he waited for another indication from her as to how she really felt and what she wanted.

  She pulled her gaze from his, stepped up to the fireplace, crumpled the divorce papers in her hands and chucked them into the flames. Poof, gone.

  In less than one heartbeat, he had her in his arms. His lips on hers in less time than it took for his heart to beat again. Her fiery lips nearly melted him. The passion surging from them was far more than he’d ever expected to experience again in his lifetime. His tongue dove deeper, eagerly exploring her mouth, as if it had never been there before. Her lips matched his urgency for a brief moment before she pulled them from him and looked up at him through her long, dark, lashes. Her gaze darkened as she tilted her head toward the door of the bunkroom. He was all about that but needed one more assurance from her before they returned to the bunkroom to finish what they had started in the wee morning hours.

  Using every bit of strength he had, Noah separated himself from Casey, turned and took a knee as he reached into his pocket retrieving the wedding bands they had once worn. Like a fool, he’d carried them with him wherever he went. Maybe now, that wasn’t so foolish. He’d soon find out. He lifted his gaze to find Casey’s teary, bright blue-eyed gaze on him. “Casey, honey, will you wear this ring again?”

  “Yes.”

  Noah stood and slipped the ring on her finger, and she his, before he scooped her up and whisked her off to the bunkroom.

  THE END

  About the Author

  Valerie Clarizio lives in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin, with her husband and extremely spoiled cat. She loves to read, write, and spend time at her cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She's lived her life surrounded by men, three brothers, a husband, and a male Siamese cat who required his own instruction manual. Keeping up with all the men in her life has turned her into a successful hunter and fisherwoman.

  She holds a Master of Business Administration degree and works as a Finance Director. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and the Wisconsin Romance Writers of America.

  Twitter: @VClarizio

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/val.clarizio

  Blog:valclarizio.wordpress.com

  Other works by Valerie J. Clarizio

  Covert Exposure, A Nick Spinelli Mystery

  Craving Vengeance, A Nick Spinelli Mystery

  Lord of Ice

  April Marcom

  For my dad, who’s always loved and looked after me with all his heart.

  Chapter One

  Her contractions were becoming constant and the pain unbearable as the young couple sped over the deserted, old, Minnesota highway toward the hospital. The anxious man had recently finished law school and moved with his wife to a small town called Harrowing to open a law firm. Now they were only moments away from having their first child.

  As they passed the hundred and sixty-seven mile marker, their engine began to knock and produce heavy puffs of dark smoke. “Zachery, what’s wrong?” the desperate woman asked between deep breaths.

  “I don’t know.”

  The car began slowing down. “Are we out of gas?” the woman asked.

  “No.”

  The car died completely. The man tried turning the key and stomping hard on the gas pedal, but had no success in bringing the car back to life. He used the last bit of forward momentum to pull over onto the side of the road.

  “What are you doing?” the woman screamed in terrible pain.

  “The car’s dead, Rachel. I’ll have to call for an ambulance.”

  “NOOO!” Rachel howled when he reached in his pocket for his cell phone. “She’s coming. The baby’s coming!” She tried laying her seat back as she screamed and began bearing down.

  “Just hold on for another minute. We’re only a few miles from the hospital. An ambulance can be here soon.”

  But there was no delaying. “She’s coming now!”

  The woman opened her car door and fell out. She could feel the child leaving her body and needed to lie down, even if it was in blinding darkness and freezing snow.

  * * * *

  In the looming grove of trees nearby, a pale young man watched the suffering woman stumble from her lifeless car while her husband hurried to her aid. As he crept forward, he knew that new life was being born and that another would soon come to an end.

  The air was suddenly split by the woman screaming and then by the first tiny cries of earth’s newest child. Her father wrapped the baby in his coat and handed her to her mother so he could call for an ambulance.

  The silent observer knelt beside the mother and child and felt a deep love for the babe, something he hadn’t felt for another living soul in over four hundred years. He remained unseen by the three mortals.

  “Hello, Lilly,” the woman whispered as she stroked the little girl’s cheeks.

  “Lilly,” the spectator repeated.

  He looked back at the trees when he felt a warm breeze and the fresh scent of wisteria surround him, a sure sign that a lady of spring would be nearby. “What on earth are you doing here, May?” the paler immortal asked as she approached, her long pink dress and glowing blond hair flowing beautifully behind her.

  “Frost? Of all the places...I’ve come to a conclusion, and I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to talk me out of it.”

  Frost stood, hating that miserable name they a
ll insisted on calling him, and gave her a quizzical look. “What are you talking about? And what are you doing in such cold?”

  May took in a deep breath. “I’ve grown tired of the unending days. I can feel the light of this woman’s good heart dimming and have come to give the remainder of my days to her.”

  “You can’t be serious. It hasn’t even been a century for you.”

  “I’m only fifteen years away from it, and eighty-five years is plenty. I’ve spent the last few months enjoying the other seasons, and it’s been a nice change, which is exactly what I need right now—change.”

  “Right now? This isn’t something you can change your mind about later. Once you hand over spring, you become mortal again.”

  “I know that, Frost. It’s what I want, so please don’t make it difficult.”

  Frost allowed himself to be defeated, as he thought of the woman who took care of spring before her. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. A lady of spring never lasts very long.”

  May smiled kindly. “You don’t understand. Spring is the season of rebirth and new life. Watching something so precious and being trapped in a never-ending cycle becomes cruel. I wouldn’t trade the last eighty-five years for anything, but I want to be able to experience the beginning and end of each day as a mortal again.”

  “Zachery, cans you sakes her?” the mortal woman slurred as she let the baby roll off her stomach to the ground. She was losing blood at a dangerous speed.

  The baby cried and coughed, her mouth buried in the snow. Her father picked her up and wrapped his coat around her again before trying to revive his wife.

  May leaned forward and reached out a hand.

  “Wait.” Frost grabbed her arm. “Are you absolutely certain?” He’d seen far too many of those who’d given everything away use their last breaths to utter bitter regrets. The only ones who ever seemed to die happy were those who chose mortality for love. But the dimming of the light that usually radiated from May’s peach-tinged skin became apparent against the white light of Frost’s hand, and he knew her decision was final. He let go as the siren’s wail began in the distance.

  The light dimmed even further, like a magical sunset, as the lady of spring took Rachel’s hand. Bursts of all sorts of bright pink flowers pushed the snow under Rachel’s body away, as it bloomed all around her, right under the feet of the fully living mortals, even. The half-darkened glow surrounded both May and Rachel as the mortal’s body rose gently to waist’s length, and floated toward the trees beside the immortal.

  “Goodbye, Frost,” May turned back to say, the last time they would ever see one another.

  “Goodbye,” Frost replied with a bit of sadness. He’d never been particularly fond of the lady, but it was never easy to say goodbye to a friend.

  The man behind him was shouting for the wife who had disappeared to his mortal eyes, replaced by the flowers that could never compensate for his loss. He laid the child down to sprint about, searching the night for any sign of her.

  When the baby began to cry, the ice spirit gently lifted her from the cold ground. His much colder hands drew even more desperate cries from the tiny bundle, but they soon ceased when her body was laid on the warm bed of spring’s most splendid flowers.

  Her big brown eyes looked up, laced along the edges with blue, and she seemed to smile. It was enough to melt Frost’s icy heart and bring a long lost smile to his own lips. He could feel himself falling in love with the tiny girl, a dangerous thing for any immortal.

  But the ambulance was arriving. It was time for him to go. He pulled the coat around Lilly a little bit tighter, whispered “goodbye” and disappeared into the night.

  Chapter Two

  18 years later...

  Dead leaves hidden by the drifts of snow crunched under Lilly’s feet as she jogged across her front lawn after school. She hated running, but her best friend Rebecca had gotten her acceptance letter from the Sam Haskans’ Arctic Program in Alaska the day before. So Lilly knew her letter had to be at the house.

  The keys jingled as she pulled them from her pocket and thrust one into the lock. She turned the key and flung the heavy door open—and there it was, sitting on top of the pile of letters that had been shoved through the mail slot and left for her.

  “Eeee!” Lilly squealed with glee, taking her cell phone from her pocket and punching in her dad’s number. He’d put almost as much work into trying to get her into the program as she had, so she had to wait for him to open the letter. It would just be really, really hard.

  “Hello, office of attorney Zachery Donavan. How can I help you?” a friendly receptionist answered on the other end of the line.

  “Hey, Kerry. Can you put me through to my dad?”

  “Sure thing, Lilly.”

  There was a click, then Lilly was stuck with some terrible elevator music. She dropped her backpack in a heap by the door and sat on the second step of the blue-carpeted stairway that led up to the four bedrooms, which were meant for a big family. Her eyes rested on the picture of her mom and dad hanging beside the door as she heard her dad’s voice.

  “This is Zachery Don—”

  “It’s here!” Lilly exclaimed.

  “It’s here?—I have to make one more call, and then I’ll bring the rest of work home with me. Don’t open it without me, okay?”

  “I’ll try.”

  She could hear his laughter as he hung up the phone. That would be the only drawback if she got into the program, having to leave her dad for three weeks. She’d never been away from him for that long, but cold and snowy weather were her obsession.

  Everything about winter filled her to the brim with uncontainable joy. She couldn’t explain it, but it had been that way for as long as she could remember.

  As her best friend, Rebecca always kind of piggybacked onto the whole idea. But winter was really Lilly’s thing.

  She nestled her hands into her coat pockets as she went through the spacious living room and kitchen to go out back where no one would see her.

  As she looked over the stretching yard and into the woods that began at its edges, she wondered why he hadn’t come yet. The strange presence with the cold but gentle hand that often held hers, like winter’s ghost. For as long as she could remember, she’d felt him come with the first frost each year and leave with the coming of spring, Lilly’s least favorite season. Luckily, winter seemed to arrive in Harrowing before it reached anywhere else. And leave later, too.

  When she tried telling her father about the unseen presence years before and saw how frightened he was, she never mentioned it again—to anyone.

  “Where are you, Jack?” Lilly asked the crisp air in a breathy puff of vapor.

  Only a few seconds passed by before a breeze caught a bit of snow and swirled it around her, carrying her dark sheens of hair with it. She twirled around and laughed, knowing it must be him. The snow fell as invisible arms wrapped themselves around her and held her close. Lilly closed her eyes and leaned against him, her head resting on a shoulder. It always amazed her, the way his body was colder than ice, but warmed her heart so well.

  Lilly looked to where his face would have been. “What took you so long?”

  He didn’t answer; he never did, except to give her his name—Jack—when she was much younger.

  She’d imagined his face a hundred times. It changed often over the years, but he always had electric blue eyes and an amazing smile. She wondered if she would ever get to see it.

  “I’m waiting on my dad to see if I got in the Sam Haskans’ Arctic Program for aspiring scientists. If I did, then I get to go to Alaska for three weeks. Will you come see me there?” She knew he wouldn’t answer, but she always talked to him like she would anyone else. She felt him take her hand, though, and hoped it was a yes. “Rebecca got in, and she’d be crushed if I didn’t go with her. But my grades are better than hers, and I got that short story published in that outdoorsy magazine. I’m sure I made it in, too.”

  She hel
d onto his hand as she talked and talked, which never seemed to bother him, because he never left as long as she kept going.

  When she heard her father’s car pull up out front, the anticipation nearly tore her away from Jack, but she couldn’t let him go, and he seemed just as unwilling to leave her. Since he never left the freezing outside world, she knew what the answer would be, but had to ask anyway. “Will you come in with me? I’d really like to share this with you.”

  But he took his hand away, and she was sad for the split second it took his fingers to brush against her cheek.

  And then an icy wind tore through the snow in the yard, leaving a green and brown line where the white powder had been parted away from Lilly and into the trees.

  “Bye, Jack,” Lilly whispered as the glass door slid open behind her.

  “What are you doing out here, Water Lilly?” her father asked playfully, holding the precious letter in his hand. “Get in here so we can open this.”

  “Okay!” She hurried inside and shook the snow out of her hair. “You do it,” she said when her father held the envelope out to her.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Mm-hm, I’m too scared.” Lilly held her numb fingers over her mouth as he tore the envelope away and let it fall to the floor.

  He kept a perfect lawyer-poker face as he read the first few lines and looked up at her. She searched his dark eyes for an answer as they locked with hers. Nothing, of course.