“That’s a great idea.” I followed behind as the kids ran up the stairs. Hopefully their excitement would take my mind off the dinner I was now dreading.
We only had a few bags to bring in from the car. The house had come partially furnished, and the rest of our belongings would arrive on the moving truck in a week. I was glad that we didn’t have much to do to settle in. After the long drive over the last couple of days, I was exhausted.
It took all my will-power to force myself out of the house for dinner. Fortunately, both kids were in a better mood now that we weren’t trapped in a car and their excitement masked my lack of enthusiasm when Evan opened the door for us. We stepped inside and I had the kids remove their shoes.
“You came,” he said with a smirk.
“It was nice of Norma to invite us.” I looked down as Tommy tugged on my arm. “What’s wrong?”
“My shoe is stuck.” His face scrunched as he tried to shake the shoe from his foot.
“Hang on.” I bent down and patiently untied the knot that had formed in the shoelace. I could feel Evan’s eyes on me. “What did you do to this thing, kid?”
Tommy shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Alright, I got it.” I pulled his foot free. “You are helpless, just like your father.”
As I straightened, I noticed an odd tenseness on Evan’s face. It looked like he wanted to say something but was holding back.
“Come on into the kitchen!” Norma called from the back of the house. Whatever she was making for dinner, it smelled amazing.
As I passed Evan, I brushed against his arm and felt an electric charge run through my body. It was as strong as it had been the last time we touched, twelve years ago. Light flickered in his eyes and my breath caught in my throat.
“Noelle.” My name passed through his lips as a hushed whisper, an involuntary response to our physical contact. It was like hearing the opening lyric of a favorite song that I hadn’t heard in years.
Tommy grabbed my arm again, this time pulling me away from Evan. “I’m hungry. Let’s get some pie.”
“Okay, Tommy. I’m coming.” I was glad for the interruption.
Norma was flying around the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on dinner. Her face lit up when we came into the room.
“I’m so glad you came!” She grinned at me. “I see you met my nephew, Evan?”
“Actually, Evan and I met a long time ago.” I felt him enter the room behind me.
“Is that so?” Norma looked overjoyed. “You’ll have to tell us all about it over dinner.”
I was hoping she would forget during the ten minutes it took us to set the dinner table. We put the kids to work on the place settings while Evan and I helped carry the food to the table. The entire scene was so normal and domestic that it only made the tension between us more palpable.
“Okay,” Norma said after we were all seated and the food had been passed around. “Tell us about how you met.”
“Oh, it’s not a very exciting story,” I said, sparing a glance at Evan.
“Actually, Noelle tried to kill me.” Evan failed at holding back a smirk.
Madison perked up. “Really? How?”
“He’s exaggerating,” I said, as I stabbed a potato with a fork.
“You shoved me into a tree while falling down a mountain,” Evan said with mock indignation. “If that’s not attempted murder, I don’t know what is.”
“I lost control of my skis and accidentally crashed into you. It’s not my fault that you were a skinny kid with no sense of balance.” I found myself smiling at the memory.
“How old were you?” Madison asked. It was the most engaged I had seen her in months. Despite my selfish reasons for not wanting to take a trip down memory lane, I couldn’t resist Madison’s pleading look.
When I looked at Evan and saw that he was smiling fondly at the memory, there was no going back, I said, “I was thirteen.”
“You let a thirteen-year-old girl knock you down?” Tommy said with a giggle.
“Hey, she was hurtling down a mountain. Gravity played a key role in this attack.” Evan’s smile continued to grow. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”
The beginning. Back before everything changed. Back when I was madly in love with a boy who was my best friend, who had now grown into the unfamiliar man sitting across from me. But the beginning was a memory that still made me smile. “Good idea. Let’s go back to the beginning.”
CHAPTER THREE
Twenty Years Ago
I t was my first attempt at skiing. My family had been coming to Starlight for the holidays for many years, but I had always adamantly refused to join the others as they hurtled down the mountain. My brother, David, had been skiing for almost a decade. He somehow managed to convince me that I would love it.
David was five years older and usually didn’t have time to waste hanging out with his little sister, but that always changed in Starlight. Something about the festive atmosphere in town always brought out his compassionate side and he would take pity on me. I had always been terrible at making friends. That was only more obvious on our trips to the small town where everyone else knew each other. Spending our summers and a couple weeks in December in Starlight was never enough time for me to make any lasting connections.
David was the opposite of me in that regard. He had almost as many friends in Starlight as he did in our hometown. It probably didn’t hurt that David was also a friendly, athletic, and good-looking teenager. I always wished that I could have just a fraction of the charm he exuded to the world.
“Don’t forget the wedge,” David said as we stood at the top of the small hill. Rather, it was small to everyone else. To me, I might as well have been at the top of the mountain.
“How do I stop again?” I said, adjusting my goggles as my knees shook.
“Just turn your skis to the side.” He made it sound so easy.
I was beyond scared, but I didn’t want David to know that. I had a wicked competitive streak that always got me into trouble. When David asked if I was ready, I nodded and prepared to push off with my ski poles.
The second I started moving forward, I knew it was a bad decision. I was off-balance from the beginning and couldn’t remember anything other than to form a wedge shape with my skis. This only made me go forward faster. David was alongside me and yelled that I was leaning too far forward. I overcorrected by straightening my back abruptly, and that’s when I lost control completely.
David yelled after me as I veered to the right, directly toward an unsuspecting skier. I shouted for him to move when I realized that my attempts to avoid a collision were going to be futile. By the time he looked over his shoulder, it was too late. I hit him at full speed and we both flew through the air.
I hit the ground first in a tangle of skis and poles. It took a few seconds for me to test my limbs and make sure nothing was broken. Then I spent another few minutes struggling to remove my skis. By the time I stood and looked to where my fellow crash victim had landed, he was struggling to get to his feet.
“Why the heck are you trying to kill me?” he demanded.
“I’m sorry!” I started to walk toward him, but my ankle twinged painfully. “Ow.”
“Are you okay?” He sounded like he might genuinely care.
“I just twisted my ankle.” I tried taking another step and the pain was just as strong. “I’m sure I’ll be fine after they cut it off.”
The boy laughed. “I don’t think we should give up on the ankle yet. You probably just need to get off it for a bit.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll just roll myself down the rest of this hill.” I tried to find David among the other skiers, but it seemed he had disappeared.
“Here, let me help.” The boy kicked off his own skis and then picked them up. He added mine to the pile and put them all under his arm. “I’ll walk you down.”
“That’s awfully nice of you.” I used my ski poles to keep my full wei
ght off my injured ankle. “Sorry again for almost killing you.”
“It’s not the worst thing that’s happened to me today.” He adjusted the skis under his arm. “I’m Evan, by the way.”
“I’m Noelle. Noelle Sutton.”
He grinned at me, a perfectly symmetrical flash of teeth that made me feel something I had never felt before. “That’s a festive name.”
“My parents are big fans of Christmas.” I was glad that we were almost to the bottom of the hill. My ankle was hurting worse and my heart was doing a strange fluttering.
Evan led us straight to one of the ski racks and once everything was stacked, he said, “Will you at least let me buy you a hot chocolate while you rest your ankle?”
“I almost killed you and now you want to buy me a hot chocolate?” I finally removed my helmet and goggles now that we were back on level ground.
Evan hesitated and I could only assume that he was staring at me behind the tinted lens of his goggles. “I just have this feeling that you were meant to come crashing into my life, Noelle.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say to that, so I just nodded mutely. Evan reached up to remove his own helmet and goggles and my heart did that fluttering thing again when he settled his green eyes on me.
“Remember this day, Noelle Sutton,” he said with an odd intensity.
“Why?” I asked, the word coming out as a croak.
“Because.” He grinned again and I finally understood the strange feeling that had been building inside me since his first smile. I had a crush on this boy that I barely knew. “Today is going to be the best day of your life. It’s the day you met me.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“T hat’s a lovely story,” Norma said when I finished. “It sounds like the beginning of a very sweet friendship.”
“It was something like that,” Evan said before finishing his last bite of pie. My story had lasted throughout dinner and into dessert.
“It sounds like something out of a movie,” Madison said. She gave me a thoughtful look. “What happened after that? Why did you stop being friends?”
I dropped my fork onto my plate and sighed. She had no idea just how complicated that question was for me to answer. “That is a long story, Mad, and we’re out of pie.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Evan said quickly. “Aunt Norma can whip up some of her famous hot cocoa and I can build us a fire in the pit outside.”
“Yeah!” Tommy bounced in his seat.
Evan stood. “Noelle, why don’t you help me with the fire?”
“I should really help your aunt clear the table,” I protested.
“Nonsense.” Norma waved her hand. “I’m old, but I can still clean the dishes.”
“We’ll help,” Madison added. “As long as you promise to tell us more of the story.”
It felt as though everyone was conspiring against me. I had no choice but to relent. “Fine. You kids help Norma get everything cleaned up and I’ll tell you more of the story.”
Norma couldn’t stop grinning as I followed Evan from the room. As I was putting on my coat, he said, “I’m surprised you remember that day.”
“How could I forget it?” I said. “It was the best day of my life, remember?”
He smirked. “Yeah, well. I was a cocky teenager.”
“I remember.” I pulled on my hat. “Okay. Let’s get this fire started.”
“Easy, Sutton. There are children in the other room.” Evan winked at me. “Let’s take this outside.”
It was exactly the kind of thing he would have said in the past that would have made me giggle and roll my eyes. This time, I skipped the giggle. Following him outside, I wondered if he really needed help or if he had just been looking for an excuse to get me alone. Then, just as quickly as that thought came to mind, I pushed it away.
“We need to grab the firewood from over by the barn,” Evan said as he started in that direction. As he was loading firewood into my outstretched arms, he said, “I didn’t realize you had kids. How old are they?”
“Tommy is eight and Madison is twelve.” I was about to head back to the fire pit when I noticed the shocked look on Evan’s face. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Madison is twelve?” His whole body had gone tense.
“Yeah. So, what?” I started to turn away again and then it hit me.
He said, “Is there something you need to tell me?”
“Evan.” I started laughing. “Madison and Tommy aren’t really my kids. They are my niece and nephew.”
“Oh.” His jaw unclenched. “I didn’t realize.”
“That would’ve been a fun Christmas surprise, me showing up to dinner with your love child.” I laughed even more. “Do you really think I would’ve kept something like that from you for twelve years?”
Evan turned away abruptly and reached for more firewood. “If I knew how your mind worked, I never would have lost you to begin with, Elle.”
There was nothing for me to say to that. It was clear that even after twelve years, Evan still blamed me for our relationship ending. Truth be told, I blamed myself, too. I had an uncanny knack for ruining everything good in my life. It was why I had packed up the kids and moved the minute I thought our current situation wasn’t working. I wasn’t going to mess up their lives the way that I’d messed up my own.
I took my armful of wood back to the fire pit and dropped it on the ground. Evan was right behind me and as he bent down to start preparing the fire, he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that, Noelle. Our breakup wasn’t completely your fault.”
It was kind of him to lie. I sank into a chair a few feet from where he was kneeling and said, “You were a good boyfriend, Evan. You deserved better than me.”
“Can’t say I agree with that.” He put one last log on the pile and then settled back on his heels to observe his handiwork.
I said, “Remember when we used to spend summers at the lake and we would build fires at night?”
“I remember how good you looked in that pink bikini.” He grinned at me and the flush in my cheeks had nothing to do with the heat from the fire. “And out of it.”
“Aunt Noelle!”
I was saved by a screaming eight-year-old, and not a moment too soon. When Evan was looking at me that way, my mind was headed nowhere good.
“What’s up, Tommy?” I pulled my eyes away from Evan, but not before I noticed that my heart was fluttering the same way it had on the mountain twenty years earlier.
“Hot chocolate!” Tommy rushed forward and handed me a mug that seemed to be full of marshmallows. “I made it for you.”
“You did?” I gasped and Tommy smiled proudly. He forced his tiny body into the small empty space next to me in the chair. “This looks amazing, Tomcat. Thank you.”
Norma and Madison joined us by the fire and we all sat quietly for a few seconds as we stared at the fire. I didn’t look in his direction, but I suspected that Evan was staring at me.
“You’re supposed to be telling us the story,” Madison prompted.
“The story.” I finally looked at Evan again. “Remind me. What happened next?”
“We went to the Snow Ball together,” he said instantly. Evan clearly didn’t have any trouble remember the events of our lives that had led to us falling in love. I wondered how clearly he remembered the events that had torn us apart.
I nodded. “That’s right. You tricked me into being your date to the dance.”
“Hardly!” He scoffed. “I felt sorry for you because you didn’t have any friends in town and you were sulking around acting pathetic. If I remember correctly, you were mad because your older brother was ignoring you to spend time with his girlfriend.”
“Dad had a girlfriend?” Tommy said with wide eyes. “What about Mom?”
“The girlfriend was your mom, before they got married.” I had almost forgotten that part of the story. “Your parents had just started dating the previous summer and I didn’t know your mom was coming on
the trip. Your dad just brought her without telling anyone.”
“What did you think of her?” Madison asked shyly.
That was a tough, complicated question. It had been almost twenty years since meeting Stephanie for the first time. “I remember that she was beautiful. I couldn’t figure out what she was doing with my nerdy older brother. She was sweet. We hadn’t even met her, but she brought presents for all of us. She got me a beautiful necklace that I still have somewhere.”
“Why didn’t she go skiing with you and Dad that day?” Madison said.
“She stayed behind to bake cookies with your grandma. They were delicious, by the way.” I remembered eating many cookies that day. “Your mom actually helped me get ready for the dance.”
“I bet you looked really pretty, Aunt Noelle,” Tommy said happily.
“She looked beautiful,” Evan said. He gave me a meaningful look. “I’ve still never met a more beautiful woman than your aunt.”
Madison smiled slyly. “Tell us about the dance. Did you guys kiss?”
“Wow, that’s very direct.” Evan grinned as he looked at me. “She reminds me of you at that age.”
“No way. Madison is way smarter and cooler than I was. She takes after her dad.” I smiled at Madison. “She’s definitely a better dance than me. I’m pretty sure I broke at least four of your toes.”
Evan laughed. “I think you are misremembering that night. I only lost one pinky toe.”
Norma had been quietly watching the whole conversation, but now she said, “Why don’t you tell us about the dance. It sounds like you both have fond memories of it.”
“Fond? I guess you could say that.” I could feel my cheeks flushing again as I smiled. “That was the night I fell in love for the first time.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Twenty Years Ago
“Y ou look beautiful,” Stephanie said as she tucked a strand of hair over my shoulder. She had just spent the last twenty minutes twisting it into perfect curls. “Evan is going to be speechless when he sees you.”
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