Why was he really here? Why tonight? It was Christmas Eve—he should be with his family, delivering the Santa presents for his nieces.
Finally, they got to the log flume ride, which was shuttered for the winter, and he stopped, turning to face her. He took her other hand in his, and he attempted a smile, but it was … nervous. She felt her eyebrows draw together, unsure of what he might say.
“Do you remember the first time you ever went on this ride?”
She raised her eyebrows. Of course she did. “Yes.”
“And do you remember what happened afterward?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. I kissed you.”
“Right. You kissed me. For the first time ever. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
“Well, I kissed you because I didn’t die and go to heaven. I was terrified of this freaking ride, if you remember correctly.”
“I remember.” He lifted one hand to her face, cradling it like the pottery bowl he’d held last weekend. “I also remember that you trusted me. You trusted me not to let you get hurt, and you trusted me to take care of you.”
“It was just a ride, Noah. It wasn’t … life. If you’re trying to make some global comparison here, it’s … a stretch.”
“We had a lot of kisses after that one, right? I mean, two years’ worth, really.” He smiled, eyebrows playful. “But I remember that one. I’ll never forget it, because that was the first time I felt you let go and rely on me, and that feeling? It doesn’t get better than that.”
“A ride, Noah.” Her voice was small. What was he after, here? Why were they still having this conversation?
“I’m not going to Belize, Piper.”
Her eyes widened as her eggs poked each other out of their comas. “You’re not?”
“I’m not.” He shook his head. “Not Belize, not India, not Alaska. I’m not going.”
“Why … why not?”
He paused. “Because as it turns out, I could die.”
His tone was dire, but laughter bubbled out of her before she could stop it, and she clapped one hand against her mouth.
“It’s true,” he continued. “I think, for the past seven years, I’ve done what I needed to do, but coming back here, seeing you, holding you … kissing you? It eclipses all of that, and if I screw this up a second time, I’ll never forgive myself.”
She opened her mouth to deliver the same arguments she’d delivered just last weekend, but he put a gloved finger against her lips.
“Shh. I know what you’re going to say. And a week ago, as much as I hated to admit it, I knew you were right.”
“Then why—”
“Because. Because actually, you’re wrong. I’m not the same guy I was seven years ago. I’m not the same guy who’d put his career ahead of his future. I’m not the same guy who’d get on a plane and leave it all behind. I’m not the same guy … because this time, I can’t let you go.”
Before she could answer, his lips were on hers, warm and sure, and she felt all of her defenses crashing down around her as his arms encircled her.
“God, Noah.” She breathed him in, pulled him closer, buried her fingers in his hair.
“Seven years, Piper. We missed seven years. I’m not missing another minute with you.”
“But—”
He silenced her with a kiss. “Don’t think. We’ll figure it all out. Just … be with me.”
She traced his face with her gloved fingers, loving the way snowflakes clung to his lashes like they didn’t want to let go. His face had changed—more crinkles at the corners of his eyes, a deeper cut to his cheekbones—but his eyes were the same ones she’d fallen in love with the first day she’d kissed him. His eyes promised heat, passion … and safety.
She lifted her chin and closed her eyes, letting snowflakes dance onto her face as he held her tight. She had to be dreaming. Any minute, she was going to wake up, crushed when she realized it wasn’t real.
Then he slid his hands down her arms, gripping her hands tightly. “Remember how you used to put your toes on mine and lean back to catch the snowflakes?” She smiled. Of course she did. She stepped carefully on his boots, balancing precariously, but he steadied her.
He held tight as she leaned back, ever so slowly. His voice was deep, full of promise as he looked down at her. “Do you trust me?”
She was silent, her eyes closed, drinking in the sensations of his hands on hers, his body so close, the snowflakes landing gently on her eyelids. Yes, she trusted him. She didn’t know if eventually she’d regret it, but in this moment, there was only one thing she wanted … him.
“I trust you,” she whispered.
“Second question—do you love me?”
She opened her eyes, expecting to find an amused expression on his face as he held her in a precarious balancing act. But he was dead, dead serious, and her smile faded as she looked into his eyes.
“I do. I hate that I do, but I do. I love you more than anything.”
He smiled. “More than Ben & Jerry’s?”
“No. That would be insane. But you’re a seriously close second.”
He laughed, pulling her close, lifting her up so her legs encircled his body. “Well, I love you more than Ben & Jerry’s.”
“You’re lactose intolerant. I would hope so.”
He laughed again, spinning her slowly around. “I love you more than anything in the world, Piper Bellini. And I will never, ever let you go again.”
Epilogue
“Okay, so what would you do if I fell right now and broke my ankle?” Piper turned to Noah, who was following her through the snow with a backpack on. It was New Year’s Day, and he’d convinced her to head out for a winter hike, but she wasn’t at all sure she’d made the right decision in finally agreeing to go.
“I’d cut a branch from that tree right there and make a splint.”
“How would you cut it?”
“With the axe I always carry.” He raised his eyebrows, challenging her. “And I’d use the duct tape I also always carry to tape the splint to your ankle.”
“And how would you get me out of the woods? Can’t walk on a broken ankle, even if it’s splinted.”
“Easy. I’d tie you to my pack and drag you back out to the truck.”
“Very funny.”
“You asked.” He smiled. “You’re not going to break your ankle, Piper. We’re walking through a foot of fresh powder. The worst injury you’re going to get today is a sunburn.”
“You say that.” She tipped her head, pointing to a flat expanse he knew was a frozen-over pond. “What if I didn’t know that was a pond? What if I fell in?”
He shrugged. “I’d probably leave you for the frogs.”
“Hey.” She slugged him playfully. “I’m serious. What do you do for that?”
Noah stopped walking, sighing and shaking his head. “Is every hike with you going to be like this?”
“Yup. This is why no one ever takes me twice.”
“Shocker.” He ducked as her hand reached out again. “Okay, if you fell into that pond, I’d throw you a rope and pull you out, and then I’d strip you naked, put you in a sleeping bag, and climb in with you.”
She laughed. “That is not first aid.”
He shrugged again. “Actually, it is. But I’d have to be naked, too. Body heat. It’s how you do it.”
“Noah.”
“I’m serious! Look it up when we get home. Standard winter survival technique for hypothermia.”
“You’re going to have an answer for everything, aren’t you?”
“Well, if I don’t, I’ll make one up. You’ll never know.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Comforting.”
“Honey, if Luke trusts me to take corporate clients out in the woods next winter, then surely you can trust me to get you back home after a two-mile hike.”
Piper smiled. He and Luke had met every day for the past week, finalizing their partnership, and every night, Noah had come back
to her apartment with new enthusiasm about the plans they had for the property next to Echo Lake.
She crossed her arms, hugging herself. “I still can’t believe this.”
“Believe it. We sign the papers next week. You’re stuck with me, sweetheart.”
“Oh. My. God.” A thought struck her. “Do you know what this means?”
“What?”
“It means that next year, when that insufferable Snowflake Ball rolls around, I won’t have to dance with Dougie, or Milo, or creepy Peter. I can just dance with you, all night long.”
“One problem there.” He put up a gloved finger as he winced, and she hated that a scared feeling sliced through her. After this amazing, crazy week they’d had, was he about to tell her he might not be here next year at this time? Really?
“What?” Her voice was small, scared.
“Well, if we’re going to get you off the singles tree, it looks like we’ll have to make sure we’re married before the Snowflake Ball, right?”
Her eyes widened as she felt a grin take over her face. “Are you—proposing?”
“No.”
She tipped her head in confusion. “No?”
He sighed, sliding the backpack down his arms and turning around to reach into a side pocket. He turned back around to her, and before she could see what he’d gotten out of the backpack, he went down on one knee in the snow.
She put both hands to her mouth as he pulled out a ring box, and she felt like she might actually pop, right there on a hillside, surrounded by fir trees and fresh snow.
“Now I’m proposing. Piper Maria Bellini, it took me a long time to get to this place—an unforgivably long time. But I’m here, and I’m staying, and if you could possibly see your way to keeping me, I’d love to marry you.”
“Oh, Noah.” She smiled down at him, drinking in the moment.
He lifted the ring box a little higher as his eyebrows rose. “Is that a yes?”
“Of course it’s a yes. It’s always been a yes. It’ll always be a yes.”
She threw her arms around him, and they both toppled into the fresh snow, their lips finding each other as he pulled her body atop his.
A long time later, Piper smiled down at him, then brushed her nose against his. “You know, I’m kind of tempted right now to go jump into that pond so you’d have to rescue me.”
He pretended to ponder, squeezing her hand as she slid down from his body to lie beside him in the snow.
“Or”—he put up one finger—“we could forgo the hypothermia and go straight to the naked-in-the-sleeping-bag part. Just another option.”
He leaned up on one elbow, reaching over her to scoop a handful of snow. He held it in front of her face, smiling softly as he looked into her eyes.
“Make a wish, Piper.”
She closed her eyes, and her breath caught. For the first time in seven years, she didn’t have to wish for Noah to come back to her. He was here. Gloriously, permanently—here.
She pictured a waterfall, a log cabin, a minivan full of kids, and she whispered her mother’s wishing verse, then blew softly on the flakes.
“Wow. That looked like some wish.” He raised his eyebrows playfully.
“It’s okay.” She smiled, kissing him as she wrapped her arms around him. “I’m pretty sure you’re up to the challenge.”
He kissed her nose. “I love you, Piper Bellini. Love you so much it hurts.”
“Ditto.”
When he finally let go, she scooped up a little pile of snow and held it up to him. “Your turn. Make a snowflake wish.”
Noah shook his head, smiling as he gently lowered her hand and shook off the snow.
“I don’t need one. You’re the only wish I ever had.”
Read on for a sneak peek from
Forever This Time
The first in the Echo Lake series!
Chapter 1
“Dad?” Josie barely heard her own voice over the beeping machinery dwarfing the ICU bed. “Oh God. Daddy?” The words were strange on her tongue as she stumbled closer. This couldn’t be her father, this motionless shape under hospital blankets. This couldn’t be the man who ran twenty miles a week and crowed his perfect blood pressure and BMI to anyone who’d listen.
She stared at her father’s face. His skin was sallow, slack, dry as rice paper. Droplets collecting in the oxygen cannula gave the only indication that he was even alive. She felt her knees jiggle as her breath hitched, and she reached blindly for the rail beside the bed.
“Ma’am?” A sharp voice startled her from behind. “Only immediate family in here.”
Josie nodded slowly, but couldn’t rip her eyes from the Dad-shaped creature on the bed. “I’m family,” she whispered—that word, too, feeling odd enough in her mouth that she didn’t even attempt immediate. “He just doesn’t know me.”
“Ma’am?” Josie felt a hand on her elbow and turned around slowly to face a rotund nurse whose perky blond ponytail tried hard to belie the age lines around her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, then jumped as blood pressure cuffs buzzed awake and made the blanket over Dad’s legs rise upward. “I’m … I’m his daughter.”
“Daughter?” The nurse’s eyes were quizzical. “Goodness, I’m sorry. We didn’t know.”
“You wouldn’t have. I’m not really … expected.” Josie winced as she said the words.
The nurse came around to face her, putting her hand out gently. “I’m Gayle.”
“Josie.” She shook Gayle’s outstretched hand.
“Do you want to sit while I check on him?”
Josie stared at the still face on the pillow, unable to open her mouth and answer. Her feet felt glued to the shiny floor, and the chair right next to her felt twenty feet away. This was the man who spent half his life ho-ho-ho-ing around the family’s Christmas theme park in a Santa suit, for God’s sake. He was never still.
She glanced up at Gayle, who was checking machines and typing information into her laptop. “So it was definitely a stroke?”
Gayle nodded, pointing to the side of her head. “Right cerebral hemorrhage.” She closed the laptop and started adjusting some tubing that looked all tangled up at the head of the bed. “I’m almost done here. I can leave you alone if you’d like to stay for a couple of minutes. You can try talking to him. He can probably hear you.”
Josie shook her head. No, talking was the last thing she wanted to do.
“You can just tell him about your day. Tell him about the weather. Doesn’t matter. Just let him hear your voice.”
Josie sighed. “I’m sorry, Gayle, but honestly—if he hears my voice, he might have another stroke.”
* * *
Ethan sat in his desk chair checking the news, but when he’d read the same headline four times, he clicked the window closed. He tried not to stare at the empty chair across from him, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t believe Andy was in the hospital. Couldn’t believe he’d had a stroke.
Couldn’t believe Josie was on her way back to town.
He pushed his chair away from the desk and looked back out the window. The sparkle and glitter of Snowflake Village twinkled at him from every tree, every ride, every pathway. Camp Ho-Ho, Josie had always called it. Alternate-reality center of the universe.
For the millionth time in five years, he thought about what she would say if she saw him sitting in the CFO chair at her family’s theme park, his desk parked head-to-head with her own father’s. He looked down at his red polo shirt with the official snowflake logo on the breast. It was a far cry from the dress blues and military bars he’d always thought he’d be wearing by now, but a Rutland linebacker had altered that life plan with a bone-crushing tackle during the state finals eleven years ago.
Instead of a military assignment overseas, he had a permanency rating in his right knee and a job running a holiday theme park. Not exactly the life he’d envisioned, but he’d been grateful when Josie’s father had offered him the CFO job
after it became crystal-clear that Josie wasn’t going to come back and take it.
But now she was coming back to Echo Lake. It had taken a life-or-death situation to get her here … but here she’d be.
He swore softly when he realized he was absently rubbing his left ring finger.
Quick footsteps on the stairway startled him, and his stomach leaped. Was she here? He caught a flash of flaming red hair coming around the doorway and let out a relieved breath. Not Josie, thank God. Just her old best friend.
Molly burst dramatically into the office. “You have to save me!” She flopped into Andy’s empty chair, her vivid green eyes sparkling as she peered over her shoulder toward the door. “These blind dates are disasters!”
Ethan looked at her, then at the hallway, then back at her. Even to this day, he found it amusing that she and Josie had been best friends for their entire childhood. She was as vivacious as Josie was reserved, as loud as Josie was quiet.
“You being chased by a serial killer? Or an Italian?”
“B.” She fanned herself with a piece of paper. “I think I lost him at the Frosty Freeze.”
“Need me to check the security cameras?”
She sat up straighter. “Would you?”
“No, Mols, I will not. Your dating issues are your problem, not mine.”
“If you’d just marry me, I wouldn’t have any dating issues. One more stupid lousy setup date and I’ll drag you to City Hall myself, just to get Mama off my back.”
He raised his eyebrows. “As cave-girlish as that sounds, I think I’ll take a pass.”
“Mama’s convinced I’m going to wither up and die any day now if I don’t find a husband.”
“I’m not sure it’s quite that desperate yet.” Ethan tried not to smile.
“Oh, you have no idea. The woman’s gone off the ledge.”
“What’s she done now?”
Molly sighed. “Italian love match dot com.” She practically spat out the words.
Snowflake Wishes Page 8
