“Same place I learned to make ice cream. Sundae school.”
He risked a glance up at her. Their eyes locked and held onto each other.
Sebastian stumbled over his next joke. “D-d-do you like music? I mean, besides Christmas carols?”
“Of course,” she answered as he knew she would.
“Have you heard about that group Cellophane? They mostly wrap.”
“Ugh, how did I not see that one coming?”
“You know, if we had more time during your visit, I’d have taken you to the resort’s zoo.”
“The resort has a zoo?” She raised a hand to his head and combed her fingers through his hair. Somehow even this ridiculous situation felt natural between them. How had they not met before? And how could they ever say goodbye after?
He continued on with the jokes, hoping they’d distract him as much as they seemed to be distracting her. “Yeah, it only has one dog. It’s a shitzu.”
She laughed even harder and gave him a little pinch. “Okay, that was actually kind of funny.”
“See, I knew you had a sense of humor in there somewhere, Miss Christmas. Speaking of things that are red and green, you know how many apples grow on a tree?”
“How many?” she asked, her fingers working his hair again.
“All of them.”
“Boo. C’mon, I can do better than that.”
“Oh, yeah? Then prove it.” This was the moment of truth. If she could tell a good joke, he would have to hang onto her forever. He hoped her delivery would be flat, her timing off, something. Anything.
“What’s the difference between an African elephant and an Asian elephant?”
He’d heard this one before, but played along anyway. The excited hitch in her voice was too cute to spoil. “I don’t know,” he answered thoughtfully. “What is the difference?”
“About five-thousand miles!” she shouted with a laugh, and his affection for her blasted off the charts. It was official. If such a thing as soul mates existed, then he had just found his in Riley McKinley.
“Oh, oh! I have another one. Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees?” she asked, already laughing. This one he hadn’t heard before, so that was already a point in her favor.
He closed his eyes and pretended they were back at the chalet snuggled in front of a roaring fire. “Why?”
“Because they’re so good at it, of course.”
He laughed more at her enthusiasm than her material, then asked. “Are all your jokes going to be about elephants?”
“I know jokes about other animals, too. Like, how can you tell if an ant is a boy or a girl?”
“How?” he smiled to himself. At least, he hoped it was to himself. Could Riley see his face? Could she read the thoughts that had to be so plainly displayed there?
“They’re all girls. Otherwise, they’d be uncles!” Riley exploded in a fit of giggles and, in that moment, Sebastian’s heart grew at least two sizes.
Mr. Grinch, indeed.
It felt good to laugh there, in their own personal snow globe. Not quite what Riley had imagined growing up, but having Sebastian for company made the disaster bearable—even fun.
“Do you think your boss has realized we’re missing yet?” she asked when the laughter had died down.
“Probably not yet,” he murmured against her chest. “We went out really early so that we would have enough time to take our ride and get back and ready before he showed up with your client.”
“How long has it been?” It could have just as easily been a few minutes or a few hours. It was hard to gauge time without the sun in sight and with all they’d been through so far already that day.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Couldn’t have been too much more than an hour or two.”
“How long until we…?”
“Freeze to death? We won’t. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”
She rubbed his back to warm them both up. It was getting harder and harder to maintain their body heat even with all the extra measures they’d already taken. Trying to sound braver than she felt, she asked, “How can you be so sure? So calm?”
His words were steady, though hers were not. “This is what I do. It’s my job, and I’m good at it. I trust the equipment to do its job. And, well, I just know.”
“How, though?”
“God wouldn’t have sent you into my life only to end it the next day.” His voice was so sure, not a single quavering note.
They both fell silent.
“All joking aside, I’d really like to see you again outside of this igloo.”
“So we have to survive so you can take me on a date?”
“Exactly.”
She laughed in time to her shivers. “Well, in that case, I better agree.”
“Would you have otherwise?” Now his confidence seemed shaken, and she hated that.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “We live very far apart.”
“We do, but you know?” His turn had ended, so now they repositioned themselves slightly so he could rub her back and limbs. “Maybe…” he continued softly. “Maybe this avalanche was God’s way of getting our attention, making us stop and take notice.”
“That seems like a lot of work just to help someone else get a date,” she teased. When he didn’t laugh, she added, “You’re talking about God now as if this was all by His plan, but I thought…?”
His answer was blunt, but not angry. “You thought that because I don’t like Christmas, I don’t believe in God?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I see God every day in the snow, the stars, the mountains. I feel him when the wind is whipping at my face, the unspoken connection I make with the animals I come into contact with. I don’t need a Christmas tree or twinkling lights to feel like He’s near.”
“That’s beautiful,” she said, her throat dry and scratchy. “You could be a writer with words like that. So what made you decide to be a Winter Sports Manager instead?”
“Do you know how much writers make for a living?” He laughed at that, even though she didn’t actually know. “My aunt Vanessa is actually an author and she does all right, but it never interested me personally. I just always felt most like myself when I have skis attached to my feet or a snow machine under my butt. I never really pictured doing anything else.”
Riley’s head spun at this important new bit of information. “Wait, Vanessa Rockwell is your aunt? I love her books!”
“I knew you were a romance fan.” He laughed gently now, as if being related to one of the bestselling authors of the day was no big deal. “Maybe one day I can introduce you to her.”
“I’d like that.”
He laughed again. “I’ve never actually heard anyone say that before.”
“That they like your aunt’s books? Surely, someone must have—“
“Not that. You said ‘I’d like that’ like the women in all those old movies say whenever the guy finally rescues the damsel in distress.”
She thought about this. Had she said these words before? She didn’t think so, but still… “So no one’s allowed to say it in real life?”
“I didn’t say that. Just that I hadn’t heard it before. I thought maybe it was line from the 1950s or something, but here you are in 2017, and you just said it to me.”
“Does that make me the heroine of this picture, big guy?” she asked in a silly, old-timey voice.
“Only if you’ll let me be your hero,” he answered with the whisper of a song in his voice.
Oh, Sebastian. You already are, she thought, holding onto him even tighter than before. The cold had really begun to set in now, and she knew she’d already be dead if it weren’t for him. She’d have tried to dig out, wouldn’t have known how to handle the snowmobile in the first place.
He’d saved her for now.
But they weren’t in the clear yet…
Chapter 10
“What made you choose yours?” he aske
d, trying his best to keep the conversation going. He felt weaker and weaker by the minute, but couldn’t let Riley know that. She needed him to be strong for the both of them.
Her response came after several missed beats. At last she said, “What?”
“You asked about my job. Now tell me about yours.”
“Ch-ch-christmas,” she answered, sputtering in the cold.
He lifted his head slightly and rubbed her arms and torso to help circulate her blood a little better.
“Thanks,” she answered with a sigh.
“Now tell me the real answer.”
“Christmas,” she said again without a trace of irony, “is the real reason.”
“Okay, then you’re going to have to explain that one.”
“I-I-I...” She shivered so violently that she couldn’t even get a single clear word across.
“Take your time,” he said gently, rubbing her again. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“The lights,” she said after a few minutes had passed. “It was the lights.”
He glanced up and saw that she’d closed her eyes. “Riley? You need to keep talking to me, okay? Tell me about the lights.”
“They were so pretty, and we’d drive all over looking at the displays.” A slight smile played at the edges of her mouth, but she didn’t have the strength to lift it any higher up her face.
When she didn’t say anything more, Sebastian tried to help her find the words. “And you started to like looking at the houses, too?”
“Yes. And picturing the families that lived inside. Like M-M-Mom’s snow globes.”
“Sounds like maybe you could have been a writer, too,” he told her. “You’re having a hard time getting words out, but still they’re beautiful.”
She let out a faint laugh and opened her eyes to stare back at him.
“Hi, you.” He smiled at her flirtatiously, trying to help distract her from the cold, which was clearly seeping into their bones now.
“H-h-h-hi,” she chattered back.
“You don’t have to talk if it’s too hard, but you do have to stay awake with me.”
“O-Okay,” Riley managed.
“How can I keep you up with me?” Please, Riley. Please help me help you. I can’t do this on my own.
She shrugged slightly rather than chancing her voice again.
“You don’t know,” he translated. “But I think I have an idea. Keep your eyes open. For every time I see you closing them, you’re going to owe me another twenty bucks. Got it?”
She laughed meekly, and he now noticed how blue her chapped lips had become. He needed to keep her focused, needed to keep her up, to keep her from panicking. Dad jokes wouldn’t be enough now.
Desperate times, desperate measures, and all that.
“Riley, help will be coming soon. Riley, look at me. That’s the first twenty dollars. I’m going to keep track, so keep those eyes open. Riley? Riley?”
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“Good. Now listen closely. What I’m about to do doesn’t change anything. You’ve got that?”
She nodded and waited for him to reveal his plan. He only hoped it would be enough to keep her attention until the rescue crew arrived.
Riley couldn’t believe her ears. She widened her eyes as much as she could, given her frozen state. She needed to confirm with at least one more sense that what she’d heard was real.
Sebastian’s head lay on her chest and she could just barely see his lips moving as he sang. His deep voice came out smooth and clear as opposed to her own broken words.
And it was beautiful—ethereal even.
She watched and listened in awe as he sang “O Holy Night” followed by “The First Noel.” By the time he started “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” she’d rested long enough to join in for the chorus. She stopped again and listened to his lone voice against the dark dome of snow as he sang about another “Silent Night” long ago, one that had reached a very happy ending indeed.
Without thinking, she bent to kiss his forehead. Stretching her neck to reach him stung, but she didn’t care. She knew what a big gesture this was from him, and she loved him for it. For how could you not love a man who held your life in his hands and vowed to protect it no matter what it took?
Would she still feel this way later, when they were free? She couldn’t be sure, but she also couldn’t picture ever feeling any differently about this kind, generous, brave, and handsome man.
Sebastian leaned forward and away from her, inviting the cold to take his place.
“Come back,” she moaned, unable to stand the frigid air against her naked skin.
“I will. Just one second,” he answered, pushing a bunch of snow around the flashlight, which he’d turned on and pointed up toward the top of their cave.
She watched curiously, unable to figure out his intent. “W-what are you doing?”
“Making a Christmas tree for you.” And then he was back, rubbing his hands up and down her arms and body to replace the warmth she’d lost in that short space of time.
“It’s beautiful,” she said on the wings of an exhale. “Thank you. Thank you for everything.”
“Eh, you’d do the same for me,” he answered with a wink. “Now what should we sing next?”
Riley could only think of one answer. “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
He headed into the song full force, even trying his best to hit Mariah’s high notes, making Riley laugh again. Although now the laughter started to hurt. Her lungs stung from taking in too much of the icy air. Everything stung, if she could even feel it at all. The only thing that still felt blissfully warm was her heart.
There was something so deeply personal in sharing this experience with Sebastian, disastrous as it may be. Looking into each other’s eyes as they bundled up for warmth, they took part in a dizzying, yet motionless, slow dance.
In that moment, she felt intensely connected to this man she’d only just met the day before. And now, looking into his eyes, she felt a pull toward him as if her life depended on it—probably it did. Rather than resist the impulse, she followed her gut, followed her heart.
She kissed that hero of a man.
Chapter 11
For the second time during the span of just that day, Sebastian saw stars before his eyes while the world shifted beneath him. But this time it was different in the best possible way. Riley’s kiss satisfied a deep need he’d only just begun to realize he had. Yet another Christmas miracle. Definitely enough to change his attitude toward the holiday forever after.
So his plan had worked after all. He’d kept Riley’s spirits and temperature up, but most of all, he’d rediscovered a part of himself he hadn’t realized he missed. Temporarily, moving his hand from her shoulder and bringing it up to caress the apple of her cheek, he made this confession to Riley.
“I know we’re in a crap situation right now, but I honestly wouldn’t trade today for anything that’s come before.”
She closed her eyes, and he laid kisses on each set of her lashes. When she didn’t open them again, he checked her pulse and breathing—both of which were fine—and pulled her more tightly into him. He would give her these few minutes of rest before waking her again. Until then, he would keep going for both of them.
“I understand so much better than I did before,” he whispered to Riley, even though he knew she was asleep. “My mom and her insane matchmaking efforts. My brother, Noah, moving across the country for a girl he barely knew. It’s love. Not the kind in all those movies and books, but something real, something you discover you’ve had with you all along, but needed the right person to find it within you.”
He placed another kiss on her nose, laughing when she let out a slight snore. “You’re that person for me, Riley. Already you make me do crazy things like enjoying an avalanche, giving in to Christmas after all. Heck, I’m even trying to think of a job I could take in Seattle just so I never have to be apart from you again. I just met y
ou, but already we’ve lived such important moments together. Every one of them has become my favorite. I…” He tried to laugh, but the sound got trapped in his chest, unable to make its way into the open air. Instead, he coughed a dry and painful puff of air that crystalized in the sky before him. “Maybe I really should try the writing thing on for size.”
He sighed heavily and checked Riley’s breathing again. Still sound asleep. He hoped she was having pleasant dreams, and he hoped a part of her could hear what he was saying, hoped she felt all the things he felt, too.
The cold began to break his voice, the way it had taken over Riley’s earlier, but still he continued to speak to her despite the struggles. “I couldn’t tell you this earlier, but I am scared, Riley. It’s not just you. I’m starting to think it’s been too long, to wonder why I don’t hear any planes or helicopters scanning the area, to think maybe our bosses won’t realize we’re stranded up here until it’s too late.”
Riley moaned in her sleep, a pained expression crossed her face, but still she didn’t stir. Was the pain becoming too much for her to bear? Or was she awake after all, listening to his words and hating him for them?
He rubbed her arms and legs, chuckling wryly as he did. He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think the sound of his laugh made it out this time, either.
“How’s that for irony, huh? I finally meet the girl of my dreams, and then I get us both killed in an avalanche. I should’ve done more for my safety checks. I shouldn’t have been trying to show off for the pretty girl from out of town. This is all my fault, Riley. I’m so sorry. You deserved so much better than this. Better than me.”
He took a couple deep breaths to calm himself down. Riley snuggled against him, still breathing, still okay… for now.
“If this is going to be my last Christmas, I’m glad I got to spend it with you,” he said, too spent now to say anything more.
Now he closed his eyes and pictured their future together—the big house in the suburbs, the kids, all of it. He envisioned a life for them, there in that little snow globe. If they weren’t going to get a real chance at a life together, at least he would have this.
The Alaska Sunrise Romances: A 9-Book Sweet Romance Collection Page 19
