Chapters (48)
- 1. One
- 2. Two
- 3. Three
- 4. Four
- 5. Five
- 6. Six
- 7. Seven
- 8. Eight
- 9. Nine
- 10. Ten
- 11. Eleven
- 12. Twelve
- 13. Thirteen
- 14. Fourteen
- 15. Fifteen
- 16. Sixteen
- 17. Seventeen
- 18. Eighteen
- 19. Nineteen
- 20. Twenty
- 21. Twenty-One
- 22. Twenty-Two
- 23. Twenty-Three
- 24. Twenty-Four
- 25. Twenty-Five
- 26. Twenty-Six
- 27. Twenty-Seven
- 28. Twenty-Eight
- 29. Twenty-Nine
- 30. Thirty
- 31. Thirty-One
- 32. Thirty-Two
- 33. Thirty-three
- 34. Thirty-Four
- 35. Thirty-Five
- 36. Thirty-Six
- 37. Thirty-Seven
- 38. Thirty-Eight
- 39. Thirty-Nine
- 40. Forty
- 41. Forty-One
- 42. Forty-Two
- 43. Forty-three
- 44. Epilogue
- Afterword
- Also by
- Acknowledgments
- About Author
She walked toward my car, but I stopped her by grabbing her upper arm. “We’re not done yet, Grinchy.”
I cocked my head toward our next destination, and she looked surprised. The truth was I didn’t have many other plans tonight, but I didn’t take into account that sitting in a movie theater for two hours meant it was two hours of not talking to Olive, and talking to her was one of the reasons I was here. So impromptu hot chocolate and people-watching it was.
A few stores down from the theater was a coffee shop with outdoor seating warmed by electric heaters. It had a view of the ice-skating rink and was lit with strings of twinkle lights. We took a seat in the corner near a heater. I pulled out her seat, and she slipped in her chair. We both glanced at the swarm of people attempting to skate on the ice across from us. The sounds of conversations around us mixed with holiday music and the laughter from the rink.
I pointed to a group of teenagers trying to skate but hugging the outer rim of the rink and said, “That’s how you know it’s their first time.”
She looked at the group I was talking about. “That would be me. I’ve never been coordinated enough for that stuff.”
Judging by her skiing skills, I knew that to be true. Watching her scream while going down a slope I took six-year-olds down daily was the cutest thing I had ever seen.
“Well, objectively speaking, your skiing talents didn’t exactly tell me you were very coordinated.”
Her tiny nose scrunched up, and she opened her mouth in a chuckle-gasp. “I can’t believe you didn’t give me more of a heads up on that mountain.”
I laughed, warmth spreading across my broad chest. “You act like I took you down the black diamond! It was a children’s hill.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled, and I felt like a lovesick puppy at the sight of her pretty mouth curling up and flashing me those beautiful teeth.
We sat like that for a bit, pointing out different people and watching them skate around in circles. The tip of Olive’s nose was tinged pink from the cold, so on a whim, I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.