“Yeah.” She started to climb out of his truck, but hating to leave him, scooted back so she could kiss him one last time. “I can’t get enough of you,” she whispered against his lips. “I’ve been with you for hours and yet I want to go back home with you right now.”

“I wish you’d do it,” he said.

“I can’t. I have to be there when the girls wake up.”

“I know.”

Reluctantly, she started to move away from him again, but he caught hold of her. “Tell me you’re coming back over tonight.”

“I am,” she said. “I’m coming back every night until I have to go home to Colorado. I hate that I’ve wasted so much time—time I could’ve spent with you.”

“We don’t have to wait until dark to see each other. Let’s take the girls ice-skating again. The only way they’ll get better is if we give them a chance to practice.”

She ran her thumb over his mouth and then his jawline, memorizing the details of his face. “But school is out of session. Shouldn’t we leave the rink to the students at New Horizons?”

“It won’t hurt the students if we skate, too. There are hardly any kids left at the school right now, anyway.”

“You don’t have to work today?”

“I’m off this week for Christmas.”

“All week?”

“All week. Most of next week, too. I go back two days before classes start.”

“Okay. Let’s go ice-skating. The girls will be excited.”

“And I’ll be careful. You don’t have to worry that I’ll try to touch you or make you uncomfortable.”

She smiled. “I know. You were better at that yesterday than I was.”

“Then meet me at the rink at three.”

“Perfect.” She kissed him yet again and then she impulsively spread kisses all over his face.

He seemed surprised by her sudden show of passion and affection. But she loved how truly comfortable she was with him, how content and renewed. He was so easygoing; she needed that right now. It brought her peace. And she liked that he was satisfied with a much simpler life than the one Axel craved, that he wasn’t burning with ambition to become a living legend. Axel’s drive, his dream of making it big and then staying on top, was too hard for her to compete with. His work had become his love and, at the end, she’d been demoted to a support role—one more person to help keep him on track and successful.

“I really like your hair short,” she told Tobias as she ran her fingers through it. “It makes even more of your handsome face.”

“Harper…”