“I’m kind of a fan of winter.” The snowshoes rode atop the featherlight snow. She savored the cold on her cheeks, the pumping of her heart as they hiked through the shadows.

“I noticed. You were fantastic in that video.”

“All in a day’s work.” She looked over at him. “Kidding. I have a day like that once in a blue moon. Most days, I’m stuck in meetings or in my cubicle like anybody else.”

“No cubicles here,” he said.

“You’re living the dream,” she said. “Maybe that’s why your father is so suspicious.”

“Yeah, according to him, it’s only worth doing if it makes you miserable.”

She wondered about his relationship with his father, and why things were strained. She wanted to hear more. She wanted to know everything about him.

The birch grove led to a perfect, unmarked field of white with a tall evergreen. “In the summer,” he said, “this is a bird meadow, and there’s a sports court over there.”

“You’d never know it. This is just beautiful, Logan. It looks like a Christmas card.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said.

A shadow fluttered past. Startled, she clutched his arm. “Hey, look!” It was an owl, swooping through the trees with wings spread wide. She watched, mesmerized, until it disappeared into darkness. “That was amazing,” she said.

He nodded. “An owl in winter. First time I ever saw something like that.”

“Really?”

“The dolphins were a first for me, too. I have really good luck with wildlife when I’m with you.”

For no good reason, she felt ridiculously gratified to hear him say so.

“Warm enough?” he asked her.

“Plenty, thanks.”

“So, here’s my idea for the project. We’re going to string lights all over that big evergreen over there. The one standing all by itself.” He pointed out the tree in the middle of the clearing.

“I like it. There’s electricity?”

“Yes. In the summer, there are lights for the sports court. There’s an outlet at the base of the tree.”

“Cool.”

“Thought I’d surprise the kids. We could tell them it’s Santa’s landing strip.”

“What else would it be?”

They crossed the meadow, making plate-sized tracks across the powder. Logan left his snowshoes at the base of the tree. “Did you bring a ladder?” Darcy asked. “This thing is, like, twenty feet tall.”

“I can climb it.”

“You’re not serious.”

He grinned, unzipping his backpack, and donned a headlamp. “Watch me.”

“You are serious. Also crazy.”

“The good kind of crazy. I’ll climb up and string the lights on the way down. You stand by and keep things untangled and shine the light.”

He cleared the lower branches with ease. The upper ones were closer together, bowing with his weight. “Do me a favor and don’t fall,” she said.