Tristan drove in silence for a bit, trying to work out what was too much to say. He wasn’t trying to scare Cosima off or make the rest of the day awkward. When he pulled up to a red light, he couldn’t help but reflect on the excited notes in his mother’s voice as she marveled about how everything in life had a way of lining up the way it should. He thought of holding it back but found himself telling Cosima, “She thinks it might be kismet.”

Something softened in those expressive honey-brown eyes. “Do you believe in kismet?”

He locked eyes with her long enough that the car behind them got irritated and started to blow the horn when he didn’t pull off as soon as the light turned green. “Let’s just say the Universe has got my attention.”

7. Cosima

Chapter 7

Cosima

Cosima couldn’t get Tristan’s comment out of her mind. It wasn’t just what he said that made her skin go warm and caused electric currents to flow through her blood. It was how he said it. His deep voice went a little bit deeper and dropped soft enough to feel like a caress while he held her gaze, so she saw the sincerity reflected in his eyes.

Cosima agreed with him. She wasn’t sure how she felt about kismet or fate or any of that, but it was hard for her to fight the small seed of certainty in her gut that this was the start of something that, though she couldn’t quite place, she knew she needed.

The skating rink was in a perfectly ordinary building Cosima had driven past many times before without an inkling of what was inside. Tristan explained that the facility offered year-round ice skating classes, and a few of the kids coached there had gone on to regional competitions.

“Lorraine and I are thinking of seeing how Nia feels about it next year, so I came to check it out, and that’s when I realized they had this big Christmas Eve thing each year,”

he explained as he paid for the tickets and secured their entry bands before leading her, with his hand against the small of her back, toward the double doors that led to the rink.

“Oh,” she breathed once she stepped inside. It was like stepping into a winter wonderland. The lights were dimmed, which showed off the many strands of Christmas lights nestled within garlands and wrapped around the edges of the rink beautifully. A large Christmas tree loomed in the middle of the rink, decorated in red and green baubles and poinsettias with a large sparkling star sitting at the top.

She chuckled as she observed families skating with little children pushing on penguins and polar bears to help keep them upright.

“This is amazing,” she whispered. “The place even smells like Christmas. How did they do that?”