Occasionally, Zac paused to point out animal tracks or a particular ice formation, but other than that they walked in silence.

When he eventually paused, she was out of breath.

“This is a great workout.”

“You’re in good shape. You use the gym?”

She shook her head. “Treadmills bore me. I run. Box. When I was younger I did karate. You?”

He dug his poles into the snow. “I run when I’m in London. I use the gym. Climb. My job was active, although less so now.”

“You’ve changed your job?”

He swung the backpack off his back. “You’re looking at the new professor of glaciology.”

“Wow. You, in a desk job? Somehow I can’t see that.”

“It’s not all behind a desk. My research is—”

“Yeah, I know.” She didn’t need to hear it. Didn’t want to hear it. “You travel. Fieldwork. I know the score. My parents were both academics.”

“I’m nothing like your parents.”

She’d forgotten how much he knew about her. It threw her, thinking that he had inside knowledge she’d never given to another man.

“I can’t even remember exactly how much I told you that night. What I said. It’s a blur.” She shifted her feet in the snow, uncomfortable. “You’ve probably forgotten it, too.”

“I remember every word.”

“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “That’s...not what I was hoping to hear.”

“Why? Because you can’t remember what you told me, or because you told me the truth about how you felt and that makes you feel exposed?”

They were surrounded by nothing but snow and winter, enveloped by the frozen forest.

The air was freezing, her cheeks stung from the cold, but her brain felt clear.

“Both.” So this was finally happening? They were going to have the conversation she’d been trying to avoid.

He studied her for a moment and then removed the backpack he was wearing. “Time for a hot drink, I think.”

“Right. Good plan.”

They moved closer to the trees, and he poured hot coffee into a cup and handed it to her. “You told me that they didn’t want children. Never wanted them. They lived and breathed their research. Everything else was an annoying interruption. They were both absorbed and focused to the exclusion of almost everything else. You were surprised that they looked up from their research long enough to make you.” He took a mouthful of coffee. “You told me you were an accident. You told me—” he paused and stared into his coffee for a moment “—you told me you overheard your father blaming your mother for her decision to go ahead with the pregnancy.”

Despite the cold, her cheeks burned. She was wrapped up in multiple layers, and yet she felt naked. What had possessed her to expose her deepest, darkest secret to a virtual stranger? Because that was what Zac had been back then. He’d been Seb’s friend. And she’d spilled the details of her past with no filter. “I obviously had plenty to say for myself.” She held the cup tightly and glanced at him. “Sorry you were on the receiving end of that. I probably should have apologized before now. And there’s no need to worry. I’ve never done that to a guy before, and I never will again.”