“I promised to play with Holly. Then tomorrow Zac and I have a late-night dogsledding trip to see the aurora.”

“That will be romantic,” Christy said, and Alix shook her head.

“It’s a dogsled ride. To see the northern lights. In temperatures that I have never previously exposed my body to. What’s romantic about that?”

The intimacy of a sled. Cuddling. Sharing an unforgettable view of the northern lights with a friend.

Christy decided her friend wasn’t ready to hear a list. She wanted to interfere and realized that was the way Alix had probably felt about her marrying Seb.

They’d both done enough interfering, she decided. In the end a person had to make their own decisions.

What happened next was up to Alix and Zac.

19

Alix

Why was everyone obsessed with romance? What was so great about it, anyway? There was a reason she’d avoided it all these years.

Alix stewed on the topic as she trudged toward the lodge the following morning. They were all going dogsledding, which should have made it a perfect Christmas Eve. This was usually her favorite day because Christmas was still to come. Usually she was full of bounce and excitement, particularly when she was around Holly, but today her emotions were focused in a different direction. Which basically meant she’d let a man ruin her Christmas Eve.

The night before, Zac had slept on the sofa. And she had no idea why. She’d thought about asking, but then realized that the answer was right there in front of her. There was only one reason to sleep on someone’s sofa when you’d shared the bed the night before, and that was because you weren’t interested.

So she hadn’t asked. No point in having it thrown in her face like a snowball.

Presumably he’d had second thoughts about getting involved with her, and that was totally fine with her. She’d fixed her problems with Christy. That was the only relationship that mattered. She’d probably had a narrow escape.

She knew that, which made it all the more annoying that the whole thing gnawed at her brain and refused to let go.

Why had Zac said all those things to her if he didn’t mean them? He’d pressed her to fix things with Christy. He’d thought it would disprove her theory that she was no good at relationships, perhaps because it might make her more amenable to taking a risk with him. And she’d thought about doing that.

After her conversation with Christy she’d walked back to her own cabin, planning what she was going to say. She’d walked around the cabin twice, getting colder and colder as she’d tried to dissect and understand her own feelings. Fear, that was her problem. But she hadn’t ruined her friendship with Christy. She wasn’t bad at relationships. She had no reason to back away from Zac.

The cabin had been lit up, glowing and cozy, and she’d seen Zac inside. He’d been studying a map, presumably figuring out exactly where they were going on their nighttime trip to see the aurora.