At first, she couldn’t accept what she was seeing. Venus de Milo stood before her. Ryann had seen the original at the Louvre, and if she had to guess, she imagined this was precisely the same size as the marble version—a little smaller than you expect having seen so many pictures of it. Even beyond that, however, the similarity was more than striking. It was almost impossible to believe that what she was seeing wasn’t stone of some kind. The ice was creamy white with light-blue veins, like actual marble, not the clear ice of many of the other sculptures here. It was, in a word, an incredible piece of artwork, made all the more breathtaking by its medium.

She craned her neck around, trying to spot Maddie, and she saw her, hunched up on herself, arms crossed tightly, biting her lip, and once again, she fought her way back through the crowd to her. Maddie still seemed nervous as she approached, and she had to force down a gale of wild laughter.

“It’s incredible!” she said.

“Yeah?” Maddie said, smiling a little.

“Maddie, are you kidding me right now? It looks like an actual Greek statue, for God’s sake.”

“It’s only a re-creation. It’s Valentine’s, so I thought the goddess of love made sense. No one said it had to be ice water, so I used—”

She didn’t let her continue, leaping forward and kissing her, trying to put every ounce of her feelings into it. Maddie reacted with surprise at first, freezing, before she returned the kiss fully. For perhaps the first time in her adult life, Ryann didn’t care who saw the two of them like this. She let the kiss go on and on, the noise of the crowd dying away as she lost herself in Maddie’s lips. Finally, they drew apart for air, their arms still linked around each other.

“It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen,” she said, holding her gaze. “It’s beautiful.”

Maddie finally smiled, a slight redness warming in her cheeks. “I’m glad you like it.”

“Now take me home,” she said.

“What? Now?”

“Now.”

One of Maddie’s eyebrows shot up, but she didn’t argue.

Chapter Twenty-Four