“Can everyone skate around here?”
He laughed. “Don’t you skate in Scotland?”
She shot him a frustrated scowl as she slipped again. “Of course we skate. But it’s been years since I even tried. There was an ice disco every Friday where I lived. You went along and hired the boots – we used to call them purple wellies. There were always a few show offs, but most of us just clung on to the side and stumbled our way around.” She tried her best to stand up straight. “I did tap dancing lessons – not ice skating. What chance did I have?”
He gave her that look again. The one where she could tell he was amused but was trying not to laugh out loud at her. “Why do I feel as if you don’t like things you aren’t good at?”
She let go of one of his hands and pushed a stray piece of hair out of her face. The momentum of the movement upset her balance. One foot went in one direction and one in the other. “Oh, oh, oh no!”
Mitch leaned forward and tried to grab her but she was just too far away. She hit the ice with a thud.
Now he did laugh. He skated over her, one leg on each side of her body, holding his hands down towards her.
She stared up at the sky. It was dark, a beautiful shade of purple, full of tiny twinkling, silver stars. The snow top of Copper Mountain completed her picture perfect scene.
“I think I prefer the view down here,” she murmured as Mitch appeared directly above her. “Yip.” She breathed. “I definitely do.”
His hands reached down under her arms and pulled her directly up and next to him. He made her feel as if she weighed nothing at all and that certainly wasn’t true.
“How about we people watch and drink hot chocolate?” He was smiling at her again.
“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard.”
Mitch tucked his arm firmly around her waist and steered her to the side of the lake. And beneath the layer and layers of clothes she was wearing, little parts of her started to stir.
He’d touched her arm before. He’d touched her face. But she’d been so busy thinking that she shouldn’t be feeling anything, that she hadn’t actually taken a moment to let the sensations flow. Because when they flowed…
As they stepped back up onto the snow-covered edge some of the high school kids came over to speak to him. He laughed and joked with them naturally, being friendly but still keeping a professional edge.
Marlie, the student who worked at the cinema, was watching her as only a teenage girl could. It was obvious she had a crush on Mitch and Emma was the focus of her hostility. But Emma didn’t really care. She had too much else to think about right now. Too much else to think about the warm hand holding hers.
He said goodbye to the students, bought him and Emma some hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream, and found them somewhere to sit. Even though it was getting late, there were plenty of people still ice skating. It seemed that half of Marietta, along with some of the surrounding towns’ residents, was all here.
She sipped the steaming cup of hot chocolate as she watched a family skate by. The kids were tiny. Holding on to their parents’ hands and looking around in wonder. It was a gorgeous sight. The kind that should be captured for a Christmas card.
“What’s up?” Mitch wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“Just thinking,” she said quietly.
“What about?”
She took a deep breath. “About life – and what it holds for me.”
He set down his cup and stared at her. “That sounds pretty serious.”
She gave a little nod. “It is. I need to figure out what’s ahead and where I want to be. Where I fit in this world.”
He hadn’t blinked. His gaze was steady. “You can fit wherever you want to, Emma. You just need to make sure it’s the right fit.”
Her body gave an unconscious shudder. “But I can’t trust myself anymore. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I knew what I had. Turned out I was wrong.”
“Because of the wedding?”
She nodded. “Look around, Mitch? Have you seen my groom since I got here? He hasn’t exactly come looking for me. I’ve had one lousy message with an apology. But he didn’t ask me to come back.” She pressed her hand to her heart. “This was the man I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with.” She felt her voice waver a little. “So, how can I trust my judgment now? How can I be sure about what I’m thinking or anything that I think I feel right now?”
“How do you feel, Emma?”
She sighed and looked back at the skaters. “Confused.” She held up her hands. “I’ve landed in this TV-movie town, full of great people and I’ve met a great guy. But how do I know if any of this is real?”
He leaned forward, his nose brushing against her cheek. He pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. Just the touch of his fingertips was enough to set her blood coursing around her body. Her head tilted automatically towards his hand.
He seemed to act on instinct. His hand cupped her cheek and he held her there for a few seconds. She trusted him. She really trusted him. But she wanted more than this. More than just a touch. More than just a glimmer of hope.
“Emma?” His voice was husky.
She knew why he was asking the question. He wouldn’t move without her say so. She sucked in a deep breath. The scents of the mountain and lake filled her senses, mixed in with the aroma of hot chocolate and one hundred per cent pure testosterone that was driving her crazy. His thumb brushed a snowflake from her eyelashes.
“How about I prove how real I am?” he whispered.
She nodded and lifted her lips towards his. He didn’t hesitate. His other hand caught her head at the back, tangling in her hair and pulling her mouth against his.
It didn’t get much realer than this. Pure, hard muscle pressed against her. Cradling her against him. His kiss was sure but tentative to start, gentle, nudging her lips open. She responded eagerly.
This was what she’d wanted. This was what she wouldn’t let herself feel. But Mitch was definitely all man. She ran her hand along the side of his jaw, feeling the stubble against her palm. His lips were moving, along her neckline, behind her ear, and in all places it made her heart skip a few beats.
She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, letting her hands run through his short, dark hair. All of a sudden, she didn’t want them to be sitting next to a lake. All of sudden, she didn’t want family viewing all around them.
For now, she wanted Mitch just to be hers.
“Isn’t this the point that fireworks should be going off?” He joked in her ear.
“Oh, they’re going off. Believe me.”
There were too many layers of clothes. Too many people. And not a single, rational thought in her head. She shifted slightly and knocked her forgotten hot chocolate onto the ground.
“Whoops.” He pulled his lips from her, letting her catch her breath for a second but leaving his forehead pressed against hers and his hands in her hair.
“Woo! Mr. Holden! Go
you!”
This time he did pull back, giving a little shake of his head and waving his hand in acknowledgement at the shout.
He put his forehead back against hers. “Looks like I’ve been busted.”
“I think we both have.”
Her heart was thudding against her chest. And even though she appreciated the breathing space, she really didn’t want it.
“Well, that felt real,” she said with a laugh.
“Yes. Yes, it did.”
He stood up and held out his hand again. “What’s say we head back to town? Somewhere there are fewer spectators?”
She gave a nod. Part of her thought she should still hold back. Still not let this progress any further. And the other part of her wanted to run full pelt back to the village, holding Mitch’s hand the whole way. She bent down to unlace her skates, handing them back to him as he collected their boots for the walk home.
She stood alongside him for a few minutes, watching the people skating on the ice again.
“Miracle Lake,” she murmured.
She bent down and picked up a little stone from a tiny pool of water. She held it up as it glistened in the moonlight and a drop of water dripped from the bottom.
“Does this mean I get my own miracle?” she asked Mitch.
His eyes darted elsewhere. The subject obviously made him a little uncomfortable.
“You don’t need a miracle, Emma. You just need to decide what you want and how to get it.”
She gave a nod and looked at the laughing families again. This time when she bent down to put the stone back in the puddle, she let her fingers linger there for a second. Her eyes closed for the briefest of moments. Let the doctors be wrong. Let them all be wrong. Let me be a mum. Let me have a family of my own.
“Ready?” Mitch was looking at her again.
The spell from earlier had kind of disappeared in the gentle mountain breeze that was blowing. The chemistry between them was still there, but it was almost as if they were both reluctant to act on it.
“Sure,” she said.
Marietta seemed like the kind of place she could heal and find herself again.
Trouble was – was she ready to?
Chapter Ten