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That makes my heart jolt, too.
I hold out my hand, and she laces her fingers through mine. I turn off the bedroom light and unlock the window. The glass creaks and groans in the cold as I open it.
“Ready?” I ask.
“Ready,” she repeats, and I duck outside.
I came out here earlier when Lacey was playing with my nieces. She let them put every color of eyeshadow on her face and pounds of blush on her cheeks. I shoveled the roof off to make sure we’d be able to walk without slipping. I’ve done this a thousand times, but never with someone I care about so much.
My foot gets a strong hold on the shingles, and I lift under her arms to help her through the window.
“Come on.” I move us slowly down the slope of the roof, and Lacey grips my arm tight.
“Is now a good time to tell you I have an aversion to heights?” she says, and her laugh is a nervous sound. She stays stationary, and I move back to her side. “I’m not sure about this.”
“It’s a few steps to our left. I’m going to walk in front of you so if you fall, you land on me. I’ve done this a ton of times and you can trust me, Lacey girl. I’m never going to let anything hurt you. But if you want to stay right here, we can do that, too. Whatever you’re most comfortable with.”
Lacey takes a deep breath. She wraps her arms around my bicep and gives me a feeble nod. “We can move. Just go slow. Please.”
“I promise.” I kiss the ridge of her knuckles and start toward the other side of the roof. “You let me know if I’m going too fast, okay?”
“Okay. This is—this is good so far.”
“Good. You’re doing great. We’re almost there, then we can sit down.”
Her grip on me eases up and her stride becomes surer, a confidence in her step. When we reach the other side of the roof, she lets out an exhale that could move mountains.
“I did it,” she says, and her teeth chatter. “Fuck, it’s cold.”
“I’m so proud of you.” I pull her into a sitting position and drape my arm over her shoulder. I wrap a blanket around us to create a cocoon, and she nestles into my side. “Better?”
“Much. What are we looking at? Your secret lair where you chop up bodies?”
I chuckle and point to the lake behind the house. The water is frozen and the moon reflects off the ice, making everything white and gray. I point to the stars next, the dozens of constellations in the night sky.
“This.”
“Wow,” she whispers, and I look down at her. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” I agree, but I’m busy studying every inch of her face. Her button nose. The slope of her jaw. The stars twinkling in her eyes. “It is.”
Lacey tips her chin up and brushes her lips against mine. It’s a soft kiss, tentative, but it’s enough to warm my insides. I cup her cheek and my thumb settles in the hollow of her throat. I can feel her heart beating under my touch, and it’s racing, just like mine.
“Shawn?”
“Hm?”
“I’m so glad I’m here with you.”
“Shucks, Lacey girl. I’m glad you’re here with me, too.”
My tongue sits heavy in my mouth, and I want to tell her more. Like how I want her here every Christmas for the rest of our lives. A tradition we’ll do until we’re old and gray and can’t use our legs.
She blinks up at me, and it hits me like a bolt of lightning.
It strikes my chest and zips through me like a live wire.
I’ve been electrocuted.
