“Oh?”
He was willing to listen. And Julie, for some reason, wanted to talk.
“I was eleven. This was back when I spent every summer at the Cozy Holly Inn. I was always trailing after Gram when she wasn’t working. Sometimes even when she was. I think now that maybe Gramps used to take me out for walks just to give Gram some breathing room.” She smiled as she spoke. She knew how much they’d both loved her, but she’d also known how much of a little brat she could be. As a kid, she’d been insatiably curious. She raised her free hand to touch Gramps’s initials. “That day he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.”
“And what did you say?”
Chagrined, Julie admitted, “Gram.”
He laughed, then at her pointed look, he held up his free hand in surrender. “Look, I can’t judge. I’m pretty sure when I was eleven I wanted to be a cowboy.”
“But you were such a gawky kid!”
“Is there a law against skinny cowboys?” he asked with a laugh. “And I grew into my height.”
At those words, Julie couldn’t help but let her gaze skate over his broad shoulders and down his torso. He’d definitely outgrown the gawky phase.
When he cleared his throat, she realized that he’d caught her ogling him. Thank goodness for the cold giving her an excuse for her face to turn red!
“What did your gramps say? When you told him you wanted to be like your gram when you grew up?”
Julie was grateful for the change of topic. She turned her attention back to the tree, more to hide her blush than anything else. “He tried to convince me to be a famous artist like my mom.”
“You didn’t want that? Sounds pretty glamorous to me.”
“No. Mom was always leaving on business trip after business trip. It’s one of the main reasons I stayed here over the summers. I loved her—I still do—but when I was a kid, I wanted… stability? Pinecone Falls was that for me.”
“But not anymore?” His voice was low, so hushed that Snowball’s frolicking almost overpowered it.
Julie shrugged. “I guess I grew out of it.”
“How do you know you didn’t grow into it?”
At his words, Julie looked up to meet his eyes. The canopy shadowed them. His cheeks and nose were red from the cold, but he didn’t seem to notice. His entire focus was on her. Julie forgot how to breathe.
Just as suddenly as the moment came, it snapped. Nolan tightened his hold on Julie’s hand and tugged her away from the tree. “Come with me.”
Julie could have protested, but instead, she followed.
* * *
What are you doing?
Nothing smart.
Nolan should be walking away from Julie right now. If she had once thought she belonged in Pinecone Falls, she’d said herself that she’d outgrown it. It was only his stupid sentimentality, his sense of fairness in wanting to show her something of him after she’d opened up to him in that way.
And he was going to get hurt.
Even knowing that didn’t stop him from leading Julie through the silent, watchful evergreens to a clearing not far away from where he’d found her. The line between his family’s property and hers was so blurred, he wasn’t sure when he crossed over, but the spot he wanted to show her was definitely on Gramps’s land. The trees thinned then fell away altogether to reveal an elliptical clearing with a frozen pond in its center. With all the snow, it was difficult to tell where the pond began, or even pick out the large, flat-topped rock by its side. The drifts made the entire clearing all but invisible.
He stopped beneath the trees, still holding Julie’s hand. She hadn’t tried to pull away once, and he didn’t want her to either. “It’s a lot prettier to look at in the summer.”
“It’s still pretty,” she said softly. She pointed to a branch. “I think I see a cardinal.”
Snowball barked as she barreled into the clearing, tossing up snow. Julie shrieked with laughter and tried to shield herself by tucking herself into Nolan’s side. He almost pulled his hand from his grip on hers to wrap it around her shoulders instead.
Almost. The urge was so sudden and visceral, he found himself raising his arm, but her tight clutch on his hand brought him back to his senses. They weren’t dating. He was only here to give her the same consideration, the same vulnerability she’d given him. It was… a peace offering.
