“She’s wonderful with children,” Imogen said gratefully. “Katie absolutely adores her and Jackson. Sometimes I think Katie wishes?—”
She stopped herself before she could finish the thought. She’d been about to say that sometimes she thought Katie wished she had a complete family like Vanessa and Jackson, but that felt like too much to share with Lincoln right now.
“She wishes what?” Lincoln prompted gently.
“Nothing,” Imogen said quickly. “I just think she likes being around both Vanessa and Jackson. Hanging out with them both.” She bit her lip, thinking of how to turn the conversation away from the topic.
Lincoln nodded. “She seems like a remarkable kid. You’ve done an amazing job raising her.”
The compliment warmed her more than it should have. “Thank you. She’s pretty incredible. Sometimes I can’t believe I got so lucky.”
“Her father—” Lincoln began, then stopped himself. “Sorry, that’s none of my business.”
“It’s okay,” Imogen said, surprised to find that she actually meant it. “He’s not in the picture. Never really was, honestly. It’s just been Katie and me from the beginning.”
Lincoln was quiet for a moment. “That must have been difficult.”
“It was,” she admitted. “Especially those first few years. But we figured it out together, and now I can’t imagine our life any other way.”
She looked down at her hands, and then up a moment later when she felt the sleigh slow as Lincoln tugged on the reins. They’d been so absorbed in their conversation that neither of them had been paying close attention to their route through town. Imogen looked around and realized she had absolutely no idea where they were.
“Um,” Lincoln said, bringing the sleigh to a complete stop and looking around with growing confusion. “This is embarrassing, but I think we might be lost.”
Imogen followed his gaze, taking in their surroundings. They’d made their way out of town, down a path that led into a snowy field. The town was some distance away, she realized—she couldn’t see the lights any longer. They hadn’t been paying attention for longer than they’d known, and the horses had just obediently plodded along.
“How on earth did we get so far away without noticing?” Imogen gasped. “We should have seen how dark it was getting.”
“We were too busy reminiscing to pay attention to where we were going,” Lincoln said ruefully. “I have no idea how we ended up here.”
“Well,” Imogen said, settling back in her seat with amusement, “this is certainly turning out to be an adventure. First we win a contest neither of us entered, and now we’re lost in our own hometown. What’s next?”
Lincoln grinned at her, and in the soft glow of the moonlight, he looked so much like the boy she’d fallen in love with that it made her chest ache.
“I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we go,” he said. “Just like old times.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Lincoln couldn’t believe it. He actually couldn’t believe that he, a man who had lived in Fir Tree Grove for most of his life, had somehow managed to get completely and utterly lost while driving a horse-drawn sleigh.
He looked around at their surroundings with growing bewilderment. They were on what appeared to be a narrow country road lined with tall evergreen trees, their branches heavy with snow that glowed in the moonlight. It was beautiful, but it was also completely unfamiliar. How had they ended up here?
The truth was, he’d gotten so absorbed in his conversation with Imogen that he’d barely been paying attention to where the horses were taking them. Her laugh was exactly the same as it had been in high school, that bright, musical sound that had always made his chest feel warm and tight. And when she’d smiled at him while talking about their prom night disaster, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she’d smiled and reminded him of how good everything had been, he’d completely lost track of everything else around them.
The horses had been content to wander wherever their instincts took them, and Lincoln had been so caught up thathe’d let them drift without paying the slightest attention to their direction.
“So,” he said, trying to keep his voice light despite the growing knot of anxiety in his stomach, “I have some good news and some bad news.”
Imogen, who had been looking intently at the snowy landscape around them, turned to look at him with raised eyebrows. “Oh no. What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is that I have absolutely no idea where we are,” Lincoln admitted, feeling heat rise in his cheeks despite the cold air. “I got so distracted by our conversation that I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going.”
“Okay, so what’s the good news?” Imogen asked with a small laugh.
“Well, the good news is that these horses seem very calm and well-trained, so we’re not in any immediate danger of being thrown from the sleigh or anything dramatic like that. Or having them bolt and take us further off into… wherever we are.”
Imogen burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the quiet winter air. “Lincoln Blackwell, only you could get lost in your own hometown while driving a sleigh. How is that even possible?”
“Well…” Lincoln cleared his throat, although he was grinning despite his embarrassment. “In my defense, Fir Tree Grove has grown quite a bit since we were kids. And it’s dark. And snowy. And I was distracted by exceptionally good company.” The last part slipped out before he could stop himself, and he felt his cheeks grow even warmer. But Imogen’s smile softened, and she pulled the blanket a bit tighter around her lap.
