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I try my best to return it.
Her boots shuffle in the snow as she tries to step closer to me. “It’s so freaking cold. Even with a-all these layers.” She shivers, and I pull a hand out of her coat, tucking her close to me and rubbing my hand over her back.
“Better?”
“Yes!” Her voice trembles with cold.
I press her hood over her head and rub behind her neck, down to her shoulder blades, right where she likes.
“I love you.” Her eyes peek out from behind the faux-fur lining her big hood. I see them crinkle with another smile.
“I love you too.” I pull her close again, and God, I’d like to keep her here forever, locked against me like a splint.
“My Bear,” she whispers.
I swallow. We’re not there yet, but I’m starting to feel frozen—on the inside. A deep breath does nothing to thaw me. She rubs my arms through my jacket and smiles at me again. This smile is curious. Perhaps concerned.
“Your nose is red,” she croons.
Her sweet voice doesn’t thaw me either, but I still smile. “Yours too.” I hug her close once more, but even that can’t pierce the ice that’s thick inside me.
We walk on, along the road’s edge, through a deep snowdrift I worry will spill into her boots.
Somewhere miles away, I hear a lone firework.
She takes my hand again, searches my face as we walk slowly. “I’m glad you came with me. I’m feeling better than I ever have before. Just knowing that I’m not alone, you know? Jamie used to come with me, but you’re different. I feel…healed or something.”
My jaw clenches. I force my lips to curve up at the corners. “Good.” I know my eyes on hers are earnest. “That’s good,” I murmur.
She comes closer to me. We are leg to leg, shoulder to shoulder. I’m walking off the road, so she seems as tall as I am.
“Bear?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
I blink. “Of course.” I stroke her hand. “I’m supposed to ask you that.”
She smiles a little, tight and sad. “I am.”
We’re almost to the bend where the road curves into a copse of trees when pops like mortar sound above us. The clouds are too thick to see the fireworks. They glow faintly—green, pink, gold, purple, blue.
Gwen’s face looks delicate and beautiful in the changing light. Her eyes hold mine, and she smiles.
“This is kind of nice.”
I nod. Her gaze shifts upward, and I struggle to swallow.
Fuck.
I shut my eyes. I think about her under me tonight, about the way she leaned up when we both finished and wrapped her arms around me, bringing me down on her.
“Sweet Bear. Something’s bugging you. I’m going to find out. Unless you decide to tell me. Hmm?”
A snowflake melts on my temple, and I can feel the ghost burn of her lips there.
“I love you. You know that, right? You’re mine—and you will always be mine. Just because I said so.”
