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“Cheese.” I barely heard him over the rushing of blood in my ears, and stood mesmerized as he pushed off the street sign and stalked towards me. His long legs ate up the space between us in three strides and then he was bending to drop a kiss on my cheek before his arms wrapped me in a hug.
I sank into his chest, letting the familiar scents of sunshine, the ocean, and whiskey settle my jangled nerves. Yes, we were going on a date. And yes, at the end of it he was going to kiss me. But we were still us.
“How you doin’?” The words were muffled against my hair and I shrugged in response. It was easier than trying to put these feelings into words.
“I know what you mean,” he said after a beat and pulled back, but kept his arms locked around my back. “What do you say we do this thing?”
“Does that mean I get to know what we’re doing?”
“Nope.” He shifted, tucked me into his side with one arm draped over my shoulders. “You can stay in the dark a little longer.”
“Because you enjoy torturing me?”
“Maybe …”
I jabbed an elbow into his ribs and he yelped but didn’t let me go.
It wasn’t until we got off the subway at Rockefeller that I got an idea of what we might be doing.
“We’re going full tourist, aren’t we?” Excitement fizzed under my skin.
His eyes held the slightest hint of nerves. “Is that a good thing?”
I pursed my lips. “That depends.”
“On what?” Now he looked more genuinely concerned and I focused very hard on not smiling.
“On whether or not there will be hot cocoa.”
A grin split his face and I almost choked on my tongue. “There will definitely be hot cocoa.”
“Then it’s definitely a good thing,” I managed to say, although it was a good deal breathier than I intended as Mack’s smile turned seductive. I felt it all the way down to my toes, and also a couple of feet further north.
The rink came into view, skaters already spinning around the icy surface, the huge tree standing proudly behind them. New York did a lot of things well, but Christmas might just be the jewel in its crown.
I remembered the first Christmas Mom and I spent in New York, we’d not long lost Peggy and I hadn’t settled into our new neighborhood. New York was big and loud and there were so many people everywhere. I loved our house but I would have preferred to be just about anywhere else.
Then Mom took me to see the tree at Rockefeller and everything else faded into the background. I could have stood there for days, counting the lights, wishing Peggy could be seeing it all, too.
I shook off the memory as we joined the short queue for skates, and Mack produced a thick pair of socks from one of his pockets.
“What else are you hiding?”
“Not a pair of skates, unfortunately …”
“But socks?”
“I thought they could provide some extra padding between you and the foreign footwear.”
I laughed. “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, Chastity.”
“So, ice skating and hot cocoa huh? Very PG of you.”
“Nothing like some wholesome entertainment.”
“Are you going to walk me home, too?”
