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Jace’s chest swelled, and even Ammon had to laugh at that one.
His dad and Ammon loved teasing her and Bentley loved sitting by her and telling her how pretty she was between bites. Ayla and his mom chatted as if Ayla was the daughter his mom had always dreamed of. The dinner was perfect, even if he had stopped himself from flattening Ammon. Was Ayla really going to leave him tomorrow? At this moment, it seemed impossible. How could their time together have an expiration date?
After dinner, dessert, humoring Bentley and watching Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation for the hundredth time—listening to Bentley and Ayla laugh at each silly bit of comedy was more than worth it—they gave hugs and left. Thankfully, not even his mom mentioned Ayla leaving.
“What are you going to do with me now?” Ayla asked as he walked her toward his cabin.
“I’m going to kiss you on your face,” he told her.
She grinned, stopped walking, and kissed him before he could make a move.
“Whoo-ee,” Bentley yelled from the front porch. “You two are smoochers!”
Jace smiled against her lips. “Okay. Maybe I’ll take you over to my house where we don’t have an audience, and then I’ll kiss you.”
“Sounds like a plan. Bye, Bentley.” She waved.
“Bye, pretty. Come see me soon.”
“I will.”
Jace hoped that was a promise and not just an automatic response. They’d both admitted that they trusted each other and had never felt like this before. How could she leave? He looked around at the picturesque valley, his family’s cabins, and he could picture his and Ammon’s ski resort around the corner. Could he leave all of this for her? Maybe they could go back and forth? But that wouldn’t help with her debt if she couldn’t work full time. He had to riddle out some solutions, but right now he was distracted by wanting to kiss her.
She glanced around at the thick snow and sparkling sunshine as they arrived at his porch. “It’s so beautiful out here. Could we go on a walk?”
“Oh … you don’t want to be alone and kiss me?”
“I do. Out here in nature, where your warm lips will light up my cold face.”
He chuckled. She was just too cute and appealing. “Have you ever snowshoed?” They had a couple of hours of daylight left.
“No.”
“You’ll love it.”
“How do you know what I’ll love?” She gave him a challenging but flirtatious look.
He grinned. “Well, I know a thing or two about you.”
“Such as?”
“You love to run, so snowshoeing will be easy and fun for you.”
“I do love to run, and I haven’t run for two days because of you.”
“I didn’t know I was keeping you from running. Please forgive me.”
“We’ll see.” She smiled. “What else do you know about me?”
“You love to kiss me.” He eased in, and she blinked up at him.
“Are my acting skillsreallythat impressive?”
He laughed at that.
She grabbed him and planted a kiss on him. “Yes, I definitely love that.”
“You’d better,” he growled at her. Then he swooped her off the ground and spun her around.
