AllFreeNovel
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We make it to the bench next to the pond and sit down. I cup Ari’s cheek, tilting her face to look at me. “They would be really happy to see us here. Together.”
Her eyes sparkle like pale green jewels. “Good. And Cash… I’m so happy to be here, too. This is… it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
My heart swells, this incredible pressure in my chest.
My emotions are so big, so intense, it feels like they could explode out of my body.
I almost say it. I almost gather Ari in my arms and tell her the words I’ve been turning over in my head for weeks. Words that have been lodged in my heart for years.
But I don’t. I kiss her instead. And I tell her, “I’m so happy, too.”
As we put on our skates, I’m ashamed of myself. I could have said it. It would have been the perfect time.
But I’m still scared. A grown man, running a multi-million-dollar company, responsible for saving lives, but too scared for this.
“Come on, Cash.” Ari stands up, holding her hand out to me. “I have a feeling I’m going to fall a bunch of times, so I hope you’re ready to catch me.”
“Always.” I join her, walking on wobbly blades down to the ice.
That’s one truth I’m notafraid to say.
After twenty minutes of skating, it’s clear Ari has retained more of her skating skills than me. I can manage to go forward and turn, but backwards? I ended up on my ass four times, Ari nearly falling over too as she laughed at me.
“It’s because I’m taller,” I insisted, when she completed a backward round of the pond without falling once. “You’re closer to the ground, so it’s easier for you.”
Ari just did a little forward hop and skated over to me, her eyes bright, a little smirk teasing her lips. “If you say so.”
Then we recreated the Hallmark scene, holding hands and making slow circles around the pond. And it was a lot more fun doing it than watching it.
Now we’re in the center of the ice, Ari trying to demonstrate backwards skating to me. She’s all in teacher-mode, so serious and earnest, and she looks so damn cute I want to kiss her all over.
“Think of it like making aC,“ she says, executing the move flawlessly. “And keep your knees bent.”
She stops several feet in front of me, making a little spray of ice as she uses the edge of her blade to stop. “Okay, you try it now.”
I’m just about to move when my phone buzzes. It’s not a call or a text, it’s the tone I set up for my security system alerts, so I reach into my chest pocket to get it.
Ari raises her eyebrows at me. “Everything okay?”
I have to pull off my glove to open the notification on my phone, so all I can see on the screen are the wordsPerimeter Alert. “It’s the security system.” As her eyes go big, I quickly add, “But it’s probably just a large deer. Sometimes they set it off.”
“Oh, okay.” She relaxes. “I forget you get deer in the woods around your property.”
“That’s probably all it is,” I reassure her. “Nothing to worry about.”
And then I open the app, and my heart thuds to a stop.
It’s not a deer.
It’s apersoncreeping around the outside of my fence.
Not a hunter—not dressed all in black, with a full knit mask covering his face.
Where is he? The cameras are all numbered, but which one is this?
But the fence is unscalable, so there should be nothing to worry about. Right?
“Is everything alright?” Ari’s voice wobbles. “You don’t look okay.”
