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“There are lots of happily ever afters. Hasn’t Harlequin taught you anything?” my sister said.
Except life wasn’t books, and books weren’t life, and romance lovers hated heroines who cheated—and I came that-close with Garrett at the holiday party. If I decided to marry Rob, that would be the end of our friendship. It would be too dangerous for me to imagine, to let myself feel whatever it was that I was feeling.
People change. Lives move in different directions regardless of how much people love one another. There might be an affair. They might outgrow one another. They might not want the same things; separate goals might make life together untenable. Everything ends.
The front door opened and a shock of cold air hit us both. My stepfather trundled in, stamping the snow off his boots. “Rob’s got all your gear in the car. You’re all ready to go.”
I stood up and shouted, “Mother, I’m going.” I slipped my boots on and pulled my coat from the closet. “Rob’s outside. Come say good-bye.”
My mother yelled, “Too tired to stand. Bye, darlings, talk to you later in the week. We’re having a New Year’s Day brunch with your stepbrothers. Come around eleven, if you aren’t too under the weather.”
I walked back through the house to remind my mother that I had the big work party on New Year’s Eve, so there was no way I’d be brunch ready by the next morning. I turned to leave, and my mother said, “Wait! Carl’s getting you some of the turkey. You don’t have to cook tomorrow. We have so much left over.”
“No, no, Carl, don’t worry about it. It’ll just go bad in our fridge, anyway.”
“Fine,” my mother shouted, “have it your way!” And then, “I love you.”
“You too,” I said, and pointed at my sister, “And you.”
“Right back atcha.”
I slipped down the hallway and closed the front door quietly behind me. Snow fell steadily. There was something about the Canadian winter that I adored even though cold feet and fingers were annoying and after five straight months of bad weather you were about ready to burn your hat and boots. The season, with its sobering cold, was unforgiving, but it was also beautiful. Winter allowed the city a moment to hold still for the holidays and let people tuck in nice and warm. The streets were quiet, dampened by the snow. Before the snowplows, before anyone shoveled, before pets had to be walked, the sidewalks were crisp, crunchy even. The air might stop at nothing to freeze your lungs midbreath, but I’d never wanted to live anywhere else.
The car was running and Rob was brushing the last bits of snow from the roof. My phone buzzed. I was reaching into my coat pocket to pull it out when,wham! A pile of snow landed squarely on the top of my head, dripped down my neck, and washed my face in its cold.
“What, are you twelve and picking on me in the playground because you really like me?” Rob threw his head back, laughing. “It’s so cold, you’re such a jerk!”
Dropping my BlackBerry in my pocket, I raced around the car to get my own back. “Come on, this feels like a bad rom-com moment. Do you want to have a snow fight on Christmas?”
“I do,” he said. “And it’s a fight you’ll never win.”
He tackled me and we landed on the snowbank of my mother’s front yard. He covered my face completely with snow. I struggled but he had me pinned down. Spitting snow out of my mouth and shaking the rest of it off, I said, “Ugh, you suck.”
“Oh, poor baby, stuck in the snow. Here, let me make it better.”
More snow in my face.
“Merry fucking Christmas to you!” I shouted.
Rob could see my expression change fromYes, this is flirty funtoGet off me now or I’ll never have sex with you again, so he released me.
“Spoilsport,” he said as he got up. “That’s how I charmed all the girls in grade school, every single one of my grade-school girlfriends. I’d wait for the first snowfall then plow them over—if I wasn’t pushing them into a ditch or stealing their books. I was such a charmer.”
“Aren’t I the lucky one to end up with you. Now help me up.”
Rob pulled me to my feet and delicately brushed me off, the leather of his gloves hard and rough on my cheeks. He kissed me deeply before letting go. “I do love you.”
“I know,” I said. “I know you do. Let’s go, I’m freezing. And I need our bed. I think I’m already hungover from too much of my mother’s wine.”
“Don’t give me that face. You’ve been tipsy since breakfast at my parents’. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you can’t get through a holiday with me without being plastered.”
“Then you’d be right,” I snapped.
“Why do you have to be such an asshole? After we’ve had such a good day?”
“Can we please just get in the car and go? I’m tired of being cold.”
“Sure,” Rob said. “We can do exactly what you want to do when you want to do it. Why would it be any other way? Amazing way to end the holiday. With you picking a fight and me being pissed off.”
