Maggie.” His eyes are still open when he presses his lips onto mine, and though my mouth had been frozen solid from the bite of the air before, the moment the heat of our lips meshes with one another, they’re not just instantly thawed, but they radiate a warmth that courses throughout my veins. Even my toes don’t feel as cold as they once did.
Ran brings a hand behind him on the snow to push further toward me, his lips increasing in pressure against mine, and the moment my eyes start to close and my breath leaves me, he pulls back. “You ready to try again?”
I nod, wishing he was talking about the kiss, but knowing he’s referring to the hill that sits behind us. He looks over his shoulder toward the chair lift.
“Yeah, let’s do that again,” I say, pushing off the ground. Ran takes my gloved hand and steadies me. I shoot him that smirk he’s so good at and add, “All of it.”
“You’re really doing great. And I’m not just saying that.” Our chair continues its steady incline and I’ve gotten used to the nauseous sensation that accompanies riding it because I just don’t think it’s going to go away. This has to be close to our twelfth time heading up the hill, and each run I pray that they won’t have to shut it down for me again. Luckily, the past ten trips have been a success.
“Thanks,” I reply, trying to hold his hand, but our gloves are so thick that our fingers don’t fit together well. “I hate to admit it, but it’s actually a little fun.”
“I think it’s funny that you hate to admit that.” Ran adjusts his goggles and straightens out his beanie. There’s a clump of snow tucked into the fold of it and it’s gradually melting, leaving a darker ring of damp gray in its place.
“Why?”
“You don’t like admitting your wrong, Maggie. And it’s kinda cute when you do.” He brushes the tip of his index finger across my nose, which I’m sure resembles Rudolph’s bright red bulb. The temperature’s dropped over the past two hours and the higher up the mountain we go, the windier and more frigid the air.
“Well then, if you find it cute, I’ll have to admit to being wrong more often.” It’s fun to flirt with him like this, like we’re playing some game. It’s fun to do anything with Ran, actually. Even snowboarding.
“Tell me three things you can admit you were wrong about.” He leans toward me and quirks up his lips. “Preferably about me. That would be cuteness overload.”
“Hmm.” I feign thinking long and hard, because the reality of it is that I was completely wrong about him; I was wrong about almost everything when it came to Ran. “What if I admit to more than just three things?” I tilt my head as I ask the question, and I glimpse the people that ski and board down the hill under us. They look like a child’s action figures, they’re so small.
“Then you would be drop dead gorgeous, but honestly that is already true, so it’s not really like any of this changes much.”
“Well,” I begin, trying not to peer down at the snow below because it’s throwing off my equilibrium, “for what it’s worth, I was wrong about everything with you, Ran. You’re not at all who I thought you were.”
“Good or bad?” I have no idea where he’s taking me, because this lift is still climbing and I can’t see the end of it through the clouds of mist that hover over the mountaintop.
“Good. All good.”
I drop my head onto his shoulder and breathe in his scent. Though it’s freezing out, we’ve given ourselves quite the workout this afternoon and Ran smells faintly of sweat as a result. But he also has the clean smell that just seems to be him, and I can’t get enough of it.
“What if there was one more thing you didn’t know about me that might change that?”
Oh no. Where did this come from? I thought we’d already done this whole ‘I have secrets in my past that might change the way you feel about me’ thing. I honestly don’t know how many more skeletons I want to meet—between the two of us we could fashion quite the impressive haunted house come Halloween.
“What now, Ran?” I try not to sound exasperated by it because I do want him to be open with me and if he catches