around his neck. With a growl, he jerked me close, his mouth pressing to mine in a devastating kiss.
Home. This is what it felt like to come home.
It wasn’t a place. A building.
It was him.
And oh, how I’d missed him.
“Step away from my sister,” William’s voice snapped through my muddled mind. “Before I kill you.”
Startled, I almost jumped away, but Gabe kept his arms protectively around my waist, holding me close. His harsh breath stirred the tendrils around my face, while his heart slammed erratically against mine.
That kiss had been everything to me. Bemused, I looked up at him. He stared at me, only me, as if William and Lillian didn’t exist. And in his eyes, in his eyes, I saw the passion, the want, the need.
“I fell a little in love with you the moment you ran into me in the Landcaster library,” he said softly. “I fell deeper when you showed up at my house, a sodden mess of a furious angel. And just when I think I can’t possibly love you anymore, you surprise me.”
My heart leapt, shock and elation holding me immobile. “No.”
He gripped my hands tightly in his. “I love you, Ginny, and I will prove it to you, even if it takes the rest of my life.”
He brought my gloved hands to his lips and kissed each palm. With those parting words, he bowed and left me standing there. Stunned, cold, alone. I could do nothing more than watch his back until he disappeared around the hedgerow.
“Bloody bastard,” William growled.
“William,” Lilly said softly, “Please cut down some mistletoe while Evie and I talk.”
She didn’t wait for his approval, but slid her arm through mine, and led me around the hedgerow, following Gabe’s footprints. Desperate, I searched for him. But the prints faded into the distance. Where had he gone?
He loved me. Gabe loved me. I wanted to deny it, I wanted to reject his words…but it felt true. It felt right. It felt meant to be. It felt as if I’d been waiting for this moment since the day of my birth, perhaps even before.
“Darling, I couldn’t help but overhear his words.”
My heart still thumped so madly I could barely breathe, let alone think. Lillian was speaking. She wanted to converse. But my mind was spinning much too quickly to catch hold of a thought, let alone form complete sentences.
“Do you love him, Evie?”
“Ginny,” I said, jerking my gaze toward her. Fat snowflakes twirled from the clouds, spinning and dancing in glee. It was as if the very sky opened up to rejoice with me. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, letting the snowflakes brush my face. Tiny pinpricks of cold that kissed my skin.
Gabe loves me.
“Pardon, my dear?”
I opened my eyes, finding Lilly. It took a moment for me to remember what we’d been speaking about. “Everyone calls me Evie, but I don’t know Evie. I’ve been Ginny most of my life.”
She nodded. “Alright. Ginny.” She smiled. “It’s lovely.”
Merely hearing my name again made me feel as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was Ginny. No one else. No more play-acting. I wasn’t Evangeline. I wasn’t Evie. I was Ginny. And Gabe’s appearance had brought me back to life. Hearing my name upon his lips had stirred something within me, a memory of who I’d been. Who I needed to be to thrive.
“Do you love him?”
I swore I could sense when he was near. He was the only person who knew me, the real me. Knew my secrets, my dreams, my desires. The only man who made me feel hopeful about life. About a future.
But did I love him?
“I…I don’t know.”
“Don’t fret,” she said. “You don’t have to know right now. You will, eventually. There will be a moment when it will hit you, and you’ll realize that you’ve been in love with him all along, or that you never really were.”
She wrapped her arm around my waist, and we started toward the house.
I could only hope that moment would arrive sooner rather than later, because I wasn’t sure how much more I could take of Gabe and the confusing emotions he stirred within.
Chapter Four
Ginny
The last time I had tried ice-skating, I’d been nine, living with Aunt Helen, and had fallen through the pond and almost drowned. Although James insisted that I had been quite good at skating, I didn’t want to spend Christmas with a broken ankle, or worse.