once I reached the crest, everything would finally feel right. Yet, when I reached the peak, I found myself alone. Lost. Until you arrived. You make me feel alive, you make me feel not so alone, you make me feel…like I finally fit. Fit with you.”
My heart hammered so hard, it hurt. I wanted to melt into his strength, wanted to close my eyes and savor every word, every touch. Although we weren’t alone, it was as if everyone else had disappeared. Not even the chill of winter pierced my heated state.
“Gabe, I…”
Ben and Caro raced by, stirring my skirts, and startling me back into reality. Their laughter trailed behind them like the fat flakes that swept from the sky. I blinked once, twice, and glanced around. James and William watched us closely from the other side of the pond. I blushed and looked away.
“Do slow down!” Lilly called out in a stern voice. “You’ll end up with a broken ankle for Christmas!”
“Yes, Mother!” they called back as one, in that way only twins could.
“You seem…happier,” I said, sounding much too breathless. “More at ease.”
He grinned. “That’s because I’m with you.”
I frowned. He put too much pressure on me. Demanded too many things, when we had been apart for so very long. Only a month ago I’d still despised the man, until I’d finally buried him with the past where he belonged. And now, here he was once more, stirring up my life, and making promises I shouldn’t dare believe.
“No. Don’t look at me that way,” he said, squeezing my hands. “It’s true. It’s something I realized this last year. The happiest I’ve been in my life, is when I’ve been with you.”
“Yet, you have bruised my soul so many times.”
He grew serious. “I know. Just as I know I don’t deserve you.”
My heart squeezed painfully. So many emotions raced through me at once; I wasn’t sure what to focus on. “Then why should I give you a chance?”
“Because, I know you. I see you, the real you.”
I see you, the real you. The words sent a shiver of nervousness and delight down my spine. “What if I don’t want you?”
He smiled, that charming smile. “Then you’d be lying. You’ve wanted me from the moment you ran into me in the Landcaster library.”
“Is that so?”
“It is. You see, Ginny, I might not deserve you, but we belong together. We fit. You make me a better person. I want to be better when I’m with you.”
His words were pretty. He’d said everything right. But did he mean what he said? Tears stung my eyes. I’d never thought to see him again. Hoped I wouldn’t. I’d spent some nights crying, others cursing his dark soul. Now that he was here, I wanted nothing more than to believe his honeyed declarations.
“Gabe, I don’t…”
A sudden scream tore across the pond, followed by the crackle of breaking ice. Gabe dropped my hands and turned. Ben had fallen through a hole in the frozen pond.
“Shite,” Gabe snapped.
“Caro, no!” I cried out as she started to race toward him. I wrapped my arm around her waist and jerked her back. She struggled in my arms. Off balance, we slid on the ice, falling hard, but I didn’t relent. No matter how much she fought me.
“Dear, you’ll hurt yourself and your brother.”
Gabe started to inch toward the hole.
“Help!” Ben called out, right before his head went under.
“Oh dear God,” I whispered.
“Ben!” Lillian screamed, her voice echoing across the frozen pond. The terror in her tone gave me shivers. It was every mother’s nightmare.
Lillian, William, and James were too far away to help. They’d never make it on time. Frantic, I looked to Gabe. “Gabe?”
“Get her to the shore,” he demanded, tossing his greatcoat toward me.
“What will you…”
Ignoring me, he raced toward that hole in the ice where Ben had disappeared. I swore my heart stopped beating. Near the edge, he dropped to his belly and slid the rest of the way to the crack in the ice. Where was Ben?
“Ben?” Caro whimpered in my arms.
Jules knelt beside me, helping us to our feet, and pulling us back toward the safety of shore. “All will be well,” she said, but I didn’t miss the quiver in her voice. “I promise.”
We all knew it was a weak promise, at best.
Caro pressed her face into my chest, burying her sobs. James was almost there. William was close behind.
“Stay back!” Gabe demanded.
James paused. William kept going. James reached out, grabbing his arm