Interlude (The Snow & Winter Collection #1) - C.S. Poe Page 0,4

blurry halo settled around his head. “S-sure,” I managed. “Never been better.” I waved the gift while slowly righting myself. “What the heck?”

Calvin stepped out of the saturated light and came toward me. I could make out his arm still in a sling, scarf around his neck, and pea coat thrown over his shoulders. He reached a hand out and touched my face. “You’ve got a fever.”

“Good thing it’s below freezing out here.” I cleared my throat a few times and then asked in a voice more like my own, “What’s going on?”

Calvin smiled, a little sweet and a little shy. “Why don’t you open that first?” he said, nodding at the wrapped package.

I gave him a skeptical look.

“The store was selling wrapping paper for 50 percent off. All they had was Hanukkah-themed.”

I tried to hum “I Have a Little Dreidel” as I tore the packaging, but it really just sounded like I was trying to cough up my other lung, so I stopped. I dropped the paper and held up… the spinner board for Twister. “Oh. This is… you shouldn’t have.”

Calvin chuckled. He wrapped his hand around my nape, and his cold fingers felt so good against my flushed skin. “Come sit down.” He led the way toward an open section of rooftop where two lawn chairs were set out, looking north. He dropped into one seat and patted the second.

I perched on the edge of the seat and stated, “I’m not limber enough for naked Twister.”

“Why do you assume we’d play naked?”

“I’m not a nine-year-old at a sleepover, and I like how you look without pants.”

Another smile flirted across Calvin’s face. He dug his phone out of his pocket, saying, “Why don’t you give it a spin?”

I’d opened my mouth to protest, to admit to Calvin that the last time I’d been in charge of the spinner was at Craig Gerhart’s eighth birthday, and my classmates had howled with laughter when I tried to announce the colors and kept mixing them up, and my dad had to come pick me up early when Craig’s mother found me hiding in the linen closet crying. But then I noticed that the same penmanship—Calvin’s—had written the color within each circle.

Green. Yellow. Blue. Red.

I bit my lip, flicked the spinner, and announced, “Left foot, blue.”

Calvin tapped out a text message, then pointed. “Watch the sky.”

“Watch the sky for—” The rest of the question didn’t get past my lips as dozens of lights shot up from a street below, surpassed the surrounding rooftops, and swam across the night sky in a silent, coordinated dance. They pulsated from the cores and moved outward in a circular motion, mimicking the explosion of fireworks without actually breaking any city laws by shooting off pyrotechnics. “Oh my God.”

“Spin it again.”

I glanced at Calvin before hastily flicking the spinner a second time. “Right hand, red.”

Calvin sent another text, and then the display altered in design, shifted in light intensity, and reflected what I had to only assume was a bright red. I could feel Calvin watching me, and then his hand returned to my neck. “You all right?”

I nodded and wiped my nose on my coat sleeve. “How’re you doing this?”

“Drones. A detective I used to work with in Major Cases is a big techie. He does light shows in place of fireworks in his spare time.”

“I bet you’re paying a lot of money for this.”

Calvin squeezed my nape. “I’m sorry I’ve been MIA.”

“You’ve had a lot going on.”

“Yeah.” Calvin nodded. Swallowed. He looked at the sky—the drones were moving in unison like a flock of birds. “I’ve done a lot of thinking.”

I tried to suck in a breath, but my lungs felt like cement balloons. “Okay.”

He looked at me again. “Do you like the drones? I thought, maybe a visual representation of the colors at your choosing would make it better. Or different. I don’t mean to imply—”

“No, no,” I blurted out before hastily wiping my eyes. “I like it. Color association. Being able to decipher different shades of gray. Can I spin it again?”

“Sure.”

I flicked it a third time and announced, “Right hand, yellow.”

Calvin sent another text and the light show changed once more.

“I’d like to make it official,” he said at length, drawing his fingers up the back of my neck and into my hair. “Between us.”

“R-really?”

“If I haven’t completely thrown away my shot.”

I shook my head. “You haven’t. I’m still really interested. But I understand that being out is still new, so I’m trying