Genevieve stared around at the paintings. “I can’t believe you did all of these. They’re spectacular.”

“I’ve been painting pretty much nonstop for the last five weeks. Good thing, too—I thought my inspiration had dried up. I was beginning to think I may never be able to paint again… but you breathed life into my work. The memories I have with you are some of the best moments of my life, and I can’t wait to make more.”

“Me too, Mia.” Genevieve reached for Mia, and Mia reached for her in turn. They stepped easily into each other’s arms and kissed.

Around them, everyone broke out into applause.

Genevieve barely noticed.

Epilogue

Mia- One year later

“Idon’t want to take it off,” Mia whined.

Genevieve raised an eyebrow. “So you’d prefer to spend the rest of our honeymoon searching for it in the snow?”

Mia considered this for a moment. “Maybe you have a point,” she conceded, taking her shiny new wedding ring off her finger and tucking it safely into the hotel drawer.

Genevieve kissed her and put her own wedding ring next to Mia’s. “Now, are you ready?”

“Yeah—let’s do this!”

It hadn’t taken long to agree on a honeymoon location. Both Mia and Genevieve had always wanted to try skiing, so Switzerland had been a natural choice.

They were booked for a skiing lesson in less than half an hour. Mia hated to see Genevieve’s beautiful body covered up in bulky layers of clothes, but she didn’t want her wife getting cold, so she didn’t complain.

They held hands as they walked the short distance to the beginner’s area, where their instructor was waiting for them.

“Genevieve? Mia? I’m Ivette—it’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Genevieve shook Ivette’s hand, and Mia did the same.

“Where do we start?” Mia was eager to go flying down the slopes, but it seemed that there was more to skiing than people on TV made it appear.

“Well, first let’s get you onto your skis.”

Sounded easy enough, right?

Wrong.

Mia giggled hysterically as Genevieve toppled over trying to click her second boot into place on the ski, bumping into Mia and sending them both sprawling in the snow.

“It’s okay. It takes some getting used to.” Ivette held out a hand to help each of them up. Mia was still giggling under her breath, and looking at Genevieve only made it worse, so she fixed her eyes on Ivette.

“Now, you’re going to use these to guide you.” She handed Mia and Genevieve two long poles. “Put them in the snow and use them to steer, like this.”

She demonstrated while standing still. Mia and Genevieve tried to do the same thing.

Genevieve fell over, this time taking Ivette as well as Mia down with her. Ivette was up on her feet quickly, but Mia lay draped over Genevieve’s chest, shaking with laughter. “You suck at this, you know.”

“Some wife you are,” Genevieve grumbled, but she was laughing almost as much as Mia.

Ivette surveyed them with increasingly strained patience. “Up you get, ladies. We’ll be going down this slope.”

Mia looked at the slope. Slope was generous. It was more of a mildly angled road. “What about that one?” She pointed to one of the neighboring slopes—the real ones—that stretched so high it was hard to see the top.

Ivette raised an eyebrow. “You want your wife going down that as her first try?”