Page 22 of Somewhere Between Falling

The sun glistened brightly off the freshly fallen snow, almost blindingly.I reached for my sunglasses, thankful that I remembered them this morning. He popped open the trunk of his car and pulled out two sleds. He handed me the smaller of the two. “You ready?”

“Lead the way,” I said cheerfully. It had been a while since we had had snow like this, and I was eager to enjoy it.

By the time we reached the top, we were both breathing heavily from the combination of ice-cold air and the exertion of climbing the steep hill. It was just the two of us out here, and I took a minute to appreciate that fact. I took a deep breath of icy, sharp air; my toes were already numb despite the wool socks I wore.

“It’s kind of sad that this is probably the last snow of the year,” I noted. We usually didn’t see much snow after February, just lots and lots of rain until the dryness of summer emerged. I hated how short spring always seemed. It was like we only got two months of green before everything turned brown in the heat.

“Well, we should enjoy it while it lasts,” he said, brushing a few wayward strands of my hair out of my face. His fingers lingered on my cheek longer than necessary, and I wasn’t sure if the shiver that just went down my spine was a result of the cold or his touch.

Just friends.

Just friends.

As much as my whole being wanted it to be more, I couldn’t risk giving anyone a reason to talk about my family any more than they already did. First my dad and Blair, and now me with my TA? No, thank you. As much as I enjoyed spending time with him, I wasn’t ready to cross that line…yet.

I was fairly certain it wasn’t against the rules if we did decide to date. I couldn’t sleep last night—probably excited about today—and so I ended up reading both the student and staff handbooks. I didn’t find anything that stated it was prohibited, but I imagined that it was definitely frowned upon, which was enough to cause me to hesitate. Even if it was getting harder to deny my growing feelings for him.

“Race ya to the bottom,” I yelled as I jumped belly first onto the sled, not waiting for him to do the same.

If I thought the wind hurt my face before, it was nothing compared to how it felt going down the hill, faster and faster, with my hair blowing in the wind and snow sticking to my eyelashes. It was exhilarating until I hit something hard hidden beneath the snow. I was catapulted from the sled, sending me airborne until I came crashing down hard on my back in a puff of snow.

“Tamsin!” I heard Tobias call my name, and within seconds he was right beside me.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he brushed the snow out of my face.

“I guess it’s not like riding a bike,” I admitted, gingerly trying to sit up. He realized what I was trying to do and helped. I took a couple deep breaths, placing my hand on my chest as if that would keep my pounding heart from beating right out of my chest.

“Are you hurt?” he asked anxiously. Even though I was sitting up now, he didn’t remove his arm from around the small of my back. I tried not to let myself think about how much I liked it being there.

“You mean other than my pride? I don’t think so.” I wiggled my toes and my fingers and noted that everything seemed to be working correctly. Though I, undoubtedly, would be sore tomorrow. “Just had the wind knocked out of me, I think.”

“Do you want me to take you home?” The tender way he looked down at me in genuine concern and the way his hand felt as he rubbed gentle circles on the small of my back caused my stomach to flip, and I was struck by the intense desire to kiss him. He was making it harder to stand by my decision to remain friends.

“No way. I’m going again,” I told him, forcing myself to break free of the moment. “Gotta redeem myself.”

He laughed as he helped me to my feet. “Maybe we won’t go quite so high up this time.”

“Why? Are you scared?” I teased.

“Let’s at least try to figure out what you hit before we go down again,” he said, sounding reasonable.

“That would probably be a good idea.”

Once we found the big branch that had been hidden underneath the snow, he moved it out of our path.

I tilted my head curiously as he grabbed my hand.

“Just making sure you don’t slip and fall,” he said with a casual shrug and a sly grin.

I knew I should remove my hand from his, but I realized that I didn’t really want to. So I let him. We sledded down the hill one after another, sometimes racing, and every time we made our way back up the hill, he would hold my hand like it was the perfectly natural thing to do.

After we could no longer feel our toes, we decided to warm up with a cup of coffee. I changed into my dry clothes in the restroom while he ordered my usual caramel macchiato. We were still on a bit of an adrenaline high, so we got it to go and walked around downtown, finally ending up at the bench where we first met.

“Hey, this is the bench,” I said when I realized where we were. We both sat down and I turned my gaze upward toward the stars.

“I come here a lot, especially when the weather is nice,” he said before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Me too,” I remarked, turning toward him. “Funny, I wonder if we ever were here at the same time before?”

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