Page 63 of Mountain Hero

“What do you want?” she asks in a tiny voice.

“I want you to stay. I didn’t mean I want you to leave.”

“Then why?—”

“I thought you might want to go. Move back into your house. And if that’s what you want, I’ll help you. Get the house all fixed up, install security, Knox can fix the things I can’t?—”

“Enzo.” Winter touches my leg. “What do you want?”

“I want you here. I know it hasn’t been long, but…” Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly before continuing, “I love having you here. All the time. And the idea of you leaving… it sucks. A lot. And that’s why I got quiet. Because I was thinking about the day when you aren’t here anymore.”

The silence that follows is long enough for me to think I really screwed things up. Royally.

Then Winter grabs my hand and squeezes it. “I was worrying, too. But not because I want to go home.” A pause, and then, “I don’t want to leave, either.”

The tremendous pressure on my chest eases. “You don’t?”

“No.” She meets my gaze steadily. “This feels like home now. You feel like home. I didn’t want to assume you wanted me to stay… but I’ve been hoping.”

Oh.

I guess I didn’t screw things up.

Framing her face, I kiss her cheeks, her forehead, and then her lips. When I break the kiss, I tell her, “I would love it if you stay.”

Winter smiles, and the look in her eyes is everything. “I would love that, too.”

CHAPTER 17

WINTER

This is why I moved here.

I remember passing through Bliss with my parents one year—I must have been eight or nine—and thinking how perfect everything seemed.

There were storefronts with gaily colored canopies overhead, small maples and oaks spotted along the sidewalk, and charming lamp posts adorned with bright banners announcing Blissful Days Celebration - 100 years.

The streets were bustling with people eating and shopping—a family of four, all of them with giant puffs of cotton candy, and a young couple holding hands as they peered into the jewelry store window.

In the center of the town, the park was filled with assorted vendors selling an array of delicious-smelling foods and hand-crafted items. By the charming gazebo, a small band played cheerful music while kids danced and laughed in front of it.

And at the end of the main street, the chapel; its white steeple stretching up to an expanse of perfectly blue sky.

I always had liked Bliss when we passed through it before, but that’s when I decided I wanted to live here one day. Something about the town just called to me, even as a kid. And I remember pointing at the gazebo and telling my parents, “That’s where I’m going to get married. I’m going to move here and meet the perfect boy, and we’re going to get married and live here forever.”

It was just a silly childhood fantasy; one my parents could have easily brushed off. But they didn’t. My mom turned around in the passenger seat so she could look at me and said very seriously, “If that’s what you want, Winter, you can make it happen. You can do anything you set your mind to.”

My throat still gets tight thinking about it.

I could have given up on my dream—it would have been so easy to let it fall aside—but I’ve never been much of a quitter.

Does that mean I moved here with the intent of snagging a man? No.

I had vague hopes of one day finding someone, but my focus was on finding a house and making this town my home. Meeting people and making friends and going to all the events like the Blissful Days Celebration and the Winter Wonderland Walk and the Taste of Bliss food festival held every spring.

Obviously, getting kidnapped and held hostage never figured into the equation. But now, as I walk down Main Street with Enzo’s hand wrapped around mine, seeing the same happy look in his eyes that I know is in mine, I think things ended up working out okay.

And maybe, just maybe, I will end up getting married in that gazebo one day.

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