Page 95 of Mountain Hero

“That’s not a real thing,” Winter insists, laughing.

“It is.” I take her mittened hand in mine. “An Army buddy of mine, Matt; he loves pranking people. And he discovered No Pants Day was a thing. So he hid everyone’s pants and we had to search for ages to find all of them.”

“He sounds interesting. When do I get to meet him?”

“He works for Blade and Arrow out in San Antonio. So hopefully we can make it out there soon and you can meet all the guys there.”

We walk outside into an expanse of white. The ground is covered with a fresh layer of snow, and large, fluffy snowflakes drift lazily downward. The sky is clear, with a swathe of stars shining brightly overhead. It’s even quieter than usual; that muffled stillness that seems to only come when it’s snowing at night.

Silvery clouds come in puffs as we talk, and Winter’s cheeks pink up as the cold air hits us. I gather her close to me, tucking her into my side, and she snuggles against me with a happy little sigh.

“This is really nice, Enzo.” She smiles up at me, so pretty and sweet my heart aches with it. “I’m glad we came out here.”

“Me too.” I press a quick kiss to the top of her head. “But I actually have somewhere I want to bring you. Just back through the trees.”

She casts me another appraising look. “What do you have planned, Enzo?”

I smile at her, though my stomach is getting jittery. “It’s a surprise.”

“Okay…”

When we get to the edge of the woods, Winter gasps. “Enzo! This is?—”

There’s a path heading into the woods, cleared and shoveled and lined on both sides by strings of white lights. In the dark, with all the snow, it looks just as sparkly and magical as I’d hoped it would.

“It’s part of the surprise,” I tell her. Hugging her to me, I add, “We have to take a little walk to get to the rest of it.”

“Oh, Enzo. It’s so pretty.” Her head is on a swivel, gazing up at the trees, then at the lights, and back to me. “It’s like something out of a movie.”

“Or one of your books.”

Winter beams at me. “It’s better than any of my books, because this is real.”

Oh. My heart.

As we walk into the woods, she bubbles over with talk about Christmas and when Aunt Linette and my mom will get here and whether we bought enough eggnog for our evening gift exchange with all of our friends. And then she talks about how excited she is to pick up our new kitten next week, once it’s finally old enough to be away from its mother.

“I was thinking Stella would be cute,” she says thoughtfully. “Or maybe Luna? Something inspired by the night sky?”

“We can name her anything you want, hun.”

Now my heart is beating double time, and despite the cold, I’m hot all over.

“Well, I guess we don’t have to decide until we bring her home. And then, in a couple of months, once she’s settled in, we can go back to the shelter and pick out a puppy.”

A kitten and a puppy. Real couple-y things. Or as Finn said when we chatted the other day, “First you get pets, next thing you know, you’re having kids.”

I think I’d be okay with that.

“How much further?” Winter asks. “Not that I mind walking. I’m just?—”

She stops. Her mouth drops open.

Still holding her hand, I lead her closer to the gazebo. “This is the next part of the surprise.”

The gazebo. Just as I planned.

I finished it with Knox last month, before the snow really started to stick. Then it was a matter of keeping Winter out of this part of the woods until the perfect time to reveal it.

---