Page 54 of The Christmas Box

We exchange giddy grins, then without further words, we both lie down in the snow in the middle of Main Street, our heads together, out bodies pointing in opposite directions. It feels almost surreal as the cold seeps through my blue jeans while I move my arms and legs back and forth, peering up through the steam of my own breath at a clear, dark sky. “Look,” I say. “Up.”

“Wow,” he replies, his voice warm near my ear. The storm’s departure has allowed a million stars to come out. “Nature’s Christmas lights,” he says.

And that’s it. I’m in love with him. There’s no getting around it.

And no worrying over it, either. I’m fully in the moment and this moment is one of the best of my life.

We lay silently peering upward for a few long, blissful minutes until he says, on a small laugh, “I’m pretty cold. We should probably get up.”

I’m cold, too, but just wanted this to last. “Carefully, though,” I tell him. “So our angels will be intact.”

We get to our feet, side by side, and now, instead of looking up, we look down.

“They’re perfect,” I say.

“Thisnightwas perfect,” Travis replies.

“This moment’s perfect,” I tell him.

“You’reperfect.”

Okay, I was cold, but that warms me up fast. I turn to gaze up at the handsome man beside me, my heart racing. I think of Dara’s advice. That if I have the chance to kiss him, I should just do it, without a care for what tomorrow brings.

Of course, initiating a kiss comes with the horrible risk of rejection. But…I want to kiss him so badly. The desire oozes slow and hot through my veins. And what if this opportunity never comes again?Embrace the uncertainty.

And as I begin to lift on my tiptoes, starting to make that daring move…he does it first. He lifts one gloved hand to my cheek and lowers a soft, sweet kiss to my lips.

Silence. Warmth. Heaven. All on Main Street at midnight.

“You should do that again,” I whisper.

He does. But this time the kiss grows deeper, his mouth moving over mine in a way that spreads through me like embers igniting into a flame. We stand making out in the middle of Main Street until I’m lost in it, thinking of nothing but the heat of his body against mine—and forgetting that I was ever cold.

Once upon a time, as I waited for my escort to the Christmas Ball, I fantasized that maybe, just maybe, he would kiss me goodnight. That never happened, but as I melt into Travis Hutchins’ strong arms, all I know is that it was worth the wait.

And then, when we break from the kissing, his breath comes warm in my ear. “This is nice. But we should probably say goodnight.”

Awhooshof disappointment rushes the length of my body. We should?

Yet then I get it. This is like at the pond, more of that stuff I’m not very good at. He’s feeling me out. Seeing if I protest, if I’m okay with a casual connection that won’t last beyond his visit home.

Dara would say I should just go for it. That would be the epitome of living in the moment and embracing the uncertainty, wouldn’t it?

But I have to remember my heart here, and try to protect it at least a little. Don’t I?

So even though it’s almost physically painful, I answer the same way I did at the pond, my voice leaving me quieter than intended. “That would probably be wise.”

With that, he takes my mitten-covered hand and walks me to my door through the snow. He again lifts his palm to my cheek, and this time he kisses the other. Then he turns to go.

I don’t want the moment to be over. But that’s the problem with moments, and it’s why you have to be in them: they don’t last. They drift away, one into another into another, and you can only hold on to them with memory.

I stand outside the door to my shop and watch him walk back across the street to disappear inside the Lucas Building. And the moment is gone.

But I feel that kiss on my cheek for a very long time.

December 19

Travis

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