Page 14 of One Night With You

Only when he had texted me and thanking me for staying the night and for the cookies, I had given it a heart emoji, instead of a thumbs up emoji, or instead of ignoring him.

It was progress.

Somewhat.

I pulled up to the cabin, expecting to be one of the first people there. Mostly because I was early to everything. I knew Daisy and Hugh were going to be a little bit later because they had to drop off their daughter at her grandparents, but everyone else should’ve beenarriving around the same time I was. Kane and Phoebe would be the latest ones because of Phoebe’s meeting.

I got out of the car and inhaled the sweet mountain air. It was so crisp, clean, and it felt as if my entire world had shifted.

I was alone in this moment and the vastness of this earth, surrounded by mountains and tall trees, with the snow from earlier still on the ends of the branches slowly falling down onto the patches beneath.

It was going to snow again later today, but not too much. Just enough so we would have a little bit of a photo-op and be able to have the fire going full blast, and then we would sleep, eat, and just enjoy ourselves.

I had pulled up next to Kingston’s car, and in that moment realized that no one else was there.

Well then.

When Kingston opened the door and walked down the steps of the two-story log cabin, I swallowed hard, and tried not to stare at the way that his thighs filled out those jeans, or how he had pulled the sleeves of his heather gray Henley up over his forearms.

He had pushed his hair back from his face and had on a gold bracelet that I knew his mother had given him one year for Christmas. He didn’t wear it often, but he sometimes did with a leather beaded bracelet, or his watch.

I hated the fact that I had noticed all of these little things about him.

That’s what happened when you had a crush on a man who hadn’t even realized you were alive.

I hadn’t meant to feel this way toward him. Not now, and surely not when we had first met. Phoebe and Kane had been going strong, sweet at first, innocent, and I had met Kingston on that same mountain.

A bear had scared us all, or at least me and Phoebe, and the experience had gotten us all together, and we had laughed and became friends.

Phoebe and Kane had clicked, and I had gotten all warm and tingly inside when I looked at Kingston.

And he had seen me as the little friend, maybe even a little sister.

And hadn’t that been demoralizing?

“Hey, you’re here.” He smiled, that half smile of his that popped out that dimple. He was too handsome for his own good.

I nearly tripped over my feet, just standing there. I had no idea how it happened, but he did that to me. It tugged up my scar slightly, and I winced, pressing my hand to the side. I was fully healed, but every once in a while, I got a twinge.

Kingston’s eyes widened and he nearly ran to me. “Claire? Are you okay?”

Embarrassed, I let my hand drop and I nodded. “Oh,I’m fine. Sometimes I just tug on my scar. But you know it’s life. You have scars too. That we don’t need to talk about.” I knew I was just blurting words at this point, so I had to make a full sentence. “How are you feeling?”

He studied my face, as if searching for far more answers than I had to give, before he gave me a nod, as if he were reaffirming that I was fine.

Such a big brother attitude.

“I’m good. Thankfully the nausea went away that evening, and I’m going to say it was thanks to your cookies.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, because the intake of sugar was probably good for you.”

“You never know. But I’m doing fine. No soreness at all. Thank God.”

“That’s good.”

He cleared his throat as I just stared at him and realized that I wasn’t sure what we were supposed to say. We used to be good at speaking to one another, having full conversations and talking about our days. Even when I’d been hopelessly attracted to him and everything about him, we’d been able to talk.

Then the attack happened, and nothing made sense anymore. And I’d finally come to terms with the fact that I had fallen for Kingston Montgomery, and he was never going to fall for me. So figuring that out had taken enough out of methat I had hidden.

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