Page 1 of Snowman

PROLOGUE

BREE

If I could tellyou how a beginning turned into an end, I would. But in this story, the end wasn't really an end; it was just a beginning. Just as it started, it ended, and nothing was as it seemed. This is the story of a man, someone who was as cold as snow, his heart frozen, yet he decided to melt for one person.Me.

"Bree!"

The shout pulled me from my thoughts. I looked up, pushing my blonde hair off my shoulder as I peered around the coffee machine. My coworker Nea was wrestling with a basket full of coffee bean bags, having wrapped her arms around it as if it weighed a ton. Her voice pitches higher with urgency as she yells again, "Bree! A little help here?"

I hurried over, sliding around the counter. Her face was scrunched with effort, and the basket wobbled precariously in her grip. Before she could cry out again, I grabbed one side.Together, we wrestled it onto the bar. It hit the surface with a dull thud, and Nea let out an exaggerated groan, her hands flying to her hips as she stood straight.

"You know," I teased, brushing my hands off, "you could've asked for help earlier."

"It's six in the morning," she said, fighting off a yawn. "I'm half-asleep."

"Clearly," I said, raising an eyebrow.

She gave me a saucy wink. "Besides, I forgot you were here."

"Nea," I laughed, shaking my head as I walked back to the coffee machine. "Sometimes I swear you've got early-onset dementia."

She laughed loudly, the kind of laugh that could wake the birds. She tapped the side of her head with mock seriousness. "You're probably right. I should check on my last two brain cells before they die."

I tossed a cleaning cloth at her, smirking. "Oh, stop it."

The loud tick of the clock announced six a.m. sharp. The sun had not been bold enough yet to cast its light upon us, and the café was wrapped in the darkness. This was my haven-mornings like this. All the nightmares that haunted my nights felt so small under the glowing lights of this warm café. And when sleep at least decided to be a foe, I knew I would be in peace here.

The jingle above the door yanked me back to the here and now. Cold air swirled in, touching my skin, and on its heels came the scent of winter: sharp, clear cold and the earthly, homelike smell of wood.

I turned toward the sound of the door, my gaze rising from the counter to the man who'd just walked in. A black coat clung to the lines of his tall frame. The quiet intensity came with him into the air, like a whispered promise, as he turned toward me. Café light caught against his face, and my breath hitched. His eyes, as icy as the frost, locked onto mine, piercing, freezing me in myspot. His gaze was sharp, hard to forget, and my heart stumbled in my chest as recognition struck.

"Bree?" he whispered low and raspy as if wrenched from him. He seemed to look as shocked as I felt; his exhalation froze in the cold air between us.

It had been far too long, far too bloody long since I'd last seen him. Even through a cold swirl stirring around, I felt the warmth inside melt something frozen in me that had been there for far too long. And it was suddenly back, just in his eyes, in the tone of his voice, how the air around me felt when he was there. Suddenly, it was all there, and a torrent of memories came over me, memories of a time far away, of another me.

And I was back in the year 2016.

ONE

BREE

November, 2016

"Leaves fall,

Snow melts,

Everything ends,

to begin,

Again."

— Unknown

The first snow hadfallen, that kind of snow that covered the world in silent stillness, muffling the chaos of the city. Years had passed since I had seen such snow, and its beauty took mybreath away. Each flake seemed to dance before settling on the ground, adding to the white expanse that stretched as far as my eyes could see.

I sat on a worn-out wooden bench, with peeling paint and creaky slats, holding in my hands a steaming cup of coffee. Heat seeped through the frozen fingers as the biting chill clung to the air. With my legs crossed over, I exhaled strongly, my breath rolling upwards into the air in curled wreaths before it broke. Closing my eyes for just that moment, allowing icy silence to wrap me up. When I opened them again, motion, like a different life, unfolded before my eyes.

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