Page 71 of Born in the Spring

“No. I’m five. I know everything.”

His answer almost pushes me down onto the snow, but the way he swells with pride makes me laugh. But it’s still an instinct to glance around, now wondering who else has noticed Jasper’s been having his dinner withme.

My sudden blush at the memory of my body bent over his kitchen island warms me, and I freeze it away by pressing my cold palms into my cheeks.

“He’s your cookie person, huh?” Skylar asks up at me when I stand to feel more of the wind on my face.

“Cookie person?”

“You know. The one you give your last cookie to instead of eating it yourself. Because you love him.”

Tears sting my lids, his cute little face going hazy as the swell in my heart parts my lips with the words before I can stop their release into the breeze. “He is my cookie person.”

“Knew it,” Skylar hollers with more pride, and I chuckle away all the wet as I give his nose another boop.

“You’re my favorite kid. Have I ever told you that?”

“Knew that too,” he says with a grin, then turns on a run. “Come on!”

I don’t hesitate to run after him—one, I can’t let him get lost around this big and busy resort, and two, this isn’t the first time he’s had me chasing his behind through the snow. He normally does this when he wants to have a snowball fight to get a head start.

And it’s all fun and laughs, until I deduce where he’s heading.

“Santa’s here today,” he yells back to me, his legs too fast for me to catch him. “Let’s get a ticket!”

“Skylar,” I call to him, a plea to come back, but he keeps running, and I stop when the rink comes into view.

“Skylar,” I call one more time, hoping to be taken down with a snowball to the face instead of knocked over in this way.

I should’ve known this was coming at some point, with one or more of the kids I nanny. Of course he wants to skate with Santa. Most of the kids here today are already on the ice.

And Skylar, being my responsibility right now, and being without me, though not alone, pushes me forward again, my feet carrying me to meet him at the ticket booth.

I’m moving more than I thought I would when I knew I’d eventually have to face this, but I feel sort of out of body,moving off of sounds—voices, mainly Skylar’s, directing me from the booth and to a bench. Loaner skates are placed into my hands, my brain fogged as I get off my boots and slip the skates onto my feet. A tiny hand in my right one as Skylar finishes taking the reins, directing us onto the ice.

He tugs me on, the feeling of sliding over ice again settling in as a deep breath into my lungs, blinks clearing away the fog. My blades and his blades scrape beneath us as we sway along, this sound sending me back to that night.

Shepherd held my left hand.

He kept smiling down at our twined fingers.

I had something to tell him and he had something to ask me.

A bump into another skater saves my head from the past for another moment, and we apologize in unison, before Skylar saves me this time by letting go of my hand.

“There he is!”

“Skylar,” I call to him, but he’s determined to reach Santa on the other side, trying to catch the man in the red suit, and I manage a smile over him enjoying himself.

I skate backward, while trying to keep an eye on him, bumping into a few more people and mumbling out a few more apologies, until my last bump is against the railing. I take my focus off Skylar just to get off the ice and yank off the skates.

Back at the railing and back in my boots, I release a sigh, then a gasp when someone grabs my arm.

“No, no,” Vanessa scolds to a kid on the ice, hopefully the one that’s hers. “None of your tricks. Be careful!”

She leans herself into my periphery with a nudge against my shoulder. “Here we are again, the hottest spot at Blue Cornelia until Christmas. You ready to wear out another pair of skates?”

My chuckled answer is a clog in my throat she hears. The force of her jostling my arm gets me to meet her eyes, and she looks over my face. I manage another smile, but that too must not be convincing, because her fingers fold tighter with that familiar stern jaw and furrowed brows.

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