Page 84 of Frosting and Flames

The headlights cast a glow over the open stretch of land before us, until Nick shuts the truck off, plunging us into velvety darkness.

He gets out and rounds the truck to open my door, letting in the earthy scent of grass and damp soil. I follow him, turning in a slow circle to take in the quiet expanse around us. The town’s lights flicker in the distance, and above, the sky spans endlessly, a deep indigo canvas scattered with starlight.

“Wow,” I murmur. What in the world are we doing tonight?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

NICK

Iwatch Rachel, taking in her expression of awe as she looks up at the open sky, the infinite nature of it wrapping around us, emphasizing how alone we are out here.

I could watch her forever, mentally tracing the curve of her cheek, the graceful line of her neck. The way her eyes sparkle, reflecting the stars above.

She turns, catching my eye, and smiles. “What are we doing?”

I pop the tailgate, revealing the tied-down air mattress, and retrieve a few blankets and pillows from the cab. “We’re stargazing. There’s a new moon tonight, so the sky should be darker than usual.”

Her smile widens. “That sounds amazing.”

Climbing into the bed of the truck, I situate the blankets and pillows. “Come on. You can’t fully appreciate it until you’re lying down.”

I reach for her hand and help her up, settling in beside her on the mattress. She’s warm where she stretches against my left side, and I’m glad she doesn’t let go of my hand.

I use my free hand to point upward. “Want to see the Big Dipper?”

“Ooh, yes.”

“First, we’ll search for the pointers. They’re the two outer stars of the bowl.” I do my best to guide her, outlining the familiar shape, but it takes her a bit to recognize the pattern.

“I see it,” she says, sounding excited.

I mean to show her more, but it’s impossible to look anywhere but at her. Her face is bathed in soft moonlight, lips parted slightly and eyes wide with wonder. As vast as the sky is above us, she’s completely unaware that she’s the biggest thing in my world right now.

The feelings I’ve always had for her have grown these last few weeks into something as boundless as this night sky, impossible to put into words. I’m standing at the edge of something immense and unknown, but it isn’t scary. It feels a hell of a lot like falling, and I’m fully ready to embrace it.

I know Rachel isn’t at that point, but I’ll wait however long she needs. I want to watch her like this for the rest of our lives.

“My first constellation,” she whispers.

“The Big Dipper is actually part of a larger constellation—Ursa Major.”

“That’s the bear, right?”

I nod. “It’s harder to see, though.”

“Is one of those the North Star?”

“That’s the Little Dipper. If you draw an imaginary line through those two pointers I showed you, it heads straight to Polaris.”

She nudges my side. “Look at you, all knowledgeable. I didn’t take you for an astronomy buff.”

“I’m not really,” I confess sheepishly. “I did some research before taking you out here.”

Better to admit it now before she trips me up with a question I have no clue about.

She looks over at me. “You learned about constellations so you could take me out stargazing?”

When she says it like that, it sounds… weird. “Yeah,” I say lamely.

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