Page 11 of A Heart of Winter
He was a bit disheveled, his silky black hair looking like someone had been running a hand through it, coat thrown on and not buttoned up, scarf just tossed around the back of the neckline like it had been left on the coat, and not put on deliberately.
“Hey,” he said, breathless and offering a hopeful expression. “Am I too late for dinner?”
My stomach swooped like a whole flock of butterflies had taken up residence, and I caught my breath. “Not even close.” And then something wild took control of my mouth, some ridiculous flirty instinct I’d thought long dead, and I went on. “Even if you were, there’s always breakfast.”
The smile that bloomed across his face made me feel like that early morning after the snow, like the sun was coming up over the pristine white blanket, and we were on the precipice of something incredible. Like the whole world was fresh and new and perfect.
I threw open the door and waved him inside.
Sweets for Sweets
As it turned out, Kai loved both butter cookies and rice pudding. Also the stew, the wine, the cabin, the jasmine tea, and snuggling under a blanket next to the fire while it snowed outside.
“Maybe vacationing in snowy places,” he admitted, pulling me closer to him under the blanket as we let the TV play some cooking show in the background. “I don’t want to live with the cold all the time, but even I’ve got to admit this is pretty great.”
“I’m sure Morwenna would let me borrow the cabin whenever I wanted,” I said, once again letting my mouth run away with me.
But he’d kind of done it too, hadn’t he? I mean, we’d just met. We were on our first date. But he’d been the one to bring up the idea of future vacations.
Maybe he hadn’t mentioned me, but he’d said ittome, and that was something. It implied maybe those future vacations could involve me.
The whole thing felt strange and different from any romantic entanglement I’d ever gotten into before. Sure, I’d never been big on romance. I was a witch, and it had taken me lots of long, work-filled years to get as good at that as I was. I hadn’t even hadtime for much romance till I was a hundred, and then it had been hard to get into the right mindset for it.
It didn’t help that most people were so much younger than me, and my mentor had been calling me an old soul when I was five. Not that I knew so much more than other people, or I was so mature—the older I got, the more I realized that the very concept of maturity wasn’t what people thought it was.
Yes, fine, there was a point where every person reached—or didn’t reach—adulthood, and took responsibility for themselves and their actions. But after that, there was no great moment of clarity that made you more adult than the other adults. No enormous insight that people in their thirties didn’t have and people in their fifties did.
Well, unless it was that in the end, only the things you prioritized mattered to you. I’d spent my life becoming a better witch, because that was what mattered most. Then came romance, because it mattered a little, but not as much. And I was fine with that.
Morwenna had only cared about magic and family, and she had magic and me, her family. Romance had never been a thing she cared about, and she didn’t want it.
Kai had established his career, and now he was using it to move somewhere he wanted to be. Romance hadn’t been an early priority, but it was something to him. He understood that his priorities shaped his life.
Lips brushed against the shell of my ear, bringing me back to the present moment. “What’s that old saying? A penny for your thoughts?”
I leaned into him. “Thinking about how the things that are important to us get the most focus in our lives. And both of us spent most of our time on work so far.”
He gave a little snort of laughter. “You should have heard my mother complain about it. I was going to get too old tohave children, and she”—he paused and swallowed thickly—“she really wanted grandkids.”
I’d never even considered the subject of children. It was probably why witches were so rare, our relative lack of hurry in procreation. When you were going to live for such a long time, why rush?
“I’m sorry she didn’t get that wish. Do you want to have children?”
He rested his head against mine and gave a sigh. “I won’t say it never crossed my mind, but it’s what you said earlier. It’s never been a priority. I wanted to arrange my life how I wanted it, then think about adding things like relationships and kids. I always wanted a partner to share my life with more than I cared about children.”
I certainly couldn’t speak against that way of thinking, since it had been exactly my own, just on a longer timeline. Plus I was sure Michael never in a million years would have wanted kids, adopted or otherwise.
But that didn’t matter anymore. I was moving forward, not back, and moving on was the only way to settle my magic.
“A partner sounds nice,” I agreed, snuggling deeper into the blanket and against his body.
It didn’t even occur to me to move to the bedroom as I fell asleep there on the sectional sofa with his body warm against mine.
Snow Morning
Iwoke up groggy and disoriented, but still on the couch. Alone, but so very warm, the blanket tucked in around me and the fire brought to life with wood added for the morning.
The smell of scrambled eggs cooking was drifting out of the kitchen. Also, maybe toast? Good thing I’d bought that bread. Was that what the bread was for?
