Page 101 of A Winter in Wonderland
‘Ah, here you are, you silly Brit,’ came Esteri’s voice from inside a helmet.
‘Esteri!’ I cried. ‘You came to save me!’
‘It looks like you were saving yourself,’ she commented, removing the helmet and pointing at my fire and dismantled snowmobile.
‘Well, I was getting there. How did you know where I was?’
‘The snowmobiles have GPS,’ she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I let out a relieved laugh. ‘Yay! Could I use your phone quickly? I think my sister’s gone into labour but my phone died and I want to check she’s OK.’
‘She’s fine.’
‘How do you know?’ I asked, perplexed.
‘Your dad called the head office to ask to get a message to you that she was all right, in case you were worrying. She’s doing great. But she did say something about not letting you meet the baby if you came home early.’
I shook my head, smiling. Thank God. ‘I’m sorry to have dragged you out in the middle of the night to rescue me. And for … ’
‘It’s like, seven p.m., calm down,’ she laughed.
Oh. It had felt like I’d been out longer than that.
‘Besides,’ Esteri moved aside, ‘somebody couldn’t wait any longer.’
Behind her, another person dismounted the other snowmobile and removed their helmet, but my breath had stopped the second I saw the flannel shirt sticking out from the top of the coat.
‘Oh my god,’ I said, stepping right on the campfire. ‘Shit!’ I stamped my boot out in the snow and looked back up.
Josh was here. Smiling at me. Putting his helmet down. Walking over. Putting his hands up to my face. Pulling me close. Kissing me.
I savoured him, touching his hair and his neck, hoping this wasn’t just some delusional dream from being out in the cold for too long.
‘Are you a mirage?’ I whispered when he removed his lips from mine.
‘No, I’m not Nicki Minaj,’ he whispered back, and I laughed.
‘What are you doing back here? How’s your grandad? And your mum?’
‘He’s fine, they’re both fine. It was looking worrying for a minute but he pulled through better than before, and when he came out of the hospital and I was telling him about you he told me I’d better come back here or I was an idiot.’
‘So he didn’t realise you were an idiot anyway?’
Josh grinned, his eyes twinkling into mine. I couldn’t believe he was back. He came back. That can’t have just been for a final two weeks of work, it had to mean more than that.
Iknewwe meant something.
Esteri cleared her throat. ‘Can we put this fire out of itsmisery and head back now? As much as I love to watch the two of you making out and all … ’
‘Yes, of course.’ I dropped my hands from around Josh, but he still held onto one of them. ‘But what should I do about this?’ I pointed at my broken snowmobile.
‘We’ll tell Daan and he can send someone to pick it up when it’s light. Lighter.’
‘OK. Esteri, I’ve been doing some thinking – I’m sorry about everything.’
‘I’m not. It’s in the past. And it helped us get to know each other better. OK?’
She was a good friend. The best. ‘OK.’
Esteri climbed on her snowmobile and Josh on the other and I said to him, ‘You drove this?’
‘Yep!’
‘Want me to drive back?’
‘That’s OK. You can be my passenger this time.’
I climbed on the back of Josh’s snowmobile, and gave myself permission to enjoy the ride, enjoy the moment, every spray of snow on my legs, every scent of pine, every taste of icy air, every sound of my heartbeat.
