Page 82 of Through the Snow Globe
She didn’t know what to say. Whatcouldshe say? Snowflakes covered her lashes. She blinked them away, trying to keep her gaze on him. “I’m s-sorry.”
“For what?” He stepped closer to her, his eyebrows knitting with concern.
She shrugged and shook her head simultaneously, on the verge of tears. “For everything.”
“Don’t be silly. Let’s go before you freeze to death.” He grabbed her hand and gently tugged, hurrying to her car.
“Put your bike in the back,” she instructed. “I’ll drive. No. Actually, you should drive.” Because every time she drove, they got into an accident.
“You got it.”
Diana dipped into the passenger seat, watching Linus in the rearview mirror. Her heart was hammering through her chest. Her hands were shaking. On a deep inhale, she picked up the snow globe, turned it upside down, and shook it. When nothing happened, she shook it again. And again.
“What are you doing?” Linus slid into the driver’s seat beside her.
“Making a wish.” She continued to shake the globe in an upside-down position, just like Mrs. Guzman had told her to.
“You opened your gift early?” he asked, realizing what she was holding. “And without me?”
“Sorry, but it had to be done.” She shook the globe even harder.
“Diana, stop! You’ll break it!” Linus reached for her forearm and squeezed gently. “Diana?”
When he pulled his hand away, she accidentally let the snow globe slip from her grasp. It dropped in slow motion, shattering in the middle console between them.
Diana gasped softly and looked at the liquid glitter and broken glass. Then she looked up at Linus, feeling like she might combust just like the snow globe had. “Everyone in my life has left me, Linus. I’m putting my trust in you to be different. Don’t leave me too. Whatever you have to do to come back to me, please, just do it.” Her voice was shaking as she pleaded with him. “You promised me forever, and I believe in you. Forever isn’t a myth. I want all the tiny moments you wrote about in your card—the good, the bad, the boring. They all equal up to a future that I want more than anything.”
He reached for her hand. “I’m not sure what you’re fretting about, but don’t worry. You’re stuck with me. I’m not going anywhere for a while yet.” He looked down at the mess she’d made. “Even if you open your Christmas gift early, and without me, and break the gift inside your car.”
She sniffled softly. Her heart was beating fast—too fast. Her breaths were coming out shallow—too shallow. How could she let go of the one person who’d ever come into her life with a promise to stay unconditionally? Even Grandma Denny had always made sure Diana knew she wouldn’t always be around. There was an expiration date on their relationship.
“Diana?” Linus asked, gently touching her forearm.
She closed her eyes and counted to ten, taking deep breaths that didn’t feel like breaths at all. The harder she tried to pull in a breath, the less air she seemed to pull into her lungs. She was hyperventilating and suddenly her world was spinning off its axis.
“Di? Are you okay?”
She loved the way he looked at her with a deeply furrowed brow when she wasn’t making any sense. She loved the way he kissed her, gently at first and then like a man in love.
“Di?” he asked.
“I’m f-f . . .” She wasn’t fine, though. She opened her eyes and looked at him. “Here’s the thing. We’re going to have an accident on the way home, and you’ll be injured.”
Linus’s forehead wrinkled. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll go into a coma and the longer you’re there, the less probability there is that you’ll wake up. I’ve tried to fix this, to change this. But I think some things are just fated, and they can’t be altered.” Tears swam in her eyes. She blinked them away and focused on Linus’s face. “I know you don’t understand, but I want you to know that I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.” Her tears finally streamed down her cheeks. She couldn’t keep them at bay any longer. “Linus, I’m so,sosorry I let you down.”
“Di, I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about right now.” He reached up and swiped a lock of hair from her cheek. “But you did save me. I had no idea what I was on this earth for until I met you. I just took up my dad’s toy store because he couldn’t run it after his heart attack. I felt unsettled and unanchored. Then you walked into the store and I knew, from the moment you said hello, that you were my reason for breathing.”
Diana searched his blue-gray eyes. She’d felt the very same way when she’d met him. Even though he’d been recommending the most horrible toys for her to buy for her coworker’s daughter. “Why me?”
“Because there’s something about you that makes me feel like I can do anything.”
She was doing her best not to start sobbing right here in this snowy parking lot. “If that’s the case, promise me that whatever happens between here and home, you’ll come back to me. Swear it, Linus.”
He held her gaze. “As long as I’m alive on this earth, I will always come back to you, Di. That’s a promise that I will never break.”
Chapter 23
