Page 25 of Frost
Despite the tension between us, I find myself smiling at his choice of words.
Jack looks confused at first, and then a smile breaks across his face too. The hardness from before is gone, washed away in a single instant, and in its place is the light-heartedness I’ve come to expect from him.
“Let’s continue forward.” Jack faces ahead. “It’s not much farther.”
He starts to whistle as we walk. The sound fills the air, and maybe it’s unrelated, but the breeze seems to respond to the music, rustling the branches above us and tickling my cheeks. After a moment, he regards me.
“Is it true?” he asks.
“Is what true?”
“That you can’t whistle.” He hops over a fallen tree and grabs my hand to help me over. I nearly swat him away and insist I can do it myself, but a part of me likes how thoughtful the action is.
“Yep. It’s true,” I answer with a defeated sigh. “When I try, all I do is spit.”
Jack laughs. “What is it the Southerners say in moments like this? Bless your heart?”
I scoff. “Don’t you bless my heart, Jack Frost. I’m sure there’s plenty of things I can do that you can’t.”
“Name one.” He’s back to his playful self as he walks along beside me.
“Hockey,” I say after thinking on it a moment. “I played all through high school and in my spare time with friends in college.”
Jack snickers. “Oh, come on, Luka.” He jumps into the air and swings from a low-hanging branch, causing the snow to shake off and fall on us. He drops to his feet and continues strolling along beside me. He reallyislike a happy-go-lucky sprite, just like the legends say. “You dare challenge me to a game that involves ice?”
“Oh. Right.” I breathe out a laugh and put my hands in my coat pockets. “Forget about that. Hmm. Baking?”
His lips twitch. “Doyoubake?”
“Sometimes.” My face heats, and I glance to the right where a deer is grazing not too far away. “Maybe I can whip us up a batch of sugar cookies tonight. It’s New Year’s Eve, you know.”
“Another year gone.” Jack sighs. “They pass so quickly.”
The heat in my cheeks spreads to the tips of my ears. “I was kinda hoping you’d… maybe… want to celebrate with me tonight?”
“You’re blushing,” he points out, the edge of his mouth hitching upward. “Is it because you’re asking me on a date?”
A nervous laugh escapes me, and I look away from him again. “Doesn’t have to be a date. I just…” Being alone on a holiday is depressing, especially on New Year’s Eve when people are kissing their sweethearts at the stroke of midnight. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“Very well.” Jack loops his hand around my bicep. “I suppose I’ll be your date tonight.”
Something about the softness in his eyes as he holds on to me tells me that maybe he doesn’t want to be alone either.
The woods open up to a clearing, and the river rushes to the left. With the snow on both sides of the bank, I shiver at how cold it looks. It sure is beautiful, though.
Just like the man beside me.
“We’re nearly there,” Jack announces before picking up pace. His hand is still around my bicep, so he tugs me along with him.
The flat ground transitions to hills not long afterward, and the terrain becomes more mountainous. Jack leads me up a winding path, whistling as he glides his hand along outstretching branches and the rocky mountainside. Every place he touches is left with a smear of ice.
“You’re like Midas,” I say. “But instead of turning everything you touch to gold, it’s ice.”
“Unlike Midas, I can control my power too.” Jack tosses me a smirk. “Otherwise, your cock would’ve turned to ice last night.”
I cringe. “Thank god for small favors.”
When Jack laughs, it echoes around us, loud and full. I could get used to hearing him laugh like that more often. Right when it seems like this path will incline for forever, it starts to decline and go back down. And then Jack stops walking.
