Page 26 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

After a while, once their faces were getting too cold to continue being outside and with the good light fading anyway, they made off back towards the cabin, Finn flicking through the photos he had taken on the camera’s screen.

“I really, really hate to admit it,” he said.

“Admit what?”

“That you were right.”

“What about?”

“That I need a vacation.”

He looked over at her with a gentle smile, looking more relaxed than Eva had ever seen him. It suited him.

“Told you,” she said. “I’m usually right, after all.”

* * *

Finn had promptly fallen asleep on the couch in front of the fireplace, utterly exhausted. It was like it was the first time the guy had ever been able to fully relax, and his body had crashed on him, taking the opportunity to sleep as much as it could. Eva left him there, quietly puttering around the cabin without disturbing him, setting her laptop up at the dining table to sort through the photos that Finn had taken that day.

As she pulled the files into her software, her fingers froze over the keys. The first image was the one that Finn had taken of her when she’d told him to take a photo of something beautiful. She’d completely forgotten about it. But there it was, a photograph of her that wasn’t a selfie on her phone or a candid from the paparazzi that she hadn’t even been aware of.

She was looking into the lens in mild surprise, her hand in her hair, trying to stop the wind from getting it in her eyes, her fingers out of focus from the movement. There was a lazy smile on her face too. She didn’t remember smiling at the moment, but clearly she must have been; the evidence was right there. So were there other times lately that she’d been smiling without realizing it? Staring at herself, Eva noticed how bright her eyes were. There was even color in her face that wasn’t just from the biting cold of the wind.

She looked… happy. Happier than she had in a long time, even back in New York.

She right-clicked on the photo and saved it.

CHAPTER13

EVA

Once Eva had given permission for Finn to actually enjoy himself, he’d quickly become addicted to it. He’d just needed that first push. Over the next two days, they spent nearly all of their time outside. They didn’t even talk that much. In fact, it was just nice to be in another person’s presence withouthavingto talk, to entertain, to host. To just be and exist and take it all in.

They bundled up against the cold so they could spend as long as possible outside and walked along the paths that spanned out from the cabin. It could hardly be called a hike; everything was pretty flat and domesticated, with the mountains and more adventurous landscapes off in the distance. But it was enough for them. They weren’t really the athletic types anyway, so it was probably for the best.

Eva had taken her camera out with her at every opportunity, with several SD cards in her pocket so that she didn’t run out of space to take as many photos as she pleased. Finn had even brought his notebook along. Since his first time showing her, he’d still been a little too shy about it to show her the contents in the light of day. But it made Eva happy. She hadn’t realized quite how low his self-confidence had been. It made her feel even worse about being an absolute brat to him.

But all that fell away while they were out here in the snow, forgetting for the moment that palaces, press tours and parents with monstrously high expectations even existed.

There were no park benches to sit on out here, not even a fallen log, so they had ended up standing by the edge of the frozen lake just looking out at the cracks in the ice, the snow, the mountain peaks, all of it blue and white and potentially deadly.

“I think I get it now,” said Finn, breaking their companionable silence.

“What do you mean?” Eva asked, looking up at him.

“What you said the other day about things being able to be scary and beautiful all at the same time.”

“I told you,” she said. “Iamusually right.”

“That includes you too, you know.”

“What? I’m not scary.”

“You’re absolutely terrifying.”

“Oh, shut up. I am not.”

“And exquisitely beautiful.”

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