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“Good.” A smile played around his mouth.
“What?”
“Nothing. Eat your dinner. Get all the energy you can.” He dug into his steak sandwich and left that cryptic comment hanging.
We left after we’d eaten and talked for hours. Asher was sure-footed even in the dark. We had a few flashlights and backpacks on with our camping stuff. If someone had told me six months ago that I’d be an outdoorsy girl with hiking boots, I’d have never believed them. But it was true. After years of keeping myself apart from people, living in my icy fortress, above everyone, and somehow the loneliest of all, I’d finally met myself in the wilderness. In the scent of pine and salt, and the sound of the wind dancing through the leaves. I was at home out here, in the woods, with Asher by my side.
He stopped to tie his boot at one point, and I waited contentedly. It was getting warm in the evening already, as summer bloomed, and I thought about shedding my jacket.
I turned back to Asher and shone the flashlight on the rock he’d been standing by.
No one was there.
A thrill ran through me. Fear first, then excitement.
“Ash? You better not have been eaten by a bear,” I warned.
I spun in a circle, shining the flashlight into the trees that pressed against the path. Maybe I should be scared, but I wasn’t. The man I loved wanted to play a game, and I wanted to play with him. I always would. A twig cracked, and I spun around and shone the light at a thicket. It shifted. There was someone there. Delicious anticipation roared through me.
The shadow moved, and his face appeared, hidden by a black balaclava with a white skull stenciled on.
Oh goodie, my favorite.
I backed away, grinning, and he followed, then I turned and ran for it.
I had to give him a chase, and I had to do my best. I couldn’t just let him win, that wasn’t who I was.
But I couldn’t wait to be caught.
5 Years Later
WINTER
My dad’s business didn’t go under. With a great executive team under him, it thrived, despite his huge scale back. He was more often than not to be found in Hade Harbor, my mom by his side. They were closer than I’d ever seen them.
His wedding gift to us was a New York penthouse not too far from where Asher played in the NHL. In one of the best recruitment packages of the year, Asher Martino realized his dreams and got to stay close to home and his wife.
His one non-negotiable.
The first thing he bought with his newfound wealth? A cabin in the woods, just for us. We went there whenever we could. My photography portfolio grew quickly, and I worked in a gallery in the city when we were in New York. I developed my own pieces whenever we went home. Asher continued to be a superstar player, attracting offers from teams all over the country. He never wavered in his desire to stay on the East Coast. It looked like I’d managed to marry the ultimate family man. I couldn’t be happier about that.
“Ice Queen, you have to look straight ahead. If you look at your feet, you could fall,” Asher murmured, his arms going around me as I swayed.
“Alright for you to say, skating comes easily to you. I’d love to see you do a switch kick double twist basket, then we’ll compare notes,” I grumbled, hanging on for dear life. I was not a natural skater, that much was clear. Every single winter, Asher dragged me out to Miller’s Pond and attempted to try and teach me, and each year, I failed to make much progress.
The ice was busy. All the little kids from town were on it, and they were all better than me.
“Come on, Your Majesty, how are we going to teach our own kids to skate if mommy hates it?” Asher teased me.
I stopped and looked up at him. “Our kids? You’re throwing that term around awfully freely lately,” I accused.
He shrugged. “Doesn’t it just roll off the tongue though? Our kids. Our kids. Our kids.”
“Stop trying to jedi mind trick me.” I pushed his chest and would have fallen backwards on my ass if he hadn’t caught me.
Laughing, he pulled me into the circle of his arms. “Seriously, though. Let’s have kids. I want to have kids with you. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“You’re just getting started working, and I’m just getting my work into galleries.”
