Page 90 of Marcus

She appreciated the effort. That’s all people needed to do.

Make an effort.

“Will it be very cold?” Tiffany asked, looking back over her shoulder at them.

Next to her, Marcus shrugged. His fingers woven with hers kept her close to his side, and if Tiffany minded the affection between the two, she didn’t say. Then again, after that conversation in the car the week before, Cella figured her daughter had a good idea what was happening between her mother and Marcus.

By all appearances, she liked it, too.

“A little cold—the season for harvesting here runs from February to April. Sometimes we might start a bit later, if the weather stops us from starting normally, but once we start, it’s a three-month window to do the harvest and have the syrup ready to be packaged for the year’s exports and sales.”

“And I can see that?” Tiffany asked. “You’ll bring me back, so I can watch them make it?”

Marcus smiled wide. “I absolutely will. We’ll even go out to one of the maple shacks, put some fresh, hot syrup in the snow, wrap it around a stick, and make suckers. They’re the best.”

Tiffany let out a whoop that echoed in the forest, followed by a statement of, “This is the best day of my life.”

Cella shook her head, saying too low for her daughter to hear, “I’ll remind her that she said so when February rolls around, and she incessantly asks to come out and see the trees being harvested.”

Marcus tugged Cella closer to his side, letting go of her hand just so that he could wrap his arm around her waist. Dropping a kiss to the top of her head, she closed her eyes and soaked that all in. The smell of him. The noise of the forest around her. And even her daughter’s happiness as Tiffany began to sing one of those songs she’d learned at pre-K.

Even with her eyes closed, she could still see the foliage on the rough ground, the strong trees towering high above them, and the bright green leaves that made a canopy to block out of the hot sun from the summer day. Although, she knew that one could still see a bit of the bright blue sky peeking through the leaves, too.

“You know,” Cella said, sighing as she opened her eyes to stare at Marcus who smiled back at her, “even though she’s going to like what comes next for this day more than us because let’s admit it, the next bit is mostly just for her, this is perfect.”

“You think?”

“You, me, and her? This place? Yeah, that’s perfect for me.”

Marcus reached up to push one of her wavy strands of hair back behind her shoulder. Then, those soft fingertips of his drifted along the line of her cheekbone. “Easy to please, hmm?”

“With just a little bit of effort, sure.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Good.

She hoped he did.

Lost in her moment with Marcus, she didn’t even hear her daughter come up in front of them until Tiffany’s small arms circled one of Marcus’s legs, and one of Cella’s. Without a word, he dropped one hand from Cella’s lower back, and cupped the back of Tiffany’s curly head. Smiling down at the girl, he couldn’t have looked happier.

Tiffany looked back at him in the same way.

Cella thought … like she could be his.

“Can we play tag around the trees?” Tiffany asked.

Marcus nodded. “We can do whatever you want to do, dolcezza. That’s what today is all about. Just you and your ma.”

Tiffany grinned wide.

Then, she smacked Marcus on his leg.

“You’re it!”

Her kid darted away from them with pealing laughter.

Marcus gave Cella a look. “She totally planned that, didn’t she?”