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Like every other guy, he would be shocked out of his gourd to see her without hair. She imagined he might be so nice he would swear it didn’t matter. But it would. It wasn’t like cancer treatment, where her hair loss was a temporary thing. Alopecia universalis was likely to be permanent.
Driving the snow-wheelers, as Liam called the four-wheelers with tracks for the snow, was a blast. They didn’t go too fast, so it wasn’t scary at all. They left one at the bottom of the giant hill and took the other one to the top, towing the sleds behind them. Then Carly went careening down, screaming with glee the entire way. At the bottom, she toppled over and landed in a pile of snow, laughing. Liam came down behind her, somehow steering his sled to a stop beside her.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes! That was so much fun! Let’s do it again!”
His knitted brows relaxed. “You liked it? I thought you were terrified, the way you were screaming.”
“That was me having a great time. You should try it. It’s way more fun if you scream.”
“Okay.” His expression was dubious.
“You’ll see.” Carly fetched the snow-wheeler and brought it to Liam. He looped the towropes over the hitch, and they dragged the sleds back up the long hill. Then they repeated the process of parking one vehicle at the bottom.
“It’s a lot more complicated with me along,” he said apologetically.
“True. But I’m not complaining. It gives me a great excuse to drive this fun contraption instead of trudging up that great big hill on foot.”
The answer seemed to satisfy him, and he quit apologizing. It must’ve galled a man with Liam’s pride when he had to burden others or ask for help. In the little remaining time Carly had with him, she intended to assure him he was far more of an asset than a liability.
They slid down the hill at least a dozen times, until Carly’s hooded coat was covered in snow, since she never mastered the art of stopping without a tumble.
On the last run, Liam even gave in to her request and yelled at the top of his lungs all the way down. Then Carly came down behind him and crashed into him. She knocked him onto his back and landed on top of him, both of them laughing until they had tears in their eyes.
“It’s a good thing you’re so padded.” Liam’s face was so close to hers that she could smell his minty breath. “It’s like I’ve been pummeled by a giant pillow.”
Carly rolled off onto her back, and they lay there, catching their breath. It felt so natural, lying beside him, with her head resting on his arm. She looked up at the clear blue sky and, for a moment, pretended they were just two normal young people enjoying time together.
How nice that would be.
“I could get used to this.” Liam’s mind must’ve been wandering down the same path. Except he didn’t know the impossible roadblocks they would face.
He lifted up on his elbow and gazed down at her with hooded eyes. “Thank you for doing this. You don’t realize it, but you’ve made my day a lot better, just being here.”
He looked at her like a starving man staring at a ribeye steak, fresh off the grill. Her hungry heart answered the silent plea in his eyes, wishing for things that could never be.
“Ditto,” she croaked. It was all she could manage to say, with her stomach pushing up into her throat.
What would she do if he asked to kiss her again? She had to say yes, didn’t she? After all, that was her promise to Nora... to agree to anything he asked her to do to spend time with him. And kissing definitely fell into that category.
That’s the only logical conclusion.
Surely, one innocent kiss would be okay. It didn’t oblige her to be in a future relationship. And later, when he was gone from her life forever, it would give her something to remember him by.
But would I be renewing that crush I was trying to quash, once and for all?
His mesmerizing green eyes captured hers. She couldn’t look away, even if she’d wanted to. Ever so slowly, his head bent toward her. She imagined the tingle of his lips long before she felt their touch... light and airy... almost a tickle. No sooner had the feathery contact occurred than it receded.
She bit back a groan of frustration. All at once, her mouth had a fierce thirst only his lips could quench.
He dipped toward her ear, his warm breath sending zaps of electricity in every direction. “Is it okay to kiss you?”
Her mind shouted, “Yes, you idiot! Hurry up! What are you waiting for?!”But her vocal cords croaked, “Uh-huh.”
She moistened her lips with her tongue, anticipating his kiss at last. But instead, his sizzling mouth slid to the corner of her jaw and down to a spot beneath it that exploded fireworks under her eyelids.
He said something else she couldn’t hear because of the pulse drumming inside her ears. Then he shifted around, and warm fingers cradled the side of her face, delicious tremors radiating into her skin. His tormenting lips returned to sear a path up and across her cheek to the corner of her mouth, while the tender strokes of his fingers sent goosebumps rippling down her arms. A fire heated her core from the inside out, so intense it must’ve melted the snow beneath her.
