“It’s okay really, Vivian. They know it’s temporary. That I’m going back to Bozeman at the end of January.”
But the truth was, Bozeman wasn’t that far away…he and Clem had, after all, had a three-year long-term relationship with him living in Bozeman and her in Marietta. So maybe they didn’t have to call it off after he left? Maybe they could keep things going for the duration of her stay…
“Good. As long as everyone’s on the same page.” She nodded emphatically. “So, tell me about them. Your parents. I want them to like me so I need to know everything.”
The fact that Vivian wanted his parents to like her was heartening—not that Reuben thought, for a moment, they wouldn’t. People liked Vivian. She was friendly and chatty and that knack of complimenting people over the tiniest little detail, which made them feel a little bit special. He only had to look at how town opinion had turned around. Sure, Clem might have shamed them into taking the first step, but Vivian’s charm and grace, and her refusal to hold a grudge against those who had been less than kind, had won her many fans in Marietta.
“Okay, well…Mom works at St. James Church, in the office. And my dad is a sonographer at the hospital. They were both born and bred in Marietta and were high school sweethearts.”
“And you said you’re an only child?”
“Yes. They had trouble conceiving. In fact, they’d given up after several rounds of IVF and then Mom fell pregnant with me when she was thirty-four.”
“They must have been over the moon.”
“They were. I was their—” He grinned as he injected some breathy awe into his voice and clutched at his chest. “Their miracle child.”
He couldn’t see her roll her eyes but he could hear it in her voice as she said, “And spoiled you rotten I bet.”
Reuben laughed. “They didn’t, no. But I had a heap of aunts and uncles and grannies and adopted grannies and older cousins who did and lucky you, they’re all going to be there today.”
She turned toward him. “What? All of them?”
“Pretty much.”
“Because of me?”
“No.” Reuben chuckled. “Because it’s Thanksgiving. You’re just the cherry on top.”
She chewed at her bottom lip. “Right, well, there’s only one thing for it, then. I’m going to have to bribe them with chocolate.”
Reuben burst out laughing. “You won’t need to—trust me, they’ll like you just as much as I do.” Hell, with her gift for engaging with people, they’d love her.
“Sure.” She tapped her lips with her index finger. “But chocolate never hurts.”
Well…he couldn’t argue with that. “You may have a point,” he said as he spotted the sign to his usual parking place up ahead and eased back on the accelerator.
Immediately the engine throttled down, Viv turned toward the window despite not being able to see out of it. “Are we there?”
“Just about. Pulling in to park now.”
She raised her hand to her blindfold. “Can I take this thing off yet?”
“Soon.”
Reuben wanted the silence to be sinking in around them when she saw the vista before them. A minute later, he pulled into what was essentially an elevated scenic lookout with a prime view of the lake and Copper Mountain looming behind so close it seemed touchable.
Ruben switched off the engine. “Now you can take it off.”
The mask was removed in one second flat and her soft gasp did funny things to Ruben’s equilibrium. The lake was looking exactly like he knew it would, a pristine sheet of ice stretching pure and powdery white from one tree-lined shore to the other. Crystals of ice dazzled the eye beneath the early morning sunshine. Dark green branches, laden with snow, reached into the frigid sky.
“Oh, Reuben,” she uttered softly as she pressed her hand to her chest. “It’s beautiful.”
God…she was beautiful. She was so beautiful his chest ached. “You like?”
“I love it.”
She turned to him then, her eyes shining and her naked appreciation was like a sledgehammer to his chest. The fact that Vivian clearly appreciated the view as much as he did was like a hot water bottle shoved up his sweater on this freezing morning.
“Good.” Reuben grinned and undid his seat belt because he really wanted to kiss her but if he did that, they wouldn’t get out of the vehicle at all and they had about an hour until they’d have to share the ice and he wanted to be alone out there—just the two of them. “Because you and I are going skating on it.”
She blinked. “What?” She glanced at the lake briefly then back again. “But…I don’t have any skates?”
“Yeah, you do.” He smiled. “I hired you some.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Well look at you, Mr. Take Charge.”
Reuben waggled his brows. “That’s Officer Take Charge to you.” He pushed open his door, a freezing blast of air evaporating both the effects of the heating and his horniness in an instant. “C’mon, the sooner we get on the ice, the sooner we’ll warm up.”
*
They walked down the steps from the scenic lookout, using the well-worn track cutting through the towering conifers, to get to the water. The water had frozen unevenly where it had encroached on the shingly beach, looking as if a layer of thick white fondant icing with a scalloped edge had been laid over the shoreline.
“You’re sure about this?” she asked as they laced up their skates while sitting on an old fallen log where the tree line met the beach. “I’ve seen a few too many people being fished out of freezing water on CNN. The ice is safe?”
“Absolutely.” Reuben captured her gaze. “One hundred percent. The lake isn’t that big, nor is it very deep. It freezes solid for a few months every year. From November through to February. Sometimes even longer than that. They rent out skates in the afternoons at that shack over there on the east shore—” He pointed to the deserted distant building. “Families with little kids do it all the time. Trust me, I wouldn’t skate on it or let you skate on it, if I thought it was unsafe.”
She nodded slowly as she digested the information. “Okay then, let’s do this thing.”
Pulling her laces tight she removed the slides from her blades and threw them in the bag Reuben had brought with him. There were a couple of blankets, some glove warmers and a thermos of hot coffee in it too for when they returned.
Reuben also stood, pulling frigid air into his lungs, feeling the dull ache as the cold reached right down to the tiny air sacks deep inside. He held out his gloved hand and she took it. “Let’s go.”
Stones crunched under foot as they made their way across to the start of the ice and Reuben helped Vivian on, holding her hand as she wobbled a little to start before she found her footing. When she was steady she let go of his hand and pushed off like she’d been skating all her life and Reuben followed, gaining speed to keep pace with her, warming up quickly as his thighs and arms worked in unison.
They didn’t speak as they ventured across the lake, the only sounds that of their blades cutting through the ice and the occasional mournful bird cry from the woods. Reuben watched Vivian taking it all in, her head swiveling from side to side as her quads contracted in those black jeans that hugged everything. Her nose was pink, so were her cheeks and some of her blond hair had escaped her beanie, the flyways fluttering around her face.