She opened her mouth to respond, but then she snapped it shut again. What had she done since arriving in LA that didn’t involve being inside alone, either working or reading or some combination of both? The first two years she’d been single and hustling hard. Once she started dating Brock, she’d gone out more. But could she count going to cocktail parties with him? Probably not. They were in the work category, too.
“I know how to have fun,” she said defensively.
“Yeah, you went right out of your comfort zone by eating Sour Patch Kids.” The corner of his lip twitched, as if he was trying to hold back a smirk. “I’m so proud.”
“I’ll have you know I’m actually very spontaneous these days.”
Liar, liar, undies on fire.
“Oh, yeah?” he challenged.
“I was the one who wanted to make a snowman,” she pointed out. “See? Spontaneous.”
“That was only after you lectured me in front of Ethan about not having the proper coat. So, one point for spontaneity, but also minus one point for being a stick-in-the-mud.”
“Excuse me for caring about you not catching hypothermia.” She glared at him. “Fine. You want to do something spontaneous? Let’s go outside right now.”
She immediately regretted issuing the challenge. It would be freezing outside, and Lily was not dressed for the cold. Being stubborn was funny like that. On the one hand, it was good because it made her tenacious in her work. Stubbornness had been a key reason in several of the opportunities she’d had in LA so far, because giving up was not an option.
But on the other hand… now she couldn’t back down from this fight on principle.
“Come on,” she said, tilting her nose up at him. “Or are you worried because it’s gotten below eighteen degrees?”
“It’s a lot less than that.”
She tucked her hands up to her shoulders and moved her elbows up and down like a chicken. “Bock, bock, bock.”
“You did not just make chicken noises at me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, it’s on, Lily Dunn. You’d better hope that cute little arse of yours doesn’t freeze outside because I will be the last man standing.”
Giggling, she tugged him away from the kitchen counter and toward what they called a “mud room” in America, which had coats hanging up and snow-caked shoes sitting on plastic trays. Deciding that Ethan wouldn’t mind them borrowing his things again, they toed off their dress shoes and stuffed their feet into some boots.
She spotted her coat hanging on the hook and wrapped herself up, knowing her stockings were nowhere near warm enough for the bottom half of her body. It was a good thing her coat came down to her knees and the big snow boots came half-way up her calves.
They bundled up in mittens, hats, and scarves from Ethan’s collection and headed outside. It was almost like stepping into another realm. As they closed the door behind them, the noise of the party was shut off. It was quiet, hushed. Their breath puffed into the crisp night air. As they walked out into the open space, she turned and looked back.
The inn’s main room was aglow, party guests laughing and raising their glasses. Right in the centre of the window, Jasper and Evie kissed, with the twinkle of Christmas lights in the background.
“It’s so beautiful out here,” she said softly.
Sean looked around, watching the fat and fluffy flakes of snow fall from the sky. He was speechless, and Lily wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him without words before. But there was no denying how magical it felt. It was one thing to see the ground coated with snow, but it was entirely another thing to catch it in the palm of your hand as it fell from above.
“It doesn’t look real, does it?” she said. She tried to see the detail of the individual flakes, but they softened against the wool covering her hands.
For several moments they stood and stared at the darkened sky, the moon gleaming momentarily before slipping behind clouds. With the light from the inn illuminating the night, they let themselves stand still and just… experience it. The flakes continued to fall, landing on Lily’s hat and her eyelashes.
“You look like a princess out of a children’s book,” he said.
“And your face…” She shook her head. “You look like a little kid.”
“I feel like a little kid.” He stuck out his tongue and tried to catch some snow, causing Lily to laugh.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw movement at the window. Amelia and Katherine were huddled together, looking out into the night. Were they watching her and Sean? She caught one of them pointing.
Oh yeah, they were definitely watching.
Sean looked over his shoulder to see what had caught Lily’s eye and laughed. “Sticky beaks, the lot of them.”
“That’s my family in a nutshell. Not a single one of them could mind their own business if their life depended on it.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m trying to make sure Evie and Jasper get all the attention, but it’s like they’re determined to obsess over my love life.”
“They care,” he stated simply. “Be grateful for that.”
She sucked on the inside of her cheek. He didn’t have the luxuries that she did—two doting parents who were still as in love with one another as the day they married, a humble but comfortable family home, the knowledge that she was valued and loved from day one.
“I’m happy they care, but I wish they’d amuse themselves with something else.” She shook her head. “They don’t need to worry so much. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself.”
“Living in a roach-infested apartment and doing nothing but work.” He raised an eyebrow.
“I’m living the dream,” she joked. “And don’t you start on me. Please. I can’t take it.”
His gaze slid over to the window. “They’re still watching. In fact, I think our audience has doubled.”
“Pervs. I should go in there and give them a piece of my mind.”
“Or we could give them a show?”
The air seemed to grow still around them. The snow continued to fall, and Lily suddenly realised how intimate it felt—the hush of the snow, the glimmer of snowflakes, the chill that was drawing them toward one another. Her legs were freezing, but she didn’t want to go back inside and shatter this magic bubble.
“What do you mean?” she whispered.
“I mean, we’ve had an almost-kiss already and while I know the ‘will they or won’t they’ is a staple of your movies, I’d very much like to kiss you for real.”
She sucked in a breath. Questions swirled in her brain, banging into one another and fighting to be the first out. “Just how many of my movies have you seen?”
“All of them.”
She blinked. “Every single one?”
“Every single one.”
She brushed aside snow that had fallen high on her cheek. “Even the one about the showjumper?”
“Riding Home? Yeah, I loved it.”
“Nobody liked that one.” Despite what people thought about Lily’s career, she had not produced hit after hit. “You seriously watched all my romantic comedies? First Disney, now this.”
The warm glow in her chest felt like pure happiness. Not all of her movies had been a success—quite a few had gone direct to cable and while commercially viable, they hadn’t exactly furthered her career. But she was proud of them all.