“You do?”
“Yep, he does,” Lucas said as he placed all of them in a gift box, “Last year was the angel series, the whole lot; the year before… hmmm, I forget.”
“The advent elves,” Kai said. “They looked really cool on my tree, had a lot of the team wives, and some of the players, wanting to know where I got them when they saw them at a party I threw. I sent the entire team a link to the online shop, so you can know that out in Albany there is a whole raft of hockey player families with your work on their trees.”
I didn’t know what to say. So, I said nothing. I didn’t know he’d been buying my art, or that he’d even known about what I did, but Lucas did, and believe me, there would be words.
They chatted a while as I checked stock, and then when I was done, it seemed Kai was happy to carry on with our walk. I sent my brother a narrow-eyed frown, but all he did was grin at me in that insane way he had about him.
Then we were back outside, into the cold, and I didn’t even argue when Kai took my hand and tucked it into his pocket.
I’m so gone. The last stop of the Parade for us was where the actual parade would start—the Wishing Tree. As we walked toward it, I grew more anxious; the embarrassment of what had happened all those years ago, right at the front of my thoughts. Maybe we wouldn’t talk about wishing or silk or memories. It was freezing now, the park empty of tourists, only faint footprints remaining as snow drifted down to cover them.
“Did you do a wish this year yet?” Kai turned left off the main path to go to the tree. Great, we went straight to the wish.
I shook my head, “I don’t do the wishes.”
“You should, because you never know what might happen.” He was smiling, but he didn’t understand.
“You took the last wish I made.”
Guilt twisted his features. “I didn’t mean to, I promise. I was worried, thought that you might fear telling your family. I just wanted to help, and then I read it and…”
“You kept it.”
He stepped closer to me, and standing here, we were sheltered from sight, and from the windchill, although soft fat snowflakes floated down around us and reminded me we really shouldn’t be standing out in the cold.
He took my hand again, and I could have tugged my arm away, but we’d been heading for something all afternoon and I couldn’t avoid it any longer. I wasn’t sure if it would be an argument, or me with recriminations, or him with apologies, but this single moment seemed pivotal.
“I never told anyone about your wish, or what you said to me. I’ve kept everything inside, all these years, waiting for the perfect time.” He tugged me closer.
“The perfect time for what?”
“That moment when I could be the best man for you.”
“Huh?” Somehow, I expected him to say that he was waiting until he was done with hockey, or for when he was ready, but to say that he was waiting until he could be the right man for me, made me melt from the inside out.
“I was too focused on hockey, and I could never have been the kind of man you needed. I want to be the perfect man for you. Not someone obsessed with winning, not fighting through pain, not playing a game, not desperate for success. I want you, and I want to be the right man for you.”
“Oh.” That was all I could say, because my brain was in overload, and when he took another step closer, I didn’t move away, and when he released my arm, I didn’t run. My heart was thumping, excitement and fear warring for dominance as he moved closer. I’d never felt so scared, or hopeful, all at the same time.
“Did you get your first kiss?”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m sorry it wasn’t me.” He spoke so softly I had to strain to hear. That was such an odd statement, but he pressed on. “Was it good?”
“I don’t understand what you mean—”
The words were swallowed as he placed his cold lips to mine and cradled my face in his soft wool gloves. I groaned low in my throat with a desperate need for more than just this light touch and when he pulled back I chased for the kiss, every part of my heart yearning for more. We were caught in a brief, shining moment where I couldn’t even breathe.
“Okay?” he asked me.
I nodded. At least I think I did, because he tilted my head a little and pressed his lips there again, only this time, he ran the tip of his tongue over the seam of my closed lips, and I opened them on a sigh. This was everything; this was angels singing; this was my world grinding to a halt, as he deepened the kiss firmly and groaned low in his throat. I gripped his coat as it went on and on, the taste of him intoxicating, and then I stood on my tiptoes and linked my hands around the back of his neck, over his coat, and gave myself completely to the kiss.
This was what I’d wished for, with snow icy on my skin, in an isolated space, with Kai Buchanan and the taste of cookies and hot chocolate.
We were caught in a snow globe, in a single icy moment, with a heat between us that I’d never imagined would feel so right.
It was perfect.
Chapter Thirteen
KAI
Why had I taken so long to kiss Bailey?
What nonsensical reason had I used to hold myself away from him? His taste was intoxicating, and he fit in my arms so perfectly. I love you, I thought when he laced his hands behind my neck. I love you, I thought when we stared at each other, and then instinctively leaned in to kiss again. This was everything to me, and I just needed to make sure that he knew that. I pulled back from the second, longer kiss, and smiled, and thank god, he smiled back.
It was a tentative smile, and he seemed a little spaced out, but I would take everything he gave me.
“That was perfect,” I whispered, and waited for him to tell me if he thought it was too.
“It was,” he agreed softly.
I had to ask one thing—an important, soul deep question. “Can you forgive me?”
“Huh?” His hands were still laced around my neck, and I stole another kiss, deeper, sexier, with so much need that I could’ve burned with the intensity of it.
“For keeping the card, for knowing your wish?”
He closed his eyes briefly, and I could see the struggle for him to tell me, and my heart beat faster. I’d hoped that the kiss would show him what he meant to me, and I couldn’t bear it if he said he could never forgive me.
“I feel as if I should be angry,” he sounded confused, “but somehow, I don’t feel that right now.”
Relief flooded me, and I knew we would have to revisit the conversation at some point, but there were two things I wanted to do. Well, three, including just one more kiss before we left. The kiss was so much more than I’d ever hoped, it was years of love and affection and shared memories, and it was a beautiful taste of forever. When we parted this time, he slowly unclasped his hands and then traced my coat until he rested them on my chest.
“Can I show you something?” I asked, and stepped back from him before he could say no. We stopped at the gate to his parents’ property, and for a moment, he seemed unsure, and I needed to touch him. I slipped off my left glove, pulled off his right and then laced our fingers before tucking them into my pocket. “I’m not letting go now,” I promised, and even though he looked confused at first, he didn’t argue.