My thumb hovered over the Send button before I added:
Tree really is perfect. Good choice.
It was the closest I could come to acknowledging what had happened between us. A small olive branch extending into the chasm of what remained unsaid.
His response came almost immediately:
Adrian
High praise from my grumpy mountain man. I’ll take it.
His use of the word “my” hit me funny. It was both annoying and sweet. I hated that I liked it.
Another text came in a moment later.
Adrian
Going to study some ice fishing videos on YouTube. Have to impress my date tomorrow. ;)
The wink emoticon was so perfectly, irritatingly Adrian that I couldn’t help but smile. Even through text, he managed to be both charming and infuriating.
I set the phone down without responding, knowing anything I said would only encourage him. Instead, I returned to my computer and pulled up the contract he’d sent over before our first shoot—the one outlining exactly how many videos we needed to complete, the payment schedule, the deliverables.
Business. This was business. A short-term project with a clear end date.
I needed to remember that, to hold on to that reality like a lifeline. Because the alternative—admitting that Adrian Hayes was getting under my skin, that I was attracted to him in a way that went beyond the physical, that I actually enjoyed his companywhen he wasn’t being performative—that alternative led nowhere good.
Tomorrow, I would be professional. I would maintain appropriate boundaries. I would not think about how he’d looked lying in the snow beneath me, snowflakes catching on his eyelashes, lips parted in invitation.
I would not wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t shivered.
I would not imagine how those lips might have felt against mine.
I closed my eyes, willing away the images that refused to fade. When that didn’t work, I shut down my computer and headed for the shower, turning the water to cold in a desperate attempt to clear my head.
The project was partway done. Ten more days of filming. Then Adrian would leave, and everything would return to normal.
I just had to keep my head. And my heart. And remember that some trees, no matter how perfect they appeared, were never meant to be brought home.
#AlmostKiss #IveSeenThisMovie #UnplannedSnowAngels #PineExfoliation #TenMoreDates
9
#ORNAMENTALCOMBAT
ADRIAN
Sleep had been impossible.
I’d spent half the night staring at the ceiling, replaying that moment in the snow—the weight of Maddox’s body on mine, the way his gray eyes had darkened, how his breath had ghosted across my lips just before my damned shiver broke the spell.
The other half of the night I’d spent pacing, wondering if he was lying awake, too, cursing himself for almost kissing me.
By dawn, I’d given up on rest altogether. The massive spruce leaned against the porch of my rental cabin like a silent, sappy sentinel casting long shadows across the fresh snow, and I couldn’t stop replaying the almost-kiss with Maddox or the way he’d practically fled afterward, making excuses about checking on the store.
Maybe he’d been right.
Professional. That’s what we needed to be. Nothing more.
