My throat tightens.
“And if it turns out to be a mistake?” I whisper.
Mama shrugs. “Then we deal with it. Because that’s what family does. We stick.”
I swallow against the lump in my throat. “Do you think I know what love means? Am I confusing infatuation, a feeling from years ago, with love? Is he?”
Mama cups my cheek. “Only one way to find out how deep the water is, and that’s by jumping in. Or…deciding that’s not what you want to do at all.”
I meet her gaze, mulling over her words.
“And seriously,” she adds with a playful glare, “please get LASIK. Hiding those eyes is practically a crime.”
I laugh, half-choked by emotion.
I turn to look at him. He’s grinning at Thomas, who’s telling him—loudly—how many marshmallows he’s eaten.
His eyes flick up to mine. He tilts his head and smiles softly. It’s an invitation. Loaded with emotion.
I don’t smile back.
I also don’t look away.
CHAPTER 22
Ransom
I’m not above bribery.
Especially when my path back to Ember involves two sugar-high, snow-obsessed children and a plastic sled shaped like a race car.
“Uncle Ransom!” Thomas tugs at my sleeve. “Daddy and Mummy aretired.Can you take me?Please, please, pleeeease?”
I glance at Latika, who is standing by the chalet doorway, wrapped in a blanket, looking exhausted.
I jerk my chin at her, asking for permission.
She lifts a single brow. “He’s been up since dawn.” She yawns. “And Aksel and I are out of energy.”
“If you want to earn your way back into our collective good graces, sledding duty’s a strong start,” Tanya calls out from behind Latika.
That woman isalwayslistening.
“Volunteering.” I raise a hand like I’m enlisting. “I’ll take the chaos.”
“Excellent.” Latika holds out Thomas’s gloves. Then she calls out for Anika. “She’s gonna go as well, so we can have a few hours of child-free chalet.”
The chalet, I learn, as we walk to the edge of the woods, is also Freja-free. We find her sitting on a log, just soaking in the world.
“Auntie Freja, Uncle Ransom is gonna sled with us.”
Freja grins and walks to us. “Sounds like fun, kiddo.”
“Come on, then.” Thomas races ahead toward the slope. Anika chases him.
The hill isn’t steep, but it’s long and packed down smooth by dozens of runs.
Freja has her fists on her waist as I haul the plastic sleds to the top. She gives me a once-over. “You better not be using the children as emotional pawns.”
