“Could be worse. I grew up doing military-style training on them—wearing loaded packs and pulling toboggans of supplies.”
“Oh, wow.”
He made a gruff, quiet sound that he probably didn’t realize carried over the still air. “I think Owen and Will did it to scare us off joining the army. I guess it worked.”
She knew Josh was the only one of his brothers who hadn’t joined the military. When he first told her about his family, she had assumed that he was happy with that choice.
Now she caught a bittersweet edge that made her wonder.
He glanced sideways. “Don’t go digging for more to that story.”
They stopped near a rocky retaining wall. The sun was down now, the lake a dark, rolling mass of water. If she looked up, she could see snow falling from the sky, but it disappeared somewhere just above the water’s surface.
“I love the lake in the winter,” Josh said quietly. “It freezes, but then it thaws, and we get another few storms, and it’s just kind of…”
Magical.
And tonight, it was all theirs.
She smiled. “How could you tell I wanted to immediately ask more about the army stuff?”
“You’re constantly curious.” He narrowed his gaze, like he was searching for something in the dark, out on the water. “I’ve always liked that. Don’t take it as a criticism.”
“Comes from being an only child. I was deprived of other people’s stories.”
“What about your boarding school friends? The ones you’re going to meet up with when you leave here?”
“Promise not to tease?”
He groaned. “Oh God.” He cleared his throat and seemed to fix his gaze firmly out on the water. “What?”
“It’s a wedding. In two weeks, but there’s a bit of a lead up to the main event.”
He nodded. “Okay. Fun.”
“In Italy.”
His head pauses mid-nod. “Ah.” His lips twitch. “Tuscany, I presume?”
“No comment.”
His whole mouth slowly curled into a rueful but knowing smile. “Sounds fun. Got a date?”
She hesitated.
He rolled his head sideways and raised his eyebrows.
“No!” She huffed and made a face at him. “No date. I just wasn’t sure if admitting that was better or not. There’s no chance of a date. I’m a nun now. All work and no play.”
His expression didn’t change, and he didn’t look away. Finally, quietly, he said, “Same, by the way.”
“You’re tall for a nun,” she muttered.
He laughed under his breath.
She turned around in a slow circle. “Would you normally hear traffic from the town?”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah. And see lights, too.”
