Tears gather at the corners of her eyes. My voice is trembling but sure.
“Daphne, will you marry me?”
There’s a beat of silence where my happiness hangs in the balance.
“Yes,” she whispers, and then louder, her voice singing with joy, “YES!”
The people around us turn, someone in the distance cheers, then another. A wave of hoots and hollers sweeps down the street as if the entire town has been waiting for this moment.
I slide the ring onto her finger, and it’s a damn near perfect fit. The chip in the top corner catches the last of the setting sun, sparkling like a piece of my soul set in gold.
She wraps her arms around my neck, and I kiss her hard. I’ve never felt more alive than at this very moment. Snow swirls around us like confetti as the time-operated Christmas lights of the stores all kick on in unison with the setting sun.
Her hands curl into the fur at my shoulders as I lift her up, cradling her gently in my arms.
I nuzzle my mouth against the hollow of her throat, and it takes everything inside me not to dig my teeth into her skin. I have to bite the inside of my cheek to help quell the bizarre urge. The urge I’ve been feeling for the longest time, now suddenly stronger than ever.
That's when I hear a grating voice cutting through my perfect moment.
“What’s going on here?”
Oh no,it’s him.Gerald stomps across the street, slipping a little with each step. The family matriarch power walks behind him, holding her cane in the air like a jousting weapon.
“Again?” Daphne sighs. “Oh my god! How many times do I have to tell you to leave?” she yells over her shoulder.
But the stuck-up thorn in my side doesn’t get any words out, despite opening his mouth to protest.
He slips dramatically on a patch of ice collecting right in front of the storm drain.
His feet go airborne, his arms windmill, and he lets out a strangled yelp before his back connects with the frozen blacktop of the road with a dull thud.
The entire crowd winces in unison, and his grandmother looks so embarrassed that she slowly backs up. People fill the space between us and Gerald, like a protective bubble of tourists. I think someone even helps him up—seemingly unhurt except for his pride.
Daphne squeezes my hand tightly and leans close, whispering in my ear. “What do you say we get out of here?”
Chapter twenty-seven
Daphne
Andricutsswiftlythroughthe parade crowd, through the swirling snow, and carries me back to his truck. He sets me in the passenger side with a kiss on the forehead. He’s still trembling, despite his tenderness. The drive to the motel is quiet, but it’s the good kind. Somehow the idea of riding the gondola back home seems too much, and we just want to find the quickest way to be alone together. My hand stays clasped to his over the shifter. Andri’s blue thumb strokes mine as if the feeling grounds him.
We book a room, the last in the building, and the door clicks closed behind us with a soft sense of relief. I shrug off my coat and kick my snow-covered boots onto the floor. He stands there, breathing like he’s bracing himself for an avalanche. His eyes find mine, deep brown, rattled, and beautiful.
“You’ve made me so happy Daphne,” he whispers, “but I need to tell you something, and I don’t want to scare you.”
I step to him, my hands resting on his chest where his inhuman warmth thrums steadily.
“Tell me.”
His throat works, bobbing with nervousness. “I don’t have any other snowpeople I can ask about this, and I don’t know what’s happening to me, but there’s something my body has been begging me to do…like an instinct.”
My heart stops. “What do you mean?”
Andri scrubs a hand over his face, shaking it slightly as his palm leaves his chin.
“When you kissed me…when you said you loved me, I knew you weremineand I was yours.”
“Always,” I tell him, grabbing his hand.
