The word sat between them, foreign and uncomfortable. Kate couldn't remember the last time anyone had called any part of her pretty.
“I should get dressed.”
“Kate.” His voice stopped her. “There's nothing wrong with being practical. With being strong. But you're allowed to be other things too.”
“Like what?”
“Soft. Vulnerable. Pretty.” He smiled slightly. “Even beautiful.”
“I'm not beautiful.”
“You are to me.”
The simplicity of it, the certainty, made her chest tight. She fled upstairs before he could say anything else, before she could do something stupid like kiss him right there in the lobby with Pop probably watching from somewhere, with her in her ratty robe and her face a mess.
In her room, she looked at herself again in the mirror. The braid did make a difference, softening her face, revealing cheekbones she'd forgotten she had. Maybe there was still something of that younger Kate in there, buried under years of responsibility and grief.
Maybe Ben could see her because he was looking.
Maybe it was time she started looking too.
But first, there was the inn to run, Pop to manage, her siblings to coordinate, Lillian's money to figure out how to use, and a hundred other responsibilities that wouldn't wait for her to figure out who she was beneath all of that.
Kate unraveled the braid, pulled her hair back into its usual practical ponytail, and got dressed in her usual practical clothes. There would be time for pretty later.
There was always later.
Until there wasn't, a voice in her head whispered. Lillian had six weeks. Pop was disappearing day by day. Even the ice on the pond would be gone soon.
Everything was temporary. Everything was changing.
Maybe she should change too.
But not today. Today she had work to do.
Kate was in the kitchen at five-thirty the next morning, enjoying the quiet before the inn woke up, when Dani appeared in the doorway. Her sister was already fully dressed and made up despite the early hour, wearing designer jeans and a cashmere sweater that probably cost more than their monthly coffee budget.
“You're up early,” Kate said, pouring her sister a cup of coffee without asking. After months of working together, she knew Dani's habits.
“I heard you tell James that you were going ice fishing this morning. I know you get out there early so I thought I’d try to talk to you before you left. Once you disappear to the pond, I know I won’t see you for hours.” Dani wrapped her hands around the mug. “I have a proposition.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“I want to go ice fishing with you.”
Kate nearly dropped her mug. “You want to what?”
“Ice fishing. Today. With you.”
“Dani, you hate fish. You hate cold. You hate…”
“I know what I hate.” Dani set down her coffee with determination. “But I realized something yesterday; we don't really know each other anymore. Maybe we never did. You were always with Mom, I was always... elsewhere.”
Kate studied her sister's face, looking for the joke, the punchline.
“This is your thing,” Dani continued. “Your escape. Your peace. I want to understand it. I want to understand you.”
Kate smiled. “Well, okay. If you really want to go you’re going to have to dress for it, none of your designer clothes. It gets really cold out there.”
