“That was me grimacing. There’s a difference.”
“Uh-huh. You looked enchanted.”
“Pretty sure ‘enchanted’ isn’t the word. Trapped, maybe.”
He laughed, light and teasing, and the sound curled through me in a way I didn’t want to analyze too closely.
We fell into step together, his arm still linked through mine as if he was afraid of sliding again, or maybe just using it as an excuse. The town square glittered with early lights; the kind of Christmas glow that made even my chest loosen a little. As we passed the old fountain—frozen solid now, icicles hanging like daggers from the rim—Wesley gasped and tugged at my arm.
“You want to know a secret?” he whispered, eyes huge, and pointed at the fountain.
“What?” All I saw was the wishing tree landmark sealed under a crust of ice, the main pump bundled for winter, and the snowmelt pooling inside already hardened solid.
He gestured dramatically. “That’s not just ice. That’s a portal. A magical one. I read about it—frozengateways disguised as fountains, doorways to other realms, but only if you knock three times at midnight and whisper the name of your truest love.”
I groaned. “Wes?—”
“I’m serious, professor,” he insisted, though his eyes sparkled with mischief. “Wishing Tree’s fountain is a portal. And you can’t tell me it doesn’t look exactly like the kind of place you’d fall through to another world.”
Snow crunched under our boots as I shook my head, but my lips twitched against a smile. “You’re impossible.”
“Magically impossible,” he corrected, squeezing my arm, and then he leaned closer, lowering his voice like we were sharing a state secret. “Don’t worry. If it ever opens, I’ll make sure you come with me.”
And for the first time all night, the confusion in my chest eased, just a little. “You’d take me with you?”
Wes smirked, eyes gleaming. “Of course—who else is going to be big and brave enough to fight the dragons?”
I huffed out a laugh. “I’m not sure how good I’d be with dragons.”
“You’d learn,” he shot back, still clinging to my arm as if the ground might crack open beneath us.
Something big settled on my shoulders, and I turned him to face me, grasping his shoulders. “I’msorry, I might be selling, Wes. I’m sorry, I might be leaving.”
“It’s okay.”
“I know you?—”
“I just got used to you is all.”
“You won’t miss me.”
“Well, you’d miss the town,” he said.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“You’d miss Christmas here.”
“A little,” I said, then met his eyes.
“But mostly”. he hesitated; the words rough in his throat. “I’d miss you, Hunter.”
There was a moment when I’d thought we might kiss, when he leaned in to me, but he spun away, sliding to the snow collected near the trees. “But that is neither here nor there!” he said with a laugh and then held out a hand, which I grasped. He tugged me along until I fell in step. Wesley kept up his light chatter, this time about the giant goat sleigh. He described it with such flair I almost believed him when he claimed he alone knew how to construct it, that it would be the boldest Christmas float the town had ever seen. He laughed, promising me this year would be his best Christmas yet, as though saying it often enough would make it true.
“I’ll miss you too,” I admitted as we reached the Wishing Tree.
He stopped dead. He turned, eyes wide, searching mine, and before I lost my nerve, I leaned in. Our lips brushed, tentative, testing, then deepened as if we’d both been holding back far too long. His mouth was warm, tasting faintly of peppermint and winter air, and when he sighed into me, I pulled him closer. His hand slid up to my jaw, thumb trembling on my cheek, and I kissed him again, harder this time, hungry, as though kissing him was the only thing keeping me upright. More kisses followed, softer, lingering ones that made the rest of the world vanish until all I knew was Wesley pressed against me, his breath and mine twining together in the frozen night.
He was hard , and I was just as far gone, clutching him, knowing that letting go wasn’t an option. My thoughts spun—this was more than heat, more than relief. It was the thing I hadn’t let myself admit I wanted. For a heartbeat, I let myself imagine what it would be like if I stayed, if this life was mine to keep.
