Even something as simple as sharing shower products felt loaded with meaning. Domestic in a way that should have terrified me but instead felt oddly comforting.
We finally emerged from the shower, skin flushed and clean. I wrapped a towel around my waist while she put on her bra and panties. The morning routine felt natural, like we’d been doing this for years instead of days.
“I should get dressed,” I said, reluctant to leave but knowing I needed to maintain some semblance of normalcy. “Don’t want anyone seeing me do the walk of shame in yesterday’s clothes.”
“It’s not a walk of shame if I invited you,” she said with a grin that made my heart skip.
I kissed her once more, soft and lingering, before forcing myself to step away. “I’ll meet you outside in twenty minutes?”
“The horse setup is happening near the main barn. You can’t miss it.”
I slipped out of her apartment and made my way back toward the main lodge, hyperaware of every sound in the hallway. The last thing I needed was to run into Harold or one of Sylvie’s relatives while clearly wearing the same clothes from dinner last night.
I managed to avoid seeing anyone. I pulled on fresh clothes and rushed back out just in time to see a trailer full of massive Clydesdale horses pulling up.
“Kent, this is Bill Anderson,” Sylvie said, introducing me to a weathered man in his sixties who looked like he’d been working with horses his entire life. “Bill, this is Kent. He’s offered to help us set up.”
Bill gave me an assessing look that suggested he wasn’t entirely convinced a city boy would be much use, but he nodded. “Always appreciate an extra pair of hands. You know anything about horses?”
“Not much,” I admitted. “I know which end the food goes in.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Well, you’re about to learn a lot more today. Come on.”
He opened the back of the trailer, and fuck me sideways, the horses were huge. Again, I had seen them in pictures and even in a few parades, but never had I been up close and personal with the beasts. The animals were magnificent, huge draft horses with feathered feet and gentle eyes.
“Let’s get this done,” Sylvie said.
What followed was several hours of surprisingly enjoyable physical labor. We loaded the wagons with hay bales and thick fleece blankets for the guests to bundle up in. We prepared thermoses of hot chocolate and arranged them in insulated containers. Bill showed me how to attach jingle bells to thehorses’ reins, so they’d make that classic sleigh-ride sound as they moved.
I was a tall man. A big man. But the horses intimidated the hell out of me.
Sylvie was in her element, directing the setup while also being incredibly patient when I had questions about how things worked. We attached battery-powered Christmas lights to the wagons, transforming them into something magical that would glow beautifully against the snow-covered trees.
All the while I was enjoying working beside her, watching her laugh at something Bill said or seeing her face light up when she stepped back to admire our handiwork, I knew I should tell her the truth. Every moment I stayed silent was another moment I was lying to her, another layer of betrayal that would make everything worse when it finally came out.
I could tell her right now. Pull her aside, explain what the contract actually meant. I should give her a chance to hear it from me before her father broke the news. It was the decent thing to do, the only honorable option available.
But I didn’t. I kept working, kept pretending and stole the last few hours with her before everything inevitably fell apart.
“This looks great,” Sylvie said, surveying the decorated wagons with satisfaction. “The guests are going to love this. Thanks for helping, Kent. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
The gratitude in her voice made me feel like the worst kind of fraud.
“I should probably head up to the lodge,” she said, checking the time on her phone. “Dad’s expecting me for lunch. Wish me luck?”
She looked so hopeful, so excited about presenting what she thought was her family’s salvation. The trust in her eyes was almost physically painful to witness.
I watched her start to walk away, heading toward the lodge steps where her father was probably waiting to destroy all those hopes. My mind was screaming at me to stop her, to tell her everything before she walked into that meeting unprepared.
Right before she reached the steps, something in me snapped.
“Sylvie!” I called out.
She turned back, smiling that bright smile that I knew I was about to wipe off her face forever.
“Yeah?”
This was it. The moment where I could either do the right thing or let her walk into an ambush. The choice was mine. I knew that whatever I decided in the next few seconds would define who I really was.
