“I don’t want to be only friends, either,” I say as I wrap my fingers around his chin and press my lips to his.
His arms come around me as he heaves me closer to his body. We’re kind of at an odd angle because of how we’re on the ice, but neither of us seems to care. Our lips move over each other’surgently, as though we both have been dreaming and yearning to experience this once again. Bursts of heat pop out all over my body, and the area where his hands rest on my waist burns even more.
There’s so much we’re telling each other in this kiss. How much we forgive each other, how much we mean to each other, how we never want to hurt each other ever again. There are so many regrets, so much unnecessary pain, but the two of us have gotten stronger from this ordeal. We know what it’s like to love and to lose, and we know that we never want to go through the “losing” part ever again.
I don’t know how much time passes, but our lips haven’t slowed down. It’s as though we’re trying to make up for the lost year and a half. Kylen has definitely improved since the last time we kissed, and the feelings he evokes in me are ten times what they were back then. It’s because we understand just how much we mean to each other now.
When our lips finally break apart, Kylen rests his forehead on mine. “Wow,” he breathes.
“Sorry if I was too forward,” I say. “I was wondering what it would be like to kiss you again.”
“You weren’t too forward. I wanted to kiss you for a long time,” he admits as he pulls back and looks deeply into my eyes, his face so close to mine that I feel his lips on mine as he speaks. “But I wasn’t sure if you were ready. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Thanks for being so considerate and understanding. Maybe I wasn’t ready before, but I was definitely ready now.”
“I’m glad,” he murmurs as his hand rubs soft circles on my back that sends goosebumps all over me. “But can I ask what the verdict is?”
“The verdict?”
“Am I just as good of a kisser as I was back then?”
“Do you want the honest truth?”
“The honest,” he says.
“You were like a fairytale come to life back then.”
He’s quiet, his brows furrowed like he’s not sure where I’m going with this.
“But that was a fairytale back then,” I continue. “Right now? It’s a dream come true.”
His smile is so bright that it blinds me. He pulls me even closer to his body and closes his mouth over mine. This kiss is slower and sweeter, but it still holds the longing the other kiss had.
We once again get lost in our own kissing bubble, but then Kylen’s phone beeps, breaking the spell. With a groan, he pulls it out of his pocket and scans the screen. “They found it,” he gasps.
“What?” I ask.
“I texted my grandparents this morning and asked if they could find the paper where I wrote down where my mother’s parents carved their initials into the tree. Here are the coordinates.” He shows me his phone. “I wonder if they didn’t chop down the tree and it’s still there.”
“Do you want to check it out? There’s still enough daylight.”
He gives me a sweet, heart-melting smile as he gets up and holds out his hand for me. “I can’t think of anyone else I would want to do this with.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Raven
It turns out there are more trees than we could have imagined.
It’s a hard trek through the forest because of all the snow, but both Kylen and I are determined to find his grandparents’ tree. Kylen’s using the GPS on his phone to find the coordinates.
“Almost there,” he says as he stares down at his phone with an excited expression. His other hand is holding mine and guiding me along. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of holding his hand. It means something completely different now because our whole relationship has changed after the kiss.
“Darn it’s cold,” I say as a shiver takes over my body. The temperature has dropped significantly since we left an hour ago, and it seems it will only get colder as nighttime approaches.
“Want my coat?” he offers as he lets go of my hand and reaches for the zipper.
I place my hand over his. “Heck no. You’ll get sick for sure without a coat in this weather.”
