I nod.
He rests his hand on the carving again. “I can feel how much love they had for each other as they carved this into the tree. They were about to be separated because of college, but they knew they would find their way back to each other. I’m reminded of all the stories they used to share with me. Both of them said that this is their favorite memory.”
“It’s so sweet and romantic,” I say. “Their love will last forever.”
Kylen nods, then steps back and studies it. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Very.”
We’re both quiet for a beat as we continue gazing at the carving. Then Kylen slowly turns his head to me and offers me a shy smile. “Do you want to carve our initials into it?”
I gape at him like I’m not sure I heard him correctly. “Really? Of course! I wouldlovethat.”
His face perks up with elation, and then he looks around the area. “What should we use? I don’t have a pocketknife or anything.”
“Maybe a sharp piece of stone?” I suggest. “It’ll be hard to find anything in all this snow, though.”
That doesn’t seem to stop him. He falls to his knees and starts digging through the ice, though it’s a little hard to do that because the snow is frozen. I lower myself to the ground and help him, not caring that ice is seeping in through my gloves.
We work for a good few minutes until Kylen finds a stone with a sharp edge. But when he tests it on another tree, he’s dismayed to learn that it’s not sharp enough to cut into the bark.
“Don’t give up,” I tell him as I continue to dig. “There has to be something here we can use.”
It’s starting to get a little dark now, and a part of me wonders if this is futile. Should we just leave and come back later with a knife? But I don’t know if we’ll have time to come back tomorrow morning.
“I got it!” Kylen announces. He once again tests it on the other tree, and then he throws me a big smile. “It works.”
I get up from the icy ground and move over to him. He managed to carve an “R” into the tree, and it’s pretty deep. “Nice,” I tell him.
He slips his hand into mine and leads me back to his grandparents’ tree. “Do you want to carve in your own initials?” he asks.
I shake my head. “You go ahead.”
He nods before focusing on the tree. He touches the area underneath his grandparents’ names, trying to figure out how much distance to put between them so it doesn’t look too crowded. Then he moves closer and bites his lower lip as he begins to carve an “R.”
He puts so much hard work and dedication into it, as though this is one of the most important things he’s ever done in his life. When he’s done, he moves back to survey his work. The letters “RM+KB” are carved in such defined and beautiful detail, and he put a heart on either side of the initials as opposed to a huge heart around the letters because there wouldn’t be enough room for it.
He comes to stand next to me, once again locking his hand through mine. “I love it,” I tell him. “Our initials look perfect together.”
“I agree,” he says with a sweet smile.
I close my arms around him and press my cheek to his. “Thanks so much for all of this, Kylen. It means so much to me.”
“It means so much to me, too, especially that it’s here with my grandparents’. They’ll always be with me.”
“Yes.”
He leans closer and places a soft kiss on my lips. “Thanks so much for coming here with me, Raven. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.”
“I’ll go with you wherever you want,” I promise.
He presses his forehead to mine and murmurs, “And I’ll go with you wherever you want.”
***
“About time you got back!” Carly exclaims when I walk into the room about two hours later.
“Were you out with Kylen all this time?” Sophie asks.
