“He didn’t give you any trouble, did he?” Remi was used to wearing sweaters, but normally, I was the one that put them on.
Alistair scratched Remi’s chin, the cat practically melting under his touch. “He was a perfect angel. Just like he always is. Come stand over here. I have my phone set up.”
Alistair’s phone was propped against a stack of records pointed at the fireplace. I threw my hair up into a clip and joined the two of them.
Alistair wrapped his free arm around my shoulder, and I rested mine on the small of his back.
“You ready?” he asked.
I fluffed my bangs and adjusted my glasses. “How are you going to take the picture from all the way over here?”
“I have a Bluetooth button. That’s how I take selfies on hiking trips.”
“Technology.”
He chuckled. “Alright, on the count of three. One, two, three.”
I stared at the camera and smiled, genuinely smiled, because I was here with him. Wearing matching sweaters and taking pictures with my boyfriend and my cat.
It was every cat lover’s dream.
Alistair set Remi down and rushed over to his phone. Sliding his finger across the screen, he said, “Holy shit, these are adorable.”
I walked over to him, wrapping my hands around his arm and pulling his phone down so I could see the pictures.
Alistair and I looked adorable, the two of us in our sweaters and snow pants, holding one another and smiling brightly. Remi was gazing up at Alistair with complete and utter adoration. A look he’d only shown one other person: me.
It was perfect.
“Can you send me that?” I asked and my phone vibrated in my pocket.
“Already done, sweetheart. You ready to have some fun?”
“Yep. The suspense is killing me.”
We put on our coats and Alistair led me through the garage, around the back of the house, and down to a large storage shed. He had already shoveled a path, so I didn’t have to trudge through the deep snow.
He stopped in front of the shed. “Close your eyes, babe.”
I did as he asked, enjoying the fact that he was excited and building this up so much.
The rolling door to the shed slid up with a loud clang.
“Open your eyes.”
Sitting in the center of the shed was a shiny minotaur-size snowmobile with two helmets hanging from the handlebars.
Alistair stood next to it with his hands on his hips, grinning wide. “Thought you might like to take a little ride through the mountains.”
“Uh, yes, please.” My body pressed up against Alistair’s while we zoomed around the mountainside? I was sold.
He pushed the snowmobile down a ramp into the snow. Taking one of the helmets off the handlebars, he passed it to me. “Put this on. Safety first.”
I looked at the slip-on helmet, then up at Alistair. “How is that going to work for you?”
He undid the clasps on the sides of his helmet, pulling it into two separate pieces. “It clasps around my horns like this.”
Bringing both pieces up to his head, he clicked them together and secured the clasps with a snap. “See,” he mumbled.
