Nick bit back a grin. “You make me sound as if I’m an impossible braggart.”
“Perhaps. But as you can see, I don’t seem to mind all that much.”
Nick’s heart thumped as they danced. First this waltz, then after a short break, a polka. And then finally, after what felt like hours, another waltz. Willa was in high spirits, clearly enjoying herself, and Nick looked forward to their banter each time he stepped out onto the floor with her. As the band played its final strains, Nick didn’t know when he’d enjoyed a ball so much.
“May I see you home?” he asked Willa as he gathered their coats. Holt Morgan had already left, but not without taking Nick aside and asking if he would ensure Willa returned to the hotel safely.
“It would be awfully awkward if I said no, considering we’re headed in the same direction.” She shot him a smile as he helped her with her coat.
“If you said no, I might be headed to the nearest saloon to drown my sorrows instead.”
Willa laughed. “Well, we can’t be having that, so I suppose you might escort me back to the hotel.”
There was something genuine about her teasing. She wasn’t trying to manipulate him, as he’d often found the ladies at home had when they did the same. Instead, Willa seemed to truly be enjoying his company and was completely unafraid to let her true personality shine. The personality that had cornered him when they’d first arrived in town. He liked that she felt she could be herself with him.
Outside, the snow still fell silently, bathing the usually churned-up roads in white. “Why don’t you wait back inside, and I’ll see if I can’t hire a carriage from the livery?”
“Thank you, but I’d much rather walk. I love the snow, and it’s such a quiet, beautiful night.” Willa turned her face up toward the gently drifting flakes. She looked like a princess, even in the old coat covering her beautiful dress.
“As you wish,” Nick said as he offered her his arm.
They walked the short distance to the hotel, and just as they reached the corner, Willa said, “You’re a much better person than I thought you were at first. I’m sorry if I acted rudely toward you when we first met.”
Nick helped her onto the sidewalk, and then stopped and turned toward her. “You have nothing to apologize for. You were merely defending your father against a . . . What did you call me? An insufferable doctor.”
She smiled, her cheeks going pink. Nick didn’t know if it was from the cold or from his teasing, but he couldn’t resist running a hand over one of them. Even with the barrier of his glove between them, the action made Willa’s eyes flutter shut.
“Willa Rousseau,” he said.
She opened her eyes, dark and round in the faint light that came from the lamps lining the street. “Yes?” Her voice was pitched a little lower than normal.
Nick swallowed, taking in the perfect lines and curves of her face. The freckles so pale, one couldn’t see them unless he was this close to her. The arch of her eyebrows. And the slight way her lips parted. “You are the most fascinating and most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.”
His words seemed to take her by surprise. “I am?”
“You are.”
She smiled, and with that, he didn’t care one whit that they were standing on a sidewalk outside the hotel. No one was about, anyway. The attendees to the dance had all hurried home, and even the miners who kept the saloons in business were safely tucked away inside, out of the falling snow. Out here, it was just Nick and Willa, the snow drifting down from heaven just for them.
He moved his hand to her jaw and tilted her chin up. Only a few more inches, and he could place his lips against hers. He moved closer, pausing in case she didn’t wish for this to happen. When she didn’t step back or push him away, he dipped his head lower, until his lips brushed against hers. Willa drew in a sharp breath, and just as he feared she’d come to her senses, instead she lifted herself onto her toes and met him.
The creak of the hotel’s door pierced the moment, just before Nick let the kiss happen.
What was he doing? He jerked his head up and stepped back. Before him, Willa drooped like a flower in the first frost, just as a pale, haggard man with an untrimmed beard stepped out onto the sidewalk.
“Willa?” the man said, and with a jolt of recognition, Nick realized he was looking at her father.
