Wait a minute. “Are you trying to tell me I talk too much? If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it's…”
“No, Ari. I mean, I should have been more honest the other night. About what I want.”
“What do you want?”
He exhales and smiles at me, a bigger smile than I thought Foster would be capable of.
“First I want to kiss you because you look amazing.”
My hair is wet, I’m covered in snow, my face is chapped, and I probably have icicles dangling from the false lashes I put on earlier.
“I doubt that.”
“Shut up. Nobody talks about Ariana Little like that.”
He’s got me with that. I feel my body loosen and melt in all the right places. Foster’s hands cradle my wet head, and he angles his face to kiss me urgently on the lips. The kiss is hot and frantic. It is everything.
I need to get closer. I need to feel his heat, and I need to know in my bones that I’m wanted.
Together we shed the thick down coat he gave me, then Foster pulls me close, resting my cheek against his collarbone. Sweetly, he kisses the top of my head while his arms cover me.
It’s touching how expressive this man can be when it’s only the two of us.
“I’m making your nice suit all wet,” I say, my voice muffled against the fine fabric of Foster’s jacket.
“I don’t care.”
As much as I’m enjoying this hug, I have things to say. “Foster, can I at least get out the words I came here to say?”
“Say whatever you want. I didn’t mean to make you feel like you can’t talk to me. You can always talk to me. About anything.”
“I like you, and I want to see where this goes. But I don’t want to go on dates. Dating is the jinx word. Going from single to officially dating feels forced and excruciating. I just want someone to look at me and say, ‘that’s the person I want to spend my time with.’”
Foster pulls away and cups my cheeks. “Ari, I want to spend all my time with you because, besides Rowdy, you’re the only person I’ve met so far who doesn’t drive me up a wall. I liked you from the first moment I saw you.”
“When was that?”
Remember two years ago when I opened my store?”
“Vaguely.”
“I was staying at the ski lodge because I didn’t have a place to rent yet. It was in the middle of summer, and it was empty, and the motor lodge in town was full of hikers. One night, bored out of my skull and damn tired after a long day of store set-up, I walked over to Magpie for a drink. You and Maddie were there.
“I remember that because you and she were talking about your latest disaster of a date. When I listened to the whole story, I wanted to find him and feed the guy to the coyotes.”
Maddie and I have had so many similar conversations that I couldn’t tell you which one he overheard.
I’m about to say as much when suddenly everything goes black.
I gasp, “Oh no!”
Foster’s strong hand at my waist holds me still. “It’s going to be fine. Let me see if I can find the breaker box.”
“Don’t leave me alone in the dark!”
His touch never lets go. “No way. Come on.”
Together, we meander and stumble through the labyrinth of curtains until we reach the back wall of the stage, both of us running our hands over the surface to find anything resembling a breaker box.
