Laughter shoots out of her nose, her hands cupping her face. “You saw that?”
“I heard it first, to be fair.”
Rosalie rubs her fingers over her closed eyes. “You’re—” she begins.
“Handsome, charming, funny…I know.”
And I love to make her roll her eyes.
“Is that why you felt the need to drag me outside in the freezing cold tonight?”
I drop my hands into my pockets and roll back on my heels. “No. You said something to my mother this morning—something I’ve been reciting in my head all day.”
She looks confused, her brows knit together. “I don’t know what I said…”
“You said: ‘Live in the moment, breathe in the time, and let tomorrow be a mystery,’” I recite.
“Oh,” she says, her response a single note.
“Well, I took your advice, and now I’m living in the moment…”
“I see,” she says, biting her bottom lip as I’m wondering what precise thought is going through her mind now.
“I know you don’t have a reason to think much of me or even wonder what I’m thinking when I look at you, but at the same time, I have a feeling that, maybe, you might think of me the way I think about you. Like we could be the only two people left in this world.”
“Stefan, you live on top of a hill. There aren’t other people up here.” She continues to joke, and jab, her only defense against me when I can clearly see she’s losing her grip on a crumbling ledge.
“My parents adore you. Even Eloise—I heard her tell a friend she was your new closest friend, which is quite adorable coming from her.”
“And what is it you’ve been thinking—” she says with a shiver, her jaw stiffening. “What have you been thinking when you look at me?”
I curl my hand around her elbow, bringing her in closer. “I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen and…I look forward to seeing you after work. And worse, I eat up your insults like they’re compliments no one’s ever given me. You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever known, and I’m fascinated by it. By you.”
My heart thunders as if I’m walking on a tightrope over a canyon. Taking a risk, one I can’t undo. But time—it lives by no rules. She’s made that clear.
“Stefan, don’t be ridiculous,” she says with a scoff. “I’m—I’m—look at me…I’m nothing special. Just the daughter of a clock tower operator.”
“I am looking at you. All I’ve been doing…is looking at you.”
Her gaze catches on mine and though my knees might give out from my fraying nerves, I know there’s no turning back fromthis moment. I stare at her, so deeply, desperate to read her thoughts.
“I think—you’re the most—” she says.
I tighten my hand around her elbow, bracing for whatever words come out of her mouth. “The most what?”
The flutter of her lashes tells me to slip my arm behind her back, feeling her warmth radiate through the blanket. I gaze down at her, my hair falling loose over my eyes.
“Delusional man—” she utters.
Her words are like sparks to a match—a magnetizing pull I can’t restrain myself from any longer. I take her lips with mine, folding her into my arms. We stumble and I brace my hand behind her before falling against a tree. I sweep my other hand up the side of her neck, over her ear, cradling her head. I hold her tighter, deepening the kiss as my heart threatens to detonate like wild fireworks. The warmth of her chest against mine, a fire’s heat in the cold. She curls her hands around my arms, holding on with a tight grip—like that crumbling ledge. But I won’t break. I won’t let her fall. Not now, not ever.
When I remember we need to breathe, our lips part, and the silence snakes around us as our gazes lock. “Do you feel that?” I ask her.
“I feel everything,” she utters. “More than I can explain.”
“Everything?” I ask, my voice barely a breath. “Try…”
She shakes her head gently. “The tremor in your left hand.”
