They reached a crossroads, and she turned them back. She’d originally planned to do three or four miles–just like they did at home, though she wore snowshoes for those hikes. Instead, they’d get in a mile, maybe a mile and a half. Once they were home, she’d make it up to Felix and do a loop around the entire lake. Fifteen miles in a day should make him happy.
“Robyn didn’t have the Naughty and Nice radar, although she knows what you need to feel better even before you do. There was this one time. I think I was fifteen years old, and I’d tried to kiss Suzan Threadbare at the 4th of July fireworks. I missed and Suzan laughed. I went home feeling embarrassed and ashamed.”
The story suddenly got interesting, and Clove didn’t even try to hide behind Felix. Her eyes dropped to Drake's lips, well what she could see of them in profile, since he looked ahead as he spoke.
“The Kringles spent their summers with us on the ranch back then. I think their parents hoped we’d all fall in love and keep everything in the family, ya know?”
“Didn’t you?” she blurted. Heaven help her, she was such a sucker for a romance story. Just because she hadn’t had a good one of her own didn’t mean she didn’t like to hear, read, or watch them.
He barely glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, which was a good thing. If he’d given her all his attention, she would have shrunk away. His brown eyes were too intense, too observant, too probing into her soul, thank you very much.
“Robyn, who’s older than me by a few years, met me on the porch with a cool glass of strawberry lemonade and a side hug. She assured me that it wouldn’t be long before the girls lined up to kiss me. Coming from someone who was older and wiser and so pretty, I believed her.”
Clove harrumphed. “Of course you did.”
He and Felix chuckled. “Women have a lot of power over us men.” He turned then and their eyes met. Clove stopped walking, the connection between her brain and her feet frazzled by the electricity surging between her and Drake.
Felix continued on, oblivious to what was going on inside of her.
Drake stopped too, and soon there was nothing between them.
“What power?” she whispered.
He stepped into her space in one long-legged stride. He had to be over six-feet tall because she tipped her head up to maintain eye contact. “You don’t know?” he asked, his voice low and intimate and deeper than she’d heard it before.
He bit the end of his glove and pulled it off his hand before feathering his finger across her nose. His hands were warm, and she fought the urge to lean into them. “You have three freckles.”
She wrinkled her nose, and he smiled. His eyes crinkled at the corners. She wanted to reach up and smooth them out.
“I like them,” he added.
“Thanks,” she pressed out of her too tight rib cage. She couldn’t get enough air to breathe. It all smelled like Drake’s aftershave or cologne or body spray or whatever it was he used to torment her.
He stepped back to put his glove back on.
Cold rushed in to replace him, and she shivered. Felix had stopped several paces away and watched them with interest. She gulped, feeling bare in front of his knowing gaze.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she accused lightly.
Drake shook his head. “Oh, I answered.”
Her lips formed an oh, but no sound came out.
He walked up to Felix and patted his side. “Make sure she gets home safe?”
Felix lifted a hoof and dropped it:Yep.
Clove stared after Drake, realizing after a moment that she was watching his backside. And what a nice view it was. Rolling her eyes at herself, she managed to rip herself away and turn back around. They’d get that four miles in today, after all.
Felix caught up with her and bumped her:He totally answered you.
“Yeah. Yeah.” She lightly shoved him. “Not one more word, reindeer.”
He lifted his chin and looked away from her.
Clove drew in a breath. She wasn’t sure what to think about Drake. He came off as this ultra confident bad boy who could get away with kidnapping a reindeer and her grandma, invade her personal space, like her freckles, and tame her reindeer in a way she couldn’t. Yet his story spoke of a slightly awkward teen; and the snow angel with Colter said he was still a kid at heart.
Who was he really?
