“Hmm,” he hummed against her mouth.
She pulled back. “What was that for?”
He gave her an innocent look. “What was what for? I was checking you for frostbite.”
She giggled. “I should check on you, too.” She tugged on his jacket and he willingly let her give him a thorough checkup. When they were both grinning too big to kiss properly, she released him. “I think you’ll survive.”
He walked two steps backward, his hand beating against his coat over the top of his heart to show her how much she made his heart race.
She blushed an even deeper red than the color the wind painted on her cheeks and went back to putting up their tent.
Gathering sticks and tinder didn’t take much thought, and his mind wandered to Clove. He chuckled at the juxtaposition of his feelings versus their situation. Clove glanced at him several times, a worry line between her eyebrows. When he finally had a kettle of hot water, she landed on her knees next to him. “What is up with you?” She glanced at his forehead as if she was going to check his temperature.
“I’m not delirious.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “I didn’t say you were. Is there a reason you would think that I would think you were delirious?” she asked in a forced calm voice that had him chuckling all over again. She handed him two metal mugs with cocoa mix, and he poured hot water.
“I am the luckiest man alive, and I have nothing.” He opened his arms wide to indicate the surrounding space. “No truck. No trailer. No mattress. No roof over my head. Nothing to eat but cardboard and jerky. And yet I’m the happiest I’ve ever been because I’m here with you.”
“Drake,” she whispered his name.
“I mean it, Clove. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.” He settled beside her, using the sled to lean against. She snuggled into him and they tipped their heads back to look at the stars that winked in the night sky as they sipped hot chocolate.
He kissed her stocking hat before taking a drink. The liquid was warm, and he felt it slide all the way to his stomach, where it warmed him from the inside out.
Clove was quiet for a moment, drinking and thinking. “We haven’t talked about us . . . or Felix.”
The reindeer was a shadow a dozen yards away. He dug at the snow, looking for food. As a wilderness reindeer, he knew how to fend for himself out here. Had it been any other reindeer from the ranch, they would have had to pack food for him too, and this trip wouldn’t have happened.
He looked down at Clove. She studied her drink as the steam came off the top. “I think Felix should be on the ranch.”
Drake sat with her statement, letting it roll around in his mind even as his stomach soured. Was this her way of letting him go?
She bumped him lightly. “Say something.”
“I’m confused.”
“I know I fought you about him going and crashed your trailer and all that, but I was watching Forest with Snowflake this afternoon and I’ve seen you with Felix, and then there’s Faith and Caleb and–” she shoved away from him so she could turn and look him in the eyes. “I thought you’d be happy.”
He threw back the rest of his cocoa and set his cup aside. He grabbed her shoulders. “Let me tell you what I’m hearing—because I’m not sure I like it.”
She balked.
“Hear me out,” he pushed.
She snapped her mouth closed and nodded.
“I heard you say we needed to talk about us and then you told me you wanted me to keep Felix-–as if you weren’t staying and he was.”
She shook her head quickly. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Please explain because my heart is thumping painfully and I want to tell it to calm down.”
She smiled at his words. “What I meant was, no matter what we decide about you and me-–I want Felix to stay with you.”
He shook his head, his world feeling heavy. “This isn’t getting much better.”
She sighed and wilted. “I’m not good at relationships.” She set her cup aside and focused on him. “What I’m trying to say, and this is all that I’m trying to say, is that I trust you with my reindeer.”
