“Oh my God,” she half whispers, half squeals, dropping my hand and darting over to the pen. “Look at them!”
We lean over and stare at the adorable baby goats wandering around the pen.
“These babies were just born a week ago. We named them after Santa’s reindeer.” Someone wearing a hoodie with the farm’s logo on it comes over and opens the latch on the pen. “Have you ever cuddled a baby goat?”
Lark’s mouth falls open. “No.”
I nudge her with my hip. “Go on, Birdie.”
She stumbles into the pen after the farm worker and holds out her arms as they place a brown and white baby goat in her embrace. Turning slowly, she gives me a tremulous smile, her eyes shining with joy. “Dan. I’m holding a baby goat,” she whispers.
I lift my phone up and snap a few photos before answering. “Lucky goat.”
She giggles and brings the goat closer so I can give its head a scratch. “This is the most amazing day ever.”
Yep, that fills me with pride. I might have no dating experience, but that doesn’t matter as long as I can make one woman happy.Thiswoman.
After a few more minutes, Lark sets the baby down and leaves the pen. We wander around looking at the other animals — bunnies, pigs, chickens, and sheep. And at the very end, in a large indoor paddock, stands a massive horse.
“Holy crap.”
“He used to pull the carriages around Stanley Park,” I tell her, familiar with the horse’s history from years of coming here with my parents. “The farm bought him when he retired, to let him live out his years being loved on by everyone who comes to visit.”
Lark reaches out her hand and strokes the long nose of the giant who has ambled over to greet us.
“He’s gorgeous.”
It does something to me, seeing Lark fall in love with the place I’ve come to for so long with my family. My memories of coming here are nothing but happy, and if I can give her that, then my work here is done.
When the horse wanders off to greet some kids who have approached his paddock, we take that as our cue to leave. The water at the handwashing station outside the barn is freezing cold, and after using it, Lark starts to rub her hands together to try and warm them up.
I lead her over to one of the bonfires and take her hands in mine. “Let me.” I rub them briskly. Lark steps in close, her body almost touching mine. She pulls our hands into her chest and rises up on her toes.
“Thank you, Dan.”
That’s all she says before her lips land on mine. Tasting faintly of hot chocolate, and a sweetness that is all her own, Lark Miller kisses me.
I release her hands so I can cup the back of her neck, holding her to me as I take a chance, teasing her lips with my tongue. Conscious of the fact that there are a lot of kids around, and the fact that I don’t really know what I’m doing, I keep it light, taking things only slightly deeper. But the feel of her body pressed against me, her soft lips under mine, the fucking magic of this entire day has my dick starting to harden, yet again. And I know she feels it when she pulls her head back and gives me a coy smile.
She opens her mouth to say something just as a big white snowflake lands on her nose.
“Oh my God, it’s snowing,” she says, casting her gaze upward in delight. She might be staring at the snow starting to fall, but I can’t stop staring at her.
And when her head tilts back down, and she beams that smile my way, I know there will never be another woman for me.
Lark is my lobster. My swan. My penguin.
I lean down and kiss her again as snow falls around us. And the only reason I manage to eventually tear myself away from her is the knowledge that this isn’t a dream, and there will be more chances to kiss her.
That and the fact that my toes are going numb.
Chapter nineteen
Lark
If everyone in the world could see Dan Montgomery dancing around his living room, Christmas music playing as he drapes lights across his mantle, they would fall even more in love with him than they are already.
He’s known as the golden boy of the team. Always smiling, always having a good time. But that happiness feels dialed up to a thousand today, and I feel like the luckiest woman on earth to get to see it.
