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“Now I know you’re making it up.”
His low chuckle answered for him. “Okay, that part I made up. You don’t have to do it backward.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and thought of all the mud. “If I fall on my butt and you laugh—”
“I won’t let you fall.”
The concise promise touched her more than it should have. She pried one eye open to watch him—he stood next to her, arms outstretched, ready to catch her. The man kept his promises.
Addy took the first unsteady step.
As she continued down the path, his laugh warmed her more effectively than any Irish whiskey. “Wait, you’re straying off course. Take a step left. There you go.”
She giggled, feeling like a little kid.
“Two and a half laps to go.”
Eyes still closed, she asked, “Do I tell you my wish or is it like a birthday candle type thing?”
“Don’t tell me, or it won’t come true. Are you superstitious?”
“No. Are you?”
“A little. I spent a lot of time in Greece. Picked it up there—careful.” His hands steadied her as she lost her footing on a soggy patch of grass. “You made it one loop. Two to go.”
Addison came to a halt, her feet sinking into the mud. “Close your eyes and do it with me.”
“I don’t know if it works that way.”
“It has to. Come on.” She reached for his hand, slipping her fingers through his. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s not so hard.”
They stumbled around the Stone of Destiny together.
“How do we even know we are on the right path?” she asked as they trudged on through the sodden grass.
“I peeked a little.”
“Cheater.”
“I don’t want us to break anything.”
They completed the next circle together.
This time, he stumbled, but she caught him, righting them both before he toppled them into the muck around them.
When they finished the final loop, he pulled her into his arms, his palms warm and familiar against her cheeks as he kissed her.
When he drew back, his eyes sparkled. “Guess what?”
“What?”
“We didn’t have to close our eyes.”
He made that up? “Oliver!”
But he kissed her again, his laughter contagious.
She wanted to melt into him, to crawl into his coat and never come out, to travel back in time and change her past so that Kyle didn’t stand between them.
