Chapter 18
On New Year’s Day, I snack out of the house while everyone else was still sleeping.
Jax picked me up for a surprise hike at Theodore Wirth Regional Park–one of the few decent elevation spots in Minneapolis, though “mountain was definitely a generous term for what Minnesotans consider a hill.
By the time we reached the lookout point, I was embarrassingly out of breath. Months of college dining hall food and zero exercise had clearly taken their toll.
He handed me his fancy insulated water bottle, and after gulping down half of it, I gazed out at the frost–covered landscape and frozen lake below. “You know,” I said breaking our comfortable silence, “you never actually told me why you started liking me.”
“Do people usually have PowerPoint presentations ready for that question?” He smiled, that crooked half grin that still made my stomach flip like I was fourteen again. “You probably don’t realize it, but you’re literally the worst actress ever. You’ve been sneaking glances at me since we were kids Remember how you’d always ‘accidentally have an extra candy bar or cookie that you’d insist I take? Then in high school, you got all defensive–like that time at the Minnesota meetup when you pretended you could handle beer even though your face screamed “this is disgusting.”
“I kept thinking, who is this weirdly adorable girl? I found myself watching you too. Then that day playing pool at Jake’s place, I had this moment where I was like, “Wait, when did Liana Frost get so hot?”
I maintained a deadpan expression before reaching up to pinch his cheek hard. “You’re such a creep”
He leaned down and kissed me, his hps warm despite the January chill.
“What? You’re saying you don’t like creeps who notice your legs?”
I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up, feeling lighter than I had in weeks.
Back at home. Rosalia had been a Category 5 hurricane of drama. Mom and Dad were visibly worn down by her tantrums, but family ties aren’t something you can just cut when they become inconvenient.
They were exhausted but trapped in their parental obligation.
I felt it too–emotionally drained every time I walked through that front door, but unable to completely disconnect.
Jax suddenly squeezed my gloved hand, his breath forming little clouds between us. “Hey, Frost. Happy New Year.”
I smiled up at him, feeling that warm glow that only he seemed able to create inside me. “Happy New Year, Xavier.”
The Minnesota winter air was bracingly clean, so cold it almost bust to breathe, but in that clarifying way that makes you feel alive.
Life throws a lot of disappointments your way–my family had certainly given me more than my share. But sometimes, just one thing going unexpectedly right can balance out everything else.
He was my unexpected right thing, the bright spot in a picture that had too many shadows.
h
As we stood there, his arm around my gets something perfectly right.
y shoulder, I leaned into him and thought about how sometimes the universe gets it wrong, but occasionally, it
