“Then stop thinking.” Tara closed the distance between them. She felt his ready smile beneath her lips before he angled his head to take her mouth more firmly.
She lost her balance. She, who could dance her way through a room in the dark, felt her world tilt. Her hands slid up his chest to lock behind his neck, his solid, steady warmth an anchor she was in no hurry to relinquish. His patient, coaxing kiss chased away all the strain, all the nerves, all the worry that shaped her days, leaving nothing behind but a heady sense of being young and alive and wanted.
Jace eased back, pressing his brow to hers. “Well, now I’ll be able to concentrate through dinner.”
T
ara laughed. “Speak for yourself.”
One arm still around her waist, he marched her toward the door. “Come on, vixen, let’s get some food before my chivalry runs out.”
Jace kept his fingers laced with hers on the drive into town. Tara liked how small her hand felt in his. Liked, too, how easy he was with her, despite the attraction simmering between them. By tacit agreement, once they left the farm, neither of them mentioned the kids. Tonight they were just two twenty-somethings out on the town.
Jace was, unsurprisingly, an attentive date. They garnered a few raised eyebrows during their dinner at Speakeasy Pizzaria, a few smiles as they were spotted strolling hand in hand across the town green, walking off the sausage and mushroom pie they’d split before the show. With ample time before curtain, Tara towed him down toward the fountain, despite the frigid air.
The water in the basin was frozen, only the barest of trickles leaking down the center. A scattering of coins lay on the ice, covered in frost.
“Want to make a wish?” he asked.
Tara shook her head. “I already did. A few weeks ago.”
“No follow ups?”
Tara slid her arms around his waist in a hug. “No need. You gave me both.”
Jace angled his head. “What’d you wish for?”
“I wished that I could give Austin and Ginny the kind of Christmas they deserve. Last year was their first one without Dad. We were still getting to know each other and they were grieving and it was...less than awesome. Raising two kids and an adult on a barista’s wages plus a few extras isn’t easy. So it was pretty spare, as holidays go. And this year we have you and your amazing family and they’re happy—truly happy. I can’t repay you for that.”
“You don’t—”
“I know I don’t have to. I know that’s not why you did it. But I’m just so grateful you came into our lives.” And standing here with his arms around her, it was easier to believe that maybe that wasn’t a temporary thing.
“I’m feeling pretty damned lucky myself at the moment. You said both. What was the other wish?”
She ducked her head. “It’s stupid.”
“You wished it, so it isn’t stupid. Tell me.”
“I wished that I could be a normal girl. Just for a little while.”
“You didn’t wish to dance again?”
“That seemed like reaching. And it felt selfish. But the chance to just be normal, without the worries and the burdens. You’ve gone out of your way to give me that. And it feels wholly inadequate to say thank you—which I know I’ve already done ad nauseum—but I just...I don’t know how to tell you what that means to me. It seems like so much for you to do for only a smile.”
Jace tightened his hold on her and rubbed his cold nose against hers. “I might have wanted a little more than a smile...”
Laughter burbled up and she brushed a quick kiss against his lips.
“Totally worth it.” He reached one hand up, stroking a thumb across her cheek. “No sad eyes.”
“Definitely not tonight,” she agreed, leaning in to press her cheek to his, chilled skin to chilled skin. “How is it you see what no one else does?”
“Mmm?”
Tara pulled back. “No one else noticed that I was sad. Or if they did, they certainly didn’t say anything or try to do something about it. Why did you?”
Something flickered in his face, a mix of regret and memory. “I recognize heartbreak when I see it. And I couldn’t, in good conscience, stand by and not try to do something about it. It’s sort of my Achilles heel.”