And she did. She knew that he felt the same undeniable pull toward her that she felt toward him, despite knowing each other for a couple of days. Sometimes you just knew right off the bat that you could trust someone. She felt that way about Deckard.
“Okay,” she whispered as he released her arm and silently commanded that she stay in her seat.
His profile looked so strong and masculine as he passed the front of the vehicle and January couldn’t believe that he was unattached. Except, she didn’t really know that, just assumed. For all she knew, he had a woman waiting for him back home in Atlanta.
She didn’t have a chance to ponder his singleness because Deckard opened the door to the truck and lifted her out of the seat, kissing her forehead as he set her on her feet.
As he stepped toward the bed of the truck to grab the supplies, January’s eyelids squeezed together until just the smallest of slits remained. The fresh powder that had fallen from the night before acted like a mirror as the sun shone down on it, practically blinded anyone looking directly at the ground.
Automatically her hand reached up to hang over her eyes as she waited for them to adjust to the light, but she was saved when Samantha held out her hand with another pair of sunglasses.
January gladly took them from her friend. “Thanks.”
Sliding the frames onto her face, January immediately felt relief from the bright sun. She wondered if Deckard had a pair in his truck, and as he approached, she noticed he was wearing a pair of Wayfarers.
She licked her lips as she took him in. He had removed his coat and watching him strut toward her and Samantha in a dark red sweater that was pulled taut against his chest and arms. His dark jeans looked like they were made to fit perfectly around his muscled thighs. Even the gray scarf he kept tossed around his neck only added to his sex appeal.
January was a goner. She didn’t even feel the chill in the air as she watched him take each step closer.
“Wipe away the drool,” Samantha whispered and January shushed her. “Not that I blame you. Because, damn,” her friend added.
Deckard held the ax and bag across one of his shoulders while his other arm came up and wrapped around January.
“Ready?” he asked them both.
Just as January began to take a step, Samantha reached out and held her back. “Deckard, why don’t you go ahead and we’ll be right behind you. We need to catch up.”
At January’s look of horror, Deckard began to laugh. “Sure. Just don’t dawdle too long.”
The women watched as he walked away, whistling an unfamiliar tune as he went. January was sure both of them were staring at Deckard’s backside with every step he took.
“Girl, you are one lucky woman. That man is delicious.”
“He really is. I don’t even know why I said no to him in the first place.”
Her comment broke both of them free from the butt-induced trance they were in and Samantha looked up at her. “You were scared of getting hurt again. I get it.”
“I’m going to get hurt again anyway, but I’ll be prepared this time.”
“Maybe he’ll surprise you.”
January was hoping that maybe she could convince him to stay and not go back home to Atlanta, but she knew he had a business to run. He had mentioned while they were searching through articles that morning that he had applied for a loan to open his own practice. It was what he had always wanted to do. But, she surmised, she could enjoy Deckard while he was in town.
As they began to walk, Samantha asked, “So tell me how all of this happened?”
“With Christmas?”
“No, you told me about the wish and ornament on the phone. And it totally seems plausible, knowing you. But what I want to know are the juicy details leading up to all of it. Like how are you and Deckard together at all?”
January smiled as they began walking and she gave her friend a rundown on the past two days. She loved Samantha’s reaction when she mentioned answering the door to Deckard in just a shirt and flashing the man her panties when she fell. And both women had to fan their faces when she described their kiss after dinner.
“Man, I’m just going to live vicariously through you. Grayson is great, but we’ve never had anything heated like that.”
“But you guys just started dating,” January claimed and Samantha pinned her with a steely gaze that she could sense through the sunglasses both women were wearing. “Okay, I get your point,” she added, realizing that she and Deckard had just started dating as well. But it didn’t feel like it. Whatever they had was something more potent than any year-long relationship she’d ever been in.
Silence followed as they kept a step a few yards behind Deckard until he came to a stop and turned toward them. They were standing in a beautiful clearing in the middle of the forest. It was something out of a fairytale.
“So, how do we do this?”