Page 24 of Avalanche (Endless Winter #3)

Lily

I’m feeling strangely light as I make my way up the steps to the condo, like I’m one smile away from defying gravity. I trail my fingertips over the metal railing and barely feel the cold.

Tessa and I had spent the afternoon doing tree runs, seeking out fresh pockets of powder beneath snow-laden branches, laughing until the sun kissed the tops of the mountain, until rock and snow and pine were painted purple against a cotton candy sky.

“Your riding has gotten heaps better,” she’d told me, as we tumbled out from the trees onto a cat track, my board only inches behind hers.

“I don’t think you’re far off being able to pass the riding side of the exam.

And you should be fine with the teaching stuff—I’ve seen you with your students and you’re great.

Your demos too. You’ll just want to study all the technical stuff.

See if Liam has an old manual you can look at. ”

She’d thrown me a smile then, a teasing flash of white against wind-flushed cheeks. “And you might want to get your other boyfriend to check out your board. The rental shop guy… what’s his name? You took a mean core shot going over that rock back there.”

I grin up at our condo, Tessa’s words echoing in my ears. Your other boyfriend . She’d said it teasingly, but there hadn’t been any judgment in it, not even the faintest hint of disapproval.

Those guys are totally in love with you.

My stomach flips, nervous anticipation and excitement swirling like snowflakes caught in a storm. I slow my steps, lingering on the last five stairs that lead up to our landing. I tell myself that it’s just my tired legs, that it’s my muscles burning from a day out on the snow.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about what Tessa said.

About those heady moments yesterday when I’d spilled out my truth, thrown out my ‘ I love yous ’ with all the blind eagerness of a pre-teen with her first crush.

About crying into my pillow in the early hours of the morning, certain I was fucking everything up.

But I’m not. And it’s okay that Liam and Antoine didn’t say it back.

Love isn’t some synchronized dance, with everyone taking the same steps at the same moment, following some music only they can hear.

It’s messy. It’s chasing each other through snowdrifts and trees, calling out, laughing, then bursting with gratitude when you finally manage to tumble into each other’s arms.

And the soundtrack isn’t song, but a thousand awkward conversations.

Which is why I’m lingering on the landing outside the door, my eyes stinging from more than the cold, my heart racing. I’ve been avoiding those awkward conversations all day. And it’s time I face them.

I draw in a deep breath, gather up my courage, and step inside.

The first thing that hits me is the warmth, the welcoming embrace of heating turned up a little too high and too many bodies packed into a small living space. I relax instinctively at the feel, at the sense of coming home, and pull the door shut behind me, blocking out the evening cold.

It’s only when I bend to untie my boots that I notice everything else.

There’s soft music playing—not the usual drum and bass that Eddie likes to listen to, or Seth’s lulling indie rock that he puts on while he cooks—but something sweet and instrumental and completely out of place.

Candles flicker, dancing merrily as Christmas lights on every surface, interspersed with water glasses brimming with bouquets of flowers.

The condo smells sweet too, like a mixture of citrus cleaning products and rose petals.

“Let me get that for you.”

I start in surprise when Liam appears from literally out of nowhere to help me out of my jacket, pulling it off my shoulders with the reticent look of someone acting under duress.

“Thanks?” I try not to smile, but a small chuffing laugh slips out anyway, earning me a narrowed-eyed look.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I hear Eddie hiss at someone from the kitchen. “It’s a bottle of champagne, not a schooner of beer.”

I look up, then blink in confusion when I find I can see all the way into the kitchen. To where Eddie, Seth and Antoine are huddled at the counter.

“What happened to the wall of beer cans?” I ask Liam with alarm.

They’d been so proud of that monstrosity when I first arrived, carefully stacking new cans every chance they could get, turning them so the labels showed. Eddie had even taken the whole thing down once and rearranged it so the cans made a sort of pattern.

“Well, why don’t you open it?” Seth snaps back at Eddie, the tone a stark contrast from his usual steady cadence. “Since you’re apparently the master sommelier.”

“Simmer down mate, simmer down?—”

“Shh,” Antoine cuts in, casting a frantic look over his shoulder, meeting my eyes with a sort of guilty panic. “She’s here.”

She’s here?

“Fuck. Just let me pour it. Give it here.”

“Someone needs to go get Matty.”

“Nah, mate. Turn the music up, remember. That’s his cue.”

I straighten, my back pressed against the closed door and slowly kick off my unlaced boots. I look around the condo again, this time more carefully, my mind racing as the meaning of what I’m seeing settles over my skin.

A champagne cork pops. Glasses clink. Music gets louder.

“Where is he? I turned the music up.”

“Just wait.”

“I think you should go get him.”

Beside me, Liam throws my jacket unceremoniously onto the pile of coats in the corner, pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a long-suffering sigh.

A door creaks in the darkened hallway and the murmuring dies off, silenced until the only sound is the thundering of my heart and the crooning wail of a saxophone through a Bluetooth speaker.

Matty appears from the shadows, blond hair aglow in the light of his open bedroom, expression cast in serious determination as he strides towards me.

“Matty?” My voice punches out of me in a breathless whisper as he approaches, my heart flying to my throat as all the previous trills of amusement at the guys’ antics flatten to stillness.

Matty pulls to a stop a few paces away from me, looks down nervously at the suit he’s wearing, then glances over his shoulder to the kitchen.

To where Antoine, Seth and Eddie are staring at the pair of us, nearly identical looks of anticipation written across their faces.

Eddie gives him a reassuring smile, an encouraging nod.

Seth worries his lower lip with his teeth.

The thundering behind my ribs ratchets up, sending stars dancing in the periphery of my vision. I lean back against the closed door for support, my palms splayed behind me.

Matty turns back to look at me, hope and fear swirling like a storm-cast ocean in his blue eyes. His lips part, throat bobbing as he takes me in, looking at my wind-mussed braids and worn sweater and blue jeans with all the reverent adoration of a prince meeting his princess at a ball.

Someone turns down the music, saxophone fading to the background until I swear, I can hear the hammering of Matty’s pulse as well as my own.

He drops to one knee and I forget how to breathe.

He pulls something out of his pocket, holds it out to me, his face upturned, angled towards me like a flower following the sun. I find myself so caught up in his expression, in the open beauty of him, the raw hunger and wild hopefulness, that it takes me a moment to look at what he’s holding.

A ring, with five little diamonds sparkling like snowflakes in a slim gold band.

“Lily Dean, you’ve only known me a couple of months.

I know it’s probably too soon. I know people normally know each other for years before getting married.

I don’t have much to offer you either, except for myself, and sometimes that’s not much at all.

But I’ve known you were it for me from day one.

Since the first day of snowboard training, when you sat across from me at the table during our break.

One of the guys asked me—you probably don’t remember, but he asked me what my type was, and I remember looking at you and thinking her .

That girl right there, with the braids and that gorgeous smile and those eyes that see right into my soul, that’s my type . ”

“I remember,” I whisper around a smile. “You said you liked blondes.”

He winces. “Shoot. I did, didn’t I?” He gives a small chuckle and pink creeps up to the tips of his ears.

“I was terrified to say I liked brunettes because I was sure they would know I meant you. And then when you said you were looking for a place to live… Lily, I thought I was going to die right then and there. Not because I was planning on making any moves or anything?—”

I have to bite back the grin that threatens at those words, at the frantic way Matty tries to explain himself, because I know they’re true.

I felt the way he trembled the first time I kissed him, saw the look of wide-eyed awe spread across his face when I first touched him.

I can’t even imagine him daring to make a move on me. Not then.

Now, though…

“It was just that I’d get to see you each day.

That I’d get to know you. Sure, a little part of me thought maybe .

Maybe she’ll like me . But I couldn’t even imagine it.

Not then. You were like…” he makes a gesture with his free hand, holding it up above his head like some high-water mark.

“And me. Well, I’m just me.” He huffs, the corners of his lips curving with a sort of self-deprecating amusement.

“And then you kissed me.”

His smile falters, amusement giving way to a calm sort of reverence.

“And I knew. I knew that I’d do anything to keep you.

To make you mine. I looked at you and I saw forever.

I looked at you and everything I’d ever done, all the things I’ve seen, every moment—it all made sense. Because it brought me to you.”