Page 66 of Merry Fake Bride

Suddenly, she unbuckles her seatbelt and as I surge forward with a spike of worry, she only crawls across the next two seats and starts murmuring in Martin’s ear.

After a brief conversation I’m denied any hint of, she slips back into her seat with a knowing smirk.

“What was all that about?”

“You’ll see, Mr. Stuffy No Time for the World.”

“I have time, it’s just work is?—”

“Blah, blah.” Devon cuts me off gently. “If we’re going to be married and you’re giving me all this money to help me, the least I can do is remind you not to take things so seriously. Think of it as part of your therapy to step out of your father’s shadow.”

Before long, the car pulls to a stop and I climb out expecting to see Devon’s home.

Instead, we’re parked on a small stone bridge with snow blanketing the bridge barriers.

There are trees as far as I look in every direction, and thick, fat snowflakes lazily drift past me as Devon appears at my side.

The wind is sharp enough to seep directly through my coat, so I huddle inside it and follow her to the edge of the bridge.

“Where are we?”

She leans her elbows against the railing and peers down to a small stream that’s completely frozen over, but lights woven around the underside of the bridge and several nearby bushes light the ice up like glittering crystals.

“We’re on the other side of my town, where the forest is the thickest. I used to come here and race sticks with my dad. I always lost.”

Devon chuckles. “This stream is nothing like the rivers you have in the city. It’s small, but it means a lot to a lot of people. I caught my first fish here, lost more races than I care to count. Just upstream, there’s a perfectly flat stone you can use to cross, and I sprained my ankle when I slipped on it. People come here for all sorts of reasons, which is why the lights get set up. Solar-powered to help guide people home if they get lost.”

She paints an idyllic picture of a thousand memories being formed on this single bridge.

Leaning on the snow-covered stone rail next to her, I gaze down and follow the fat snowflakes up to the surrounding trees.

Above us, grey clouds shut out the starlight and blanket us with a softness that echoes in the snowy landscape lit up by the car’s headlights and the solar-powered lights down below.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Isn’t it?” She turns to face me. “I bet you’ve even driven past here before and not even realized because you’ve never stopped to look. Never stopped to enjoy things. Even something as simple as this. In the spring, it’s a picnic and fishing spot, in the summer it’s a place to escape the heat, and right now, it’s a crystal palace where kids will come to race their handmade sleds. It’s good for your health to slow down, y’know.”

Snow lands gently in her hair and clings briefly to her lashes before melting away with the heat of her skin.

Her eyes reflect the light, making them sparkle like amber gemstones, and her smile thaws all the cold that rises from my poorly warmed shoes.

“You make it sound so simple.”

“It is simple,” she says gently. “It took me a long time to realize this is what I want to live for. The sweet, little things. And you can have that too.”

“Can I?”

Devon fixes me with a look that’s so soft, it feels like she’s found the zipper to my soul and she’s very slowly peeling me apart.

Her body angles toward me and her head tilts so that her hair slips and reveals the simple gemstone earring.

“What happened that closed off your hope?”

Such a gentle question leads to such a heavy answer.

An answer I’ve only ever spoken out loud to an overpaid therapist.

“My father.” The words cut out of me like cracks in ice and Devon watches me intently.