When Angels Fall (Fallen Angels) (31 page)

“Oh, so you love him?” the girl said and giggled.

They both looked at each other and laughed. “Yeah, something like that,” Nick answered.

After the hayride and walking through the Christmas village, Nick looked at his phone. “We have to get moving. I have a surprise for you.” He took her hand and tried to get her moving a little faster.

“What kind of surprise?” she asked as she fed him some of the cotton candy they’d gotten at a little place called the Sugar Ball.

He nibbled it off her finger, then grabbed a hunk and stuffed it into her mouth. “No questions. Just follow me and hurry up. I scoped this place out while you were working. Get rid of that stuff. We can’t take it with us.” He tried to help her finish it. Chloe slipped and he caught her, but the fluffy candy hit the ground. They both started laughing.

 
She stood back up. “Oh, I’m so sticky now.” She tried to get it off her fingers.

Nick stopped and took her hand. Taking her index finger, he put it in his mouth and sucked the sugar coating from her finger, and then he noticed the tender look on her face.

 
She leaned up and kissed him, putting her hand to his face, careful not to let the stickiness of her fingers touch his skin.

“We really have to go,” he whispered, really wanting to find someplace warm so he could taste more of the sticky sweetness of the candy left on her lips.

She nodded, allowing him to take her hand and lead the way.

They walked through town to the edge of the park, where the ice rink was. The snow was picking up and people were starting to leave. Nick gave his name and the guy handed him his skates, and then asked Chloe’s size.

She looked around and thought it was a little odd that there was no one there. “I really thought it would be more crowded than this,” she said with a frown.

“There may have been. But I kinda rented the ice for a half hour, so maybe that’s why.” He laced up his skates.

“Wait, you did that for me?” She looked at him in disbelief, as though she wasn’t she sure if she heard him right.

Nick looked up and smiled at her. “Yeah, I did. They had this thing where you could rent the ice for a while. I thought it would be fun, so I got my skates, left them here, and rented the ice. Now, close your mouth before it freezes that way. Put on those skates and let’s go. We’re losing ice time.” He laughed and fixed his jeans.

She sat next to him and took off her boots.
 
Once her skates were on, Nick helped her onto the ice. Chloe let go of his hand and had to get her balance back.
 
Slowly, she moved forward on the slippery surface.

“Come on, Gardner, show me some moves,” he teased. He wanted to see what she knew, but was more concerned about her falling.

She stumbled a few times but regained her balance quickly. “Show me yours, Allen. You seem to be a lot steadier on your feet right now.” She watched him skate backwards, as he watched her.

“Yeah, I play ice hockey, not figure skating. Get me a puck and my stick and I can show you a pretty mean slap shot,” he bragged, and then went to catch her as she started to fall.

Chloe started laughing and held on to him. Once she regained her composure, they skated around the rink, just holding hands and laughing. Once she got her balance, she pushed away from him and skated backwards a little. “So, you wanted to see my moves. I used to be able to spin pretty good. I was better than Gabbie at it,” she bragged a little herself.

“So, let’s see.” He crossed his arms and waited.

Chloe skated back a little and got ready to go into the spin. She knew she had to pick up speed, so she started skating around the rink, every once in a while glancing to see him watching her. She turned slightly and then went into the spin, pulling her arms in and brining her leg up. When she slowed down and stopped, she had to catch her breath.

Nick was speechless. “You gave up skating why?” He was amazed at what he’d just seen.

“Because, that was my best move. Gabbie can do jumps and spins and all kinds of things. I fall on my face, if I try to jump. I use to do it for my mom. She always wanted to be a skater and wanted me to do it. Kinda like the mothers who wanted to be beauty queens and push their daughters into pageants. She finally gave up when she saw me floundering one day. So come on, show me your best move,” she teased.

“Kevin isn’t here, so I can’t check him. I don’t have any moves. I just skate around the ice, pushing a puck and trying to knock Kevin on his ass. God, I love your smile.” He was amazed by the difference in her when she was away from home. With the snow in her hair and the red in her cheeks from the cold, she was so incredibly beautiful to him at that moment. She laughed at him and started to skate around, trying to remember what she had learned, and he was in awe of her. There were times she had almost a childlike quality about her and he wondered if it were because of her past.

The snow was coming down in huge clumps now, making it hard to skate. One of the workers called to them and said they had to close up.

“Aww, I was just starting to remember more,” she whined a little.

“When we go up to New York, we can skate again. The rink is a lot bigger, too.” He lifted her chin and brushed his lips past hers.

“I’m going to hold you to that. It’s a good idea to stop now anyway. My feet are killing me,” she said as they started back to the benches.

They walked hand in hand through the snow back to Chloe’s house. The wind was picking up and the snow seemed to be coming down harder. It stung their faces as it whipped the icy shards around. But it didn’t seem to faze them. They laughed and ran through the newly fallen ice and fell a few times as they chased each other. It was like they were kids again. By the time they got back to Chloe’s house, there were a couple inches of snow. The only sound on the street was that the flakes as they blew in against the windows.

Entering the garage, the lights went out. Chloe tried to find her way to the door as Nick held her hand. Fumbling with the lock, she finally opened it and then found her way to the kitchen, where the candles were. Striking the match and filling the air with sulfur and then the flash of flame, she started lighting them one by one. Even with the light the candles gave off, the house being dark like this made her uneasy.

Nick watched Chloe in the candlelight. She looked at him and faked a smile. He could see the nervousness in her eyes.

“I’m not sure if they are coming home tonight,” she said.

“If they don’t, you can come home with me. We’re both cold and wet. Go get changed and I will see if I can get the fire going,” he suggested, wishing he had something warmer to wear.

“I have something for you, the sweats you gave me after what happened with Josh. I’ll bring them down,” she said and picked up her candle. She started to go to the steps, then stopped and bit her lip.

Nick lowered the gas, and then sat back and looked at it. It was nothing like the real fireplace at his house, but it worked. He kinda missed it now. He knew they would all be around it and Max would be talking about roasting marshmallows. There was nothing better than the smell of a roaring fire. It was one of the things he liked most about camping over the summer. He called home and let them know he was okay, that, yeah, the lights were out and he was at Chloe’s. No one was home and he didn’t want her to be alone in this. He could hear the concern in his mother’s voice about the road and suggested it might be better to stay there and someone would get them in the morning. He hung up the phone and tried to warm up a little.

“Did they want you to come home?”

He hadn’t realized she was standing there. The candle was sitting on the table and Chloe was sitting on the side of the chair.

“No, the roads are getting bad. She thought it would be better if I stayed here, if that’s okay. I thought you were getting changed?” He came over to her now and sat with her.

“I was, well, I—okay, this is really silly. Could you come up with me? I just get really freaked out in the dark, especially here.” She sounded like a little kid, like she wanted him to save her from the monster under her bed.

“I can see why,” he teased. “I mean, I heard the werewolves like houses where unsuspecting teens are trapped in the dark, alone.”

“You’re sleeping by the door, so he eats you first!” She hit his arm.

“You would seriously let it eat me first? Where would you be?” he asked, knowing she would be out the door.

“Running to the closet to hide of course,” she replied. “You would try to offer me as a virgin sacrifice if you had the chance. Can you just come up with me?”

He laughed at that and followed her up the steps.

After they had gotten changed, Nick suggested it would be warmer to stay downstairs by the fire in case the power didn’t come back on. After setting up camp by the fire, they sat on their makeshift bed and talked a little until Chloe got her sketch pad and started to sketch him.

He was leaning on his arm, watching her as she worked intently. “Why do I feel like this is a scene from some bad romance movie? I feel like I should take my shirt off or something, so you can work better,” he joked. The truth was it was kind of nice to be stuck here, in front of the fire by themselves.

Chloe tilted her head and focused on his face. “No, leave your shirt on. Just try to stay still.”

He laughed and did as she asked, thought it was hard because of the way she looked in the firelight. She sat on the floor opposite him with her knees bent, so she could use them as a table to lean on. She had changed into a pair of gray capris and a long, pink-button nightshirt. She’d pulled her hair up and held it up with a clip, the ends of her hair curling down the sides. Her toes were covered by the blanket, but only to the ankles.

 
It was then he saw it, the small ladybug inked on her skin right by the ball of her ankle. No bigger than the size of dime. It’s antenna in the shape of a heart. Slowly, he moved his hand over and, with his finger, traced over it in a small circle. Now that he had seen it, he realized it was kind of sexy.

 
Nick gazed up at her again and his heart started to pound. Something about his feelings for her was changing. They were stronger than anyone he’d been with.

She noticed his glances and smiled shyly, putting the pad down she then crawled over to him and brushed his hair with her fingers.

 
Nick grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him to fulfill the longing to hold her.

She ran her finger down his cheek. “What are you thinking?” she asked softly.

He started to rub her chin softly with his curled finger, just looking into her eyes, the soft green hues alive with the fire that danced in the background. “I was just thinking how beautiful you look, so beautiful,” he whispered, as if there was someone else there who could hear them.

She laughed and leaned on her hand as she looked back at him. “Oh, yeah, my hair is flat from the snow and I’m in my pj’s. I can see why you would think that.”

He brought her lips to his and kissed her softly, just barley brushing them past a few times. “You still don’t get it, do you? You have this power over me, Chloe. I can’t explain it.”

“How? I really haven’t done anything to try to control you.”

The shyness he loved was there, how she couldn’t look him in the eyes because every time she did, she would blush.

“It’s crazy how I feel about you. I hear your name and I light up. I live to see your smile or hear you laugh. That day you skipped school after Millie died, I was so scared because I thought I lost the chance to tell you how I really feel.” He took her hand and started to slowly kiss her fingers.

She closed her eyes. “There are things I want to say to you, too, but I don’t know how or why I can’t say them. All I know is that these feelings I have scare me to death because if I admit them to myself or to you, something could happen and I could lose you and—”