The Fight for Us by Elizabeth Finn Page B

get upset and overreact about nonsense, and I promise to let you fall straight off the roof, if it happens to be the case, rather than put myself in the line of your absolutely incredible figure.”
    She looked at him sheepishly for a moment as she contemplated, and then she opened her mouth. “Can we at least start at the other end of the list this time?”
    “Of course.” He held his eyes steadily on her, and he waited for her response.
    She stood then, and he watched her from his place on the log. “Fine. Damn shame you don’t want to like me.” Her lips pursed as she muttered her cheeky remark.
    They just stared at one another then. She was right about that. It was a damn shame, and it was also an incredible moment that made him want to pull her right back down to the log with him for the rest of the night, but as she exhaled a foggy breath of air, he had to acknowledge his ass was starting to go numb.
    “Ready to get back?” He stood as he spoke.
    She nodded. She was rubbing her hands together and blowing on them to keep warm.
    As he took off toward the woods from where they’d come, he tossed over his shoulder. “Sun’s going down, and you have a hard enough time walking—”
    “Oops!”
    He turned back to see her face down in the snow.
    “Did you just never learn to walk, or is it some sort of defect in your feet?” He spoke as he leaned down, hoisting her off the snow covered ground.
    She sputtered to get the snow out of her mouth. After they’d been traipsing through the woods for five minutes, Isaiah had decided he wouldn’t be letting go of her klutziness anytime soon. He made a point to remind her about it regularly.
    “My legs are short. That’s what being five-foot-four-inches tall does to a person, and that log was big. Not my fault I caught my toe on it.”
    “It is your fault actually. You own those feet.” He smirked at her as he peered down.
    But it all gave him a good excuse to hold her hand, and he’d not let go of it since leaving the beach. He liked that. He couldn’t feel her fingers within his anymore given just how frozen his hand was, but his large hand enclosed hers perfectly, and the heat of her palm warmed his. It took little more than ten minutes to reach his front door, but as they neared the house, he slowed. He wasn’t ready to give her back to the world and their daughters just yet. They more meandered down the path to his front door. He ignored the cold that was starting to sink deeper and deeper into his body, and when they reached the stoop, he finally let go of her hand.
    “Listen…” She started.
    “What is it with you and that damn word?” He could feel his lips pulling up as he said it, and hers did too.
    But as quickly as she’d smiled, that smile disappeared from her lips, and he stilled. Joss was good at speaking her mind, and he could nearly see it coming. His chest tightened in anticipation. It could be something that would make him laugh, or it could be something he wasn’t ready to hear. He never knew with her. She was honest about what was going through her mind, and as much as he loved that, he was also terrified of it.
    “Do you intend to start liking me sometime soon?”
    The smile on his mouth froze for a moment before slowly falling, and yet, he looked at her. There wasn’t an ounce of expression on her face, and he was guessing there was little more on his. When he finally swallowed over a lump in his throat and opened his mouth to speak, he closed it again, saying nothing. He wanted to be as honest as her, but he didn’t know exactly how that would work out for them.
    “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said…” She was stammering.
    “No.” He thought for a moment, staring at her mouth as he did. “I meant it when I said I was distracted by you at the house.” His attention finally moved up to her eyes. “I’m distracted by you every time I see you. When I’m with you, I think about kissing you, touching you, tasting you—” he