We build a fire in her stove, and while Riley hangs a pot with milk above it, I take her cloak and walk outside to wring it out. With my shirt equally as wet, I pull it off and squeeze that, too, before slipping it back on. There’s a small stack of chopped wood next to the door. I jam a couple of logs under my arm and bring them inside to nurture the fire, then move a chair from the kitchen table closer to the stove and hang the red cloak over the backrest to dry.
Riley’s place is lovely. Small, but very homey. It’s chock-full of whimsical furniture and amazing knick-knacks. Everything smells like wood and, currently, a bit of smoke from the fire. But above all, the sweet scent of morning dew and wood strawberries prevails.
When we came here earlier in the afternoon to collect the pillows for the prince bed, there was hardly time to look around. Now, it feels as if the little house speaks to me, beckoning me to touch the flowered curtains and run my fingers across a sloping chest of drawers. Picking up the clock there, my mouth curves into a small smile when I realize it’s ticking backward.
“A present from Alice,” Riley’s gentle voice sounds from behind me. “I think she got it in Wonderland.”
I put the clock back on the chest and turn to her. The steaming white mug she holds out to me looks enticing. My fingers brush hers as I reach for it, and it reminds me of our moment in the forest. “Why have we never hung out before?” I asked her, tilting my head and searching her face. “Outside our tale, I mean. Why haven’t we gone for coffee or visited each other at home?”
She pulls back her hand, grabbing her own mug and shyly dropping her gaze to the drink. “I guess we see each other so much in the story that it just never seemed necessary.”
She has a point. After spending seven to eight hours each day on the job together, everyone probably just goes their own way—unless they’re married and live in the same castle.
Even if her wanton idea of changing our fairy tale fate still gives me the creeps, at least a tiny good thing came out of it. With a finger under her chin, I lift her face and wait until she looks at me again. “It was nice getting to know the real you these days, Red Riding Hood.”
A shy smile appears on her lips, and she nods slightly.
Since there are no cushions or blankets left on the couch after our earlier raid, I sit down on the cuddly grizzly bear skin in front of the fire. Leaning against the sofa, I tilt my head back, look up at her, and pat the place next to me on the floor. With a grin, she follows my invitation and settles down on the shaggy rug beside me.
The fast-rising temperature in the log cabin dries our clothes within minutes. My jeans and t-shirt soon feel as if they’ve been ironed on my body. The hot drink burns down my throat and further warms me from the inside.
Her heels pulled to her bottom, Riley keeps her fingers wrapped around the steaming mug in her lap. Golden flames dance in her big amber eyes. Her sweet snub nose twitches, and she sniffs. I wonder what’s on her mind as she stares so quietly into the fire.
Her rain-soaked strands have dried to beautiful chestnut-colored locks again. I didn’t touch them often in the past, but this week, I have. I know how silky soft they feel. They call to me, beckoning me to wrap them around my fingers and play. But I can’t do that. Or can I?
Ah, what the hell… Under the pretext of scratching my nape, I plant my elbow on the couch behind her head.
“Jack?” Her soft voice makes my hand freeze and hover mere inches from her hair. She hesitates before speaking again. “It was really nice spending the past couple of days with you. But…what happened back there in the forest…it can’t happen again.”
Rigid, I just stare at her profile. She’s probably not speaking about the fun in the hay.
“I know you’ve kissed other girls before. But I haven’t yet with a guy.” Her long, dark lashes brush the skin beneath her eyes as she blinks. “My first kiss should be perfect. And real. One of true love. With the right man.”
Behind her, my fingers curl into a fist. My voice gone flat from resentment, I conclude, “And that can only be a prince.”
Her shy look meets mine. “Of course.”
I lower my arm and hold my mug with both hands again. Lips compressed, I nod and draw in a deep breath as I glare into the hot chocolate. “Of course...”
How could I think for even a moment that things might be different? That just the smallest thing had changed between us? She’s on a na?ve mission to find her fair prince, who’ll spring her free of our story. Maybe she’s even right. No book of fairy tales has ever told the love story of a sweet girl and the big, bad Wolf.
A long moment passes in silence, as both of us seem lost in our thoughts. The stillness intensifies the patter of the heavy raindrops on the roof, and the trails of water on the windowpane blur the darkness outside. As if the sky had cracked open to wash away all my hopes that rose over the past two days.
Riley suddenly leans her head on my shoulder and startles me out of my musings. Eyes narrowed in suspicion, I slide a glance to her. She still looks into the flames, holding her drink tightly against her angled legs. “I wish you’d come to the ball tomorrow,” she quietly says. “I might need a friend there.”
I swallow. “All your friends will be there. You don’t need me.”
“But I want you there, too.”
When Riley cuddles closer to me, tipping her knees to my side, I stiffen. Five minutes ago, she told me I couldn’t kiss her. Now, she wants to creep under my skin? Her vision of the ideal ever after obviously includes the whole package. Adventure, a new ending, a lover…and me on top.
She wants it all, while I’m going to lose everything.
“You don’t know what you’re asking, honeydrop,” I rasp with my eyes squeezed shut.
“I’m asking you to not give up on me.” She sounds so sad when she says it. I know she values our new, deeper friendship just as much as I do. Only, in her heart, there isn’t room for more. Not unless I spontaneously turn into a prince—which is fairly unlikely.
“I would never.” I take the mug out of her hands, put it aside on the floor with mine, and finally lay an arm around her shoulders. Even without romance in our tale, she’s been the center of my existence for as long as I can remember. Nothing will ever change that.
In spite of the heat from the fire, Riley shivers against me. I pull her closer and tenderly rub her upper arm for several silent minutes. With her head nestled under my chin, her breathing slows, becoming quiet and even.
She sounds on the verge of sleep as she murmurs, “You know what’s funny, Jack?”
Gently, I stroke a wisp of hair behind her ear. “What?”
Her shy hand crawls up my chest, her fingers burying in my shirt. “You don’t smell of wet dog at all.”
I smile into the fire. “And you smell amazing…”
A few more seconds tick by, and then her voice sounds even fainter. “Please let me find you a happily ever after, too.”
My chest lifts with a sigh. Holding her tightly, I don’t give her an answer. Honestly, I don’t care how much she wants to hook me up with some random princess to shape my ending the way she deems perfect. Because I already found my princess this week. And she’s perfect for me.
Strange how this realization stabs my heart. We’ve spent an endless time together day after day… Though now, when I’m about to lose her, I finally understand what she really means to me.
I don’t want to be replaced. Not in her story and not by her side.
Her satiny locks tickle my cheek as I try to look down at her porcelain face. I blow them away and then do what I wanted to do from the moment we sat down together. I gently run my fingers through her hair.