“You too.”
I tucked the phone in my pocket. Grey and I had an official double date with Taylor and Mason. I hoped he was as excited about it as I was.
I turned the corner for the kitchen, to see Grey standing on a stepstool to reach something for my mom in the cabinets over the refrigerator. I didn’t know why those cabinets even existed; they were impossible to access.
“Be careful up there,” I teased.
Grey laughed. “Are you more worried about me or these china bowls?” He showed me a handful of red and green soup bowls. I couldn’t remember ever seeing them before.
“The bowls of course.” I leaned against the counter, watching my mom take the bowls and then direct him to grab something else.
“Grey, thank you so much. Frank would get them, but you’re so tall.” She beamed at him.
I was happy my parents had taken to Grey, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. They acted like he was already part of the family.
He folded up the stepladder and returned it to the laundry room. “Ready for our walk, darlin’?” He kissed the top of my head.
“Yes, I’ve got all our snow gear ready to go.” I led him to the back door. I handed him a pair of gloves and one of my dad’s wool scarves. “I promise not to let you freeze out there, island boy.”
“Oh, you don’t think I can handle it?” he taunted.
“We’ll see.” I winked before ducking under his arm and out the door.
The woods were quiet as if the snowy blanket had hushed all the usually sounds. Grey and I walked side by side along the trail.
“So this is where you used to play?”
“Yes, the other neighborhood kids and I would take the trail to the park. Our parents weren’t worried because we didn’t have to be on any major roads. It was like we had our own secret path.
“It’s completely different here than the island.” He looked up at the trees towering overhead. Snow drifted from the limbs as a squirrel scampered up the side.
“Yeah, it is. I miss the trees.” The beach was beautiful, but sometimes I missed the canopy of the woods.
“I hadn’t really thought about it before.” Grey was quiet.
I reached for his hand through our padded gloves. “I love Texas. You know that, right? And sometimes I’m going to miss being here, but that doesn’t mean I have any regrets. Being with you is where I want to be.”
He stopped me in the middle of the trail. For a moment, I worried I had said something that hurt his feelings. All I wanted to do was reassure him that living with him was the best decision I ever made.
“Sometimes I worry that you’ll want to come back here. That it’s not enough.” His eyes were dark. “That we’re not enough.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want you to ever think that. I can’t believe you would worry.”
“Your parents are great. You have all these memories here. Friends. Neighbors. Your whole life is here.”
I pulled the glove from my hand and traced the side of his face. It felt frozen out of the warmth of my glove. “Grey, I have all of that with you in Padre. Well maybe not the parents part, but I’ll still see them and I talk to them every week. It was time for me to move out and live my own life. I wanted that life to be with you.”
I heard a branch crack in the distance. It was a sharp splintering sound in the quiet woods.
My words must have soothed his doubts, because his mouth descended on mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, reaching on my toes to bring our bodies closer. I started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” He brushed the snow from my face.
“We are in twenty layers of sweaters and coats.” I tugged at his scarf.
“True.” He chuckled.
I retrieved my glove and fanned my fingers, trying to get them covered again. “Come on. Let me show you the park. Unless you want to take me back and get out of all these clothes.”
He laughed. “Nice try. Tonight, baby. We’ve got all night.”
I recognized a lot of the kids I used to babysit performing in the church pageant. Mary was played by the little girl who lived at the end of the street, and her doting Joseph used to throw spaghetti at me whenever I fixed him dinner.
The annual Christmas pageant was always a part of our holiday traditions. It started the first year I was cast as a sheep, and then moved up in the ranks to be a shepherd, and eventually the angel. In high school, I phased out of being a part of the ensemble, but by then, we were so used to going, it became a family Christmas custom. Tonight Grey was getting a full indoctrination into our family practices.