The most striking thing, though, was the silence. With no cars, no people, and just the steady fall of snow that seemed to mute every sound, the silence was a profound, enveloping quiet. As destructive as the snow was, it also brought with it a calm sort of peace.
“Connor,” Katie said, her voice almost a wheeze. “Can we stop and rest? I’m just so cold, and my feet hurt so much, and I am so tired.”
They were maybe twenty feet from the corner. Then they needed to cross a street, then cross the ice rink’s parking lot to the front door. They were so close. They couldn’t stop now— he needed to get her warm. He shook his head. “That’s a really bad idea, especially with as cold as you are.” He leaned the shovel’s handle against the trunk of a tree, then scooped Katie up in his arms. The little dog yelped in surprise but then burrowed into the blanket at Katie’s stomach.
“Are you good?”
She nodded, so he trudged his way through the snow, counting each step as he went to help him stay focused. He counted to the end of the sidewalk. Then he counted as they crossed the road. Then he counted to the front doors of the building. A small awning kept most of the snow away from the space nearest the doors, so he set Katie down there and headed alongside the building to retrieve the key.
As he was walking back to the door, it was evident in the hunched way Katie stood that the cold had drained her of all her energy. She probably hadn’t been able to sleep at all. And Katie wasn’t someone who would just sit and wait for help— he could only guess how much energy she had expended trying to free her car. She looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Once inside, he helped Katie as they went around the rink to the backside. Knox was right— his office was unlocked. He, Katie, and the dog went inside, and he shut the door behind them to help hold in the heat. Then he found the space heater and turned it on. Katie whimpered in relief as the warm air started coming out.
“We need to get you into dry clothes.” He had her sit in Knox’s office chair while he pulled off her wet boots and equally wet socks. Then he pulled the pajama pants and socks out of his coat and said, “Change into these.” He smiled at her. “They come pre-warmed. I’ll turn around.”
He turned his back to her until she said she was finished. Then he took off her coat, put it on the back of the office chair, then slipped out of his coat and helped her into it. His wasn’t exactly dry on the outside, but it was dry on the inside, and the sleeves were much drier than hers.
“But what about you?”
“You do remember that I hang out on ice for a living?” When she gave a weak laugh, he said, “Don’t worry about me.”
He went to the corner of the office where Knox had a half-empty case of bottled water and grabbed a couple. He handed one to Katie. “Drink. Dehydration can lead to hypothermia much more quickly.”
She guzzled the water, so maybe she had already been well on her way to hypothermia. Then she looked down at the floor for a moment before deciding to just lay down on it. He looked in the little closet in a corner and found a zippered hoodie. He rolled it up until it was roughly pillow-shaped and placed it under Katie’s head, then spread the blanket over her.
He got the dog some water and got him settled just above Katie’s head, snuggled into the dry part of her coat. He pulled out his phone and texted Emmalee to let her know that he found Katie and that they were sheltering at the ice rink. Then he lay down on the floor next to Katie. They were both lying on their sides, facing each other, him using one arm as a pillow.
He reached out and brushed Katie’s hair away from her face, saying, “You’re okay” and “We’re going to be okay” until she fell asleep.
nineteen
KATIE
When Katie woke up,all she knew was that she was gloriously warm and that her hip hurt. It took a minute of blinking at her surroundings to remember that she was on the floor in the office at the ice rink. She vaguely remembered Connor lying on the floor beside her as she fell asleep, but he wasn’t there now.
She thought of Biscuit and found him curled up in her coat near her head. He looked so blissfully asleep. She gave him a little pet on the head, then stood up and stretched. Then she laughed when she saw the pajama pants she was wearing. She did remember changing into them last night, but she hadn’t noticed that the fabric print was of pink flamingos, dressed in hockey gear, playing a fierce game of hockey.
It was so unbelievably sweet of Connor to brave such a bad snowstorm to find her. She wasn’t even surehowhe found her. Or how he got them into this place. She spotted her cell phone that had been in her coat pocket— it was plugged into a charger on the desk of whoever’s office this was.
She unplugged it and scrolled through her notifications. There were several texts from Emmalee, starting from when her phone had shut down during their conversation, asking if she was okay. They got increasingly panicked until the last one.
Emmalee: I called Connor. Don’t worry. He’s got you.
Don’t worry. He’s got you.
Things got so much worse than she ever could’ve guessed they would. But he showed up when she needed him most. Just like when he showed up to help with the flowers. He was there when it mattered, even when she told him not to be. He somehow seemed to understand when she genuinely didn’t want help with something and when she truly did need help but either didn’t want to ask for help or really didn’t want to accept it. She just kept finding new things about him to fall in love with.
She sent Emmalee a text thanking her for being such a great friend, and then she slid the phone into the pajama pants’ pocket. She ran her hands over her face to help her wake up, then drained the rest of the water bottle that Connor had given her last night.
Then a thought occurred to her, and it felt ridiculous that it hadn’t occurred to her sooner. Connor didn’t say that he was leaving Denver, just that he was thinking about asking. It wasn’t a done deal. She could fight for him; let him know how she really felt, because it mattered to her. He mattered to her. If he was going to leave, he wasn’t going to leave not knowing how she felt.
She finger-combed her hair, then headed out of the office wearing Connor’s socks and no shoes, in search of him. This was a small-town rink, so there weren’t many places he could be. Sounds led her to the ice, and she found him skating in big lazy circles on the ice, looking at the ice like he was deep in thought.
He hadn’t noticed her yet, so she just watched him. Hockey may be a hard-fought sport played by big, strong athletes, but this man was nothing but graceful on the ice. Every movement flowed. Even with the meandering nature of his turns, everything looked perfectly controlled. Effortless.
It was clear the moment he noticed her because he was suddenly alert, upright, focused. “You’re awake already.” He skated over to her with just a few strides and skidded to a stop right at the waist-high wall that separated the aisle where she stood and the ice, his skates spraying a small arc of ice. “It’s still early.”
She shrugged. “Probably because it’s Christmas morning. It’s the day you’re supposed to wake up the earliest, right?”
