When I came up for air, I just caught him mimicking me. But he made a much bigger splash.
I was laughing when he came up and grabbed me around the waist.
“You were right,” I said. “The water is freezing.”
“I tried to warn you.”
I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. Cold water and all.”
“Me either.”
“You saved me.” I dropped my forehead to his.
“You scared me half to death that day you fell through the ice.”
Oh. Right.“Yeah, that. But also just…in general.” I owed him everything.
He stared into my eyes. “What do you mean?”
“You were right. I think I was still a little broken when I showed up on Christmas. But now? I wake up smiling every morning. Because of you.” I watched his perfect smile spread across his face. “I really can’t imagine being any happier.”
“Well, I actually have some news.”
“Does that mean good or bad news? Like…I’m about to be happier? Or less happy?”
He laughed. “Happier I hope.”
“Okay. Hit me with it.”
“Remember that batch of cookies you made last week?”
“Mhm.”
“I took a dozen of them into the restaurant. The owner was so impressed that she wants to hire you to do all our desserts. The current dessert menu was very limited. So you can pretty much make whatever you want.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. You can make everything here. And then just sell them to her.”
“That’s amazing!”
“Yeah?”
“Of course!” I placed a big kiss against his lips.
“I was a little worried that you were unhappy when we were talking about you getting a job over the summer a few weeks ago. I thought this could be a compromise.”
It was true. We’d had a little tiff about that. But he was right. It was safer the less I left home. And he’d gotten a raise a couple months ago. We were doing okay. I was a little restless with the idea of having the whole summer off though. I’d ended up taking online classes instead of going right for my GED. It wasn’t exactly a normal high school experience. But it was as normal as I could get. And I didn’t want to miss out on normal things just because I’d chosen an abnormal path.
School took up a lot of my time during the winter and spring. But now I was a little bored. I’d started a garden out back but apparently I was bad with plants. I’d read online that you could sing to them and Miller had made fun of me on more than one occasion when he caught me singing to the dying tomato plants.
“This is going to be perfect,” I said. “I can bake whatever I want all day? That sounds like my dream job.”
He smiled at me. “It’s definitely a dream for me. I love your cookies.”
I kissed the tip of his nose. “I love you.”
His hands slid to my ass. “I love you.”
