I lean my head against his arm and I feel him look down at me.
“Did you ever think this would be us?” I ask him.
“No,” he admits. “For the longest time I didn’t think I was capable of loving someone like I love you. At times I didn’t think it existed. Then I met you—and I was instantly drawn to you. You didn’t fawn all over me—you warned me you knew jiu-jitsu and fuck, I think I was a goner from that moment on.”
I laugh loudly. “You mean to tell me, my threatening to kick your ass is what did you in?”
“Yep, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“You’re so weird, Hollis.”
He grins, his eyes twinkling as brightly as the stars and lights around us. “It’s part of my charm.”
“Insufferable bastard,” I groan.
“But I’m your insufferable bastard.”
“You’re right,” I agree lifting the cup of hot chocolate to my lips.
He takes a sip too. “This might be the best fucking hot chocolate I’ve ever had.”
“But you still needed ten mini marshmallows?”
“Any less is for pussies,” he quips.
I shake my head. We reach the end and turn around to head back.
“This place, this town,” he begins, looking around, “it’s pretty unique.”
I look around. “Yeah, I guess it is.”
“I could be happy here,” he remarks. “Happy with you.”
My heart stutters.
He looks down at me, his eyes serious. “We have a lot to figure out, Mia.”
“I know,” I breathe shakily. “It seems like an impossibility at times, you and me.”
He shakes his head and stops walking. He tucks a piece of hair behind my ear. The snow is still falling even harder than before. “Impossibilities only exist to prove the possible, and we, Mia,” he bends his head closer so I feel his breath against the skin of my cheek, “are most definitely possible.”
I close my eyes, soaking in his words, holding them close to my heart and willing them to be true.
30
Hollis
The bell above the door at The Sub Club chimes as I head inside.
“Welcome to—oh it’s you,” Kira says, adjusting her hat. “Are you here to see Mia or get food?”
“Both, preferably. I wanted to pick up food from my favorite place in the world—Waffle House, but I was out-voted, so here I am.”
She cracks a smile. “I’ll send Mia out.”
She heads into the back and I wait, hands stuffed into the pockets of my jeans.
“Hey,” she greets with a small smile. Little pieces of hair escape her uniform’s baseball cap and she looks frazzled.