‘You haven’t gotten any younger, either,’ she said indignantly.
‘Oh, yeah, I know it. My joints creak, my bones ache…it’s a hell of a thing, to be pushing thirty.’
‘You won’t be pushing it for another three years,’ Holly said, trying not to laugh. ‘And, if it makes you feel any better you look pretty good for an old codger.’
‘Just, “pretty good”, huh?’
‘Well, not bad.’
‘You could try being a little more specific.’
‘You’re pathetic,’ Holly said, lips twitching.
Nick waggled his eyebrows. ‘A couple of minutes ago, you were whistling another tune, m’dear.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. For starters, I do not whistle.’
‘Whistle, applaud, sigh…what’s the difference?’ He grinned. ‘The point’s still the same. You were pretty well pleased a little while ago.’
‘What would you like, Nicholas Brennan? Applause? You’ll do anything to get me to stroke your ego!’
‘Well, you can stroke that, too,’ Nick said, with an evil leer.
Holly burst out laughing. ‘You’re impossible.’
His smile faded. ‘And you’re so beautiful you make my heart ache,’ he said softly, and kissed her again, with sweet deliberation. ‘I love you, Holly.’
Holly felt her heart turn over. She clasped his face and brought his mouth down to hers.
‘Nicky,’ she sighed, ‘my Nicky…’
His mouth closed over hers, and the sweetness of their kisses yielded to the fierce hunger that they’d never forgotten.
‘Nick,’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Nick, how I love you!’
The words, those sweet, sweet words he’d never let himself dare hope to hear again, shot through him like a flame. Nick rolled her beneath him, sheathed himself in her.
‘Forever,’ he said.
Holly’s eyes fixed on his. ‘Forever,’ she whispered, as he began to move.
How could it be any other way? He was part of her, and she was part of him. That was the way it had been, the way it would always be.
Nothing would ever separate them again.
* * *
They slept, awoke long enough to make love again, and slept some more.
When they awoke next, the fire had begun to die. Nick fed it some wood while Holly, dressed in his flannel shirt and her wool socks, made a dash for the kitchen. She raced back, carrying a box of crackers, a jar of peanut butter, and a knife.
‘I am freezing!’ she squealed, burrowing under the blankets, and proved it by putting her icy feet against Nick’s thigh.
‘By God, woman, are you trying to freeze me to death?’ Nick reached down, caught hold of her feet, and rubbed them briskly. ‘I’d almost forgotten that you have no heating system of your own.’
‘Complaints, complaints.’ Holly bit into a peanut-butter-laden cracker, then held out the remaining half. ‘Here. Maybe some food will improve your disposition.’
Nick grinned, bit into the cracker, and chewed. ‘You’re just trying to keep my energy levels up.’
‘Oh, right.’ Holly licked peanut butter from her fingertips and flashed him a smug grin. ‘As if you have any energy levels left, now that I’ve had my way with you…’ Her smile faded. ‘Nick? It’s as if the past six years never happened.’
‘I know. We must have said these same things to each other a thousand times, and laughed whenever we did.’ Nick leaned over and dropped a gentle kiss on Holly’s lips. ‘We had some good times, babe,’ he said softly. ‘Didn’t we?’
‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘Yes, we did.’
‘I have to be honest and admit that I’d pretty much forgotten the good times.’
‘Well, so did I.’ Holly shrugged her shoulders. ‘I suppose that’s only natural. I mean, when two people get a divorce…’
Her voice cracked. Nick frowned, hooked his arm around her neck, and pulled her close.
‘That’s all behind us,’ he said.
‘Is it?’
He felt, rather than saw, Holly’s sudden hesitancy. ‘Damn right it is.’ His tone was gruff, almost harsh. ‘What kind of question is that to ask?’
‘A reasonable one,’ she murmured, and looked down at her lap.
‘The hell it is!’ He clasped her chin. ‘Look at me,’ he said and, when she finally did, he glowered at her. ‘I love you. You love me. What else matters?’
Holly shrugged. ‘We loved each other the last time around, too,’ she said, after a minute.
‘Yeah, but we were young. Just a pair of kids.’