Chapter 13
“You just told me that was impossible.” Nora crossed her arms over her chest.
This guy really was a piece of work. And to think she’d started to trust him! She couldn’t believe she’d been so na?ve.
“You can’t see me move the snow,” Everett said. “But maybe if you see how quickly I can make a snow sculpture appear, you’ll have to believe.”
Well, she didn’t have to do anything, but a part of her was tempted; a part of her wanted to believe he wasn’t lying to her.
Because if this unlikely story was true, then it was understandable that he wouldn’t tell anyone unless absolutely necessary.
If she had such powers, she’d keep them a secret, too.
“Fine,” she said, “but you have to let me bring a friend. I won’t go anywhere alone with you.”
“As long as your friend promises not to talk to anyone about what they see.”
He’d agreed to her terms, and so she’d do this.
“When?” she asked. “I’d rather not do it at night.”
He named a park near where they lived. “Three o’clock. You and your friend can meet me there. By the trees, away from the playground.”
As Nora approached the meeting spot with Aimee, she could see Everett’s large form, clad in his red winter coat, and her heart sped up.
Mentally, she told herself to calm the fuck down.
“I still can’t believe,” Aimee said, “that he claimed he could do magic.”
“Yeah,” Nora agreed. “It’s ridiculous.”
It was a gray winter’s day, and the snow wasn’t as pretty as it had once been. The roads were lined with dirty snowbanks. It didn’t look like something that would appear on a Christmas card.
But here, in the park, it was a little better. It was cold and windy, though, and there were few people out. Nobody else was near the location that Everett had chosen.
“Aimee, this is Everett,” Nora said when they stopped in front of him. “Everett, Aimee.”
They shook hands and Everett smiled, but it wavered slightly.
He’s nervous.
Nora steeled herself. She would not be affected by him.
“What do you want me to make?” he asked.
“Just a snowman,” she said.
He nodded. Then he took a few steps away from her, held up his hands…and vanished.
Nora and Aimee looked at each other.
“You can’t see him, can you?” Nora asked.
Aimee’s mouth hung open. “I can’t.”
As soon as she spoke, Everett reappeared, along with a snowman. There was less snow on the ground in his vicinity—he must have used the existing snow for his magic. Nora walked toward the snowman and touched it, needing to convince herself that it wasn’t an illusion.
“What did you see?” Everett asked.
“You disappeared, then reappeared with a snowman thirty seconds later.” She didn’t look at him, just continued to stare at the snowman.
But what if he still wasn’t telling the truth? What if time moved differently when he disappeared, and what felt like thirty seconds to her had been fifteen minutes to him?
Either way, he could still perform magic.
“Now do something more complicated,” Aimee said. “Prove you really could be the one behind the sculptures. Make us a giant seal.”
Everett shook his head. “I have to prepare for something big. But you know the rabbits by the fire in the third sculpture? I can make a smaller one of those.”
“Okay, that’ll do.”
Once again, Nora stood next to her friend and watched as Everett disappeared. She couldn’t sort through everything going on in her head. It was a mess.
It would have been simpler if his claims of magic had been false.
She’d know what to do with that discovery: she’d walk away and never speak to him again unless absolutely necessary.
She’d lump him in with Samuel and the people who made answering phone calls a pointless endeavor.
She’d make the walls around her heart even higher. But now…
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Are you okay?” Aimee asked.
“I…I don’t know.”
“That’s partly why I asked him to make something else. To buy us—you—a little time.”
Nora shut her eyes and relaxed against her friend. Yes, there were so many scams in the world, so many people spouting absolute nonsense. For their own gain…or in some cases, online scammers were victims of human trafficking.
It was frustrating to always be wondering if what you saw or heard was fake, and technology had given rise to new ways of deceiving others.
But there were real things in her life, too. Like this friendship with Aimee.
“What are you going to do now?” Aimee asked gently.
“I don’t know,” Nora said again.
“Before you found the sketch, did you feel like you’d gotten him out of your system?”
“No.” Nora sighed. “I want more, but even knowing that he wasn’t lying about this…” She gestured toward the snowman. “It doesn’t mean he won’t try to screw me over.”
It was hard to imagine Everett Sun ever screwing anyone over, but she still had to be vigilant.
“I know,” Aimee said, “but maybe it’s worth—holy shit.”
Nora jerked her head around and saw Everett standing next to a small rabbit—a bit higher than his waist—made of snow. Like the other sculptures they’d seen together, it made her smile.
There could be no doubt now: he really was behind all the delightful snow sculptures.
Yes, sometimes the unbelievable was real. A tightly wound part of her began to loosen.
“I’m always here if you need anything,” Aimee said, “but would you like me to go now?”
“Yeah,” Nora said, her gaze still locked on the sculpture. “You can go.”
Aimee waved at Everett.
“Nice to meet you,” he called out before coming to stand next to Nora.
His proximity made her skin prickle, and she swallowed before meeting his eyes.
“All the sculptures across the city,” she said. “Why did you do it?”
“I’d wanted to for years, and this year, there was finally enough snow in Toronto before Christmas for it to work.”
“You could have moved somewhere else. Montreal. Quebec City. St. John’s.”
“But then I wouldn’t have met you.” His serious, quiet tone made goose bumps break out on her skin.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” she said. “Why did you do it?”
“To make people feel a bit of Christmas magic.”
“It certainly worked on me.” She hoped that didn’t sound sarcastic; she was sincere.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “That’s why I ran into you at the first sculpture—I wanted to see people experiencing it. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, but I—”
“No, that’s okay. I understand why you didn’t say anything.
It’s just…I was the victim of a romance scam.
” She looked down. “More than two years ago—it was shortly after my mother died. I hadn’t been with anyone since then.
That’s why I freaked out when you complimented me.
I kept hearing his voice. Recalling how gross I felt afterward, when I remembered that we’d been intimate. ”
Everett’s gloved hand was underneath her chin now, but he didn’t tip it up, didn’t force her to meet his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“I have some trust issues. Obviously, you telling me that you could do magic is a very different situation, but I still couldn’t help thinking…”
Well, now she was thinking that she should see a therapist.
“Can I hold you?” he asked.
She nodded, already snuggling against the bulk of him. His touch grounded her.
“I’d never try to scam you,” he said, “but I know you may struggle to believe that right now. I know it’ll take time for you to fully trust me.”
“It might take a lot of time, but I think I want to try.”
Although it was terrifying to say those words, she meant them.
Her life had contracted in the past few years.
She’d kept it small to avoid risk, but it hadn’t healed the gaping emptiness inside of her, and she didn’t want to live like that forever.
The time she’d spent with Everett had been a revelation.
Nora swiped at the tears collecting in her eyelashes, then tilted her head up to his. His lips met hers in a gentle kiss that she could feel down to her toes. It warmed every part of her.
She pulled back and let out a shuddering breath. “I think I’d like to head home,” she said, clutching his arm.
“Could you wait a few minutes? I want to make one more thing for you.”
He lifted his other arm, and after a moment of holding it out, snow lifted from the ground, as if by magic.
No, it was magic. She could see it happening, unlike before, and the snow sparkled in the air. It was incredible.
Holy shit.
He raised the arm she was holding, but she didn’t let go, though she loosened her grip.
She suspected that the physical contact was the reason she could see this, but she didn’t say anything; she wasn’t even certain she’d be capable of speaking, and besides, she didn’t want to disrupt his work.
Though she wasn’t sure what he was making, she didn’t care.
No matter the final product, this was mesmerizing.
A magically generated snow sculpture.
Nora stared as it took shape. Everett removed some snow from the bottom to create a heart. It was about twenty centimeters thick, standing on its end.
“Wow,” she said.
His head snapped toward her. “You can see it?”