A Solstice Kiss #5
“Yes, please, but first…” She swiveled to face him, the American-turned-Swede whose kind smile had melted her heart from their first shared glance.
The man who’d become closer and more precious to her than a mere stranger over the course of a single winter evening.
“Back at the museum, why did you agree to kiss me, Felix? I was just a random tourist.”
As was his custom, he thought for a few seconds before answering.
“At the very beginning, that was true.” He reached for her other hand, too, and she gladly gave it to him.
“But you were a random tourist who chose to spend a dark winter afternoon in an art museum. You were a random tourist who took time to study and think about a painting that interested you and cared enough about others to move so that a tour group could appreciate the painting too. And you were a random tourist with the sweetest, warmest brown eyes I’d ever seen. ”
Her vision blurred, and she ducked her head until she could blink the tears away.
“Ellie…” He freed a hand to cradle her cheek, guiding her eyes back to his.
“By the time you called me over, you weren’t random anymore.
You were specific to me. You were special, and when you asked to kiss me, I didn’t intend to quibble with my unexpected good fortune.
Even though I didn’t want to be just a means of revenge on another man you still had feelings for. ”
There was a flicker of uncertainty in that steady blue gaze. A request for reassurance that she’d gladly offer, even if doing so would reveal a raw expanse of her heart.
“I was wondering why what he said stung so much, when I genuinely don’t give a flip about him anymore.
” She held Felix’s stare, willing him to believe the truth.
“I finally figured it out earlier. His words didn’t hurt because I care what he thinks about me.
They hurt because they’re what I think about myself. ”
Understanding softened his expression. “Ellie…”
“If my life truly made me happy, what he or anyone else thought wouldn’t matter to me.
If they considered me boring, fine. But I no longer found myself interesting.
” Even though her words shook, she powered through her emotion to say the rest. “So when I asked you to kiss me, it wasn’t about him.
Not really. It was about me and whether I had the strength and courage to take chances.
And it was about you, Felix, because from the moment I saw you leading that tour, I wanted to climb you like a… ”
She trailed off, her mind supplying all the pleasurable things that could happen if she were draped over him like a blanket.
“A tree?” he suggested, his face flushed in a way the chill couldn’t quite explain. “I’m flattered to hear it. Actually, more than that. I’m thrilled.”
“Not like a tree,” she corrected. “Like a ladder.”
Two of those ladders stood before her. At long last, she knew which one she was taking.
His dimples flashed again. “Even better.”
“You asked me earlier what kind of life I wanted, and I didn’t have an answer then.
I do now.” Her newfound certainty steadied her voice.
“I’ll never be an adrenaline junkie. But I do need a life that feels like I consciously chose it—and made that decision through hope, rather than fear or simple inertia. ”
He took that in, letting the declaration settle between them.
“All right, then.” He traced the curve of her cheek with his gloved thumb. “What’s your first choice, Ellie from Maryland?”
“I have two ready to go, actually.” She took a deep breath and climbed the first rung toward the unknown. “First, I’m moving to Sweden in the spring. I’ll agree to work for a year in our Stockholm branch, with an option to stay longer, as desired.”
Was she scared? Of course. But she needed to see what lay beyond the cozy confines of her pink cloud, and the view required some risk-taking. Hopefully, Felix would be at her side to help ease her path, and she could do the same for him. Even if not, though, she still didn’t intend to turn back.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.” His face alight with joy, he beamed down at her. “What’s choice number two?”
With her unoccupied hand, she reached down into the reusable cloth bag she’d procured that night.
It took some digging, but she eventually unearthed what she’d found while he was buying her snacks and a hat.
The stall selling evergreen wreaths had featured a few other items, too…
one of which she’d promptly and discreetly purchased before Felix could return.
She brandished the sprig of mistletoe, lifting it high overhead. The lush red velvet ribbon securing its stems fairly glowed with warmth, and its white berries glinted in the light of the newly revealed crescent moon above.
That moon was a bright, thin sliver of yellow, just wide enough to hang her hopes on.
“I intend to kiss you again,” she told him. “If that’s something you want too.”
He was already drawing her closer, his nose a hair’s breadth from hers. “To post on social media?”
His voice was husky, his body warm and firm.
She shook her head. “Nope.”
She rose on booted toes, chin tipped to the sky. And this time, when she kissed him—once, and then dozens of times more over the course of a long, dark Swedish solstice night—it was only for the two of them.
No one else.