Chapter 30
COOPER
The temperature had dropped to a brutal twenty-two degrees by the time I pulled the fire truck into the empty Christmas market. My breath formed clouds that dissipated almost immediately in the dry cold. I could feel the bite of winter through my heavy coat and gloves.
Perfect conditions for what I had in mind. It had to be cold.
Matt jumped down from the passenger side, followed by Elijah and Tony. I hadn’t explained the details of tonight’s operation to anyone except Matt, and even he looked skeptical about the whole enterprise.
“You sure about this, Cooper?” Matt asked, his voice muffled by the thick scarf wrapped around his neck. “It’s cold enough to freeze spit before it hits the ground.”
“That’s exactly the point,” I said, backing the truck into position near the empty corner Joy and I had identified earlier. “We need it to be this cold for it to work.”
Well work might be an optimistic term. What I was planning was based more on hopeful theory than any science, but the basic concept was sound. Water plus sub-freezing temperatures plus careful application should equal something magical, assuming I hadn’t completely miscalculated.
The headlights of Joy’s car swept across the market as she pulled in. I felt that familiar flutter of anticipation in my chest. I asked her to meet us here without explaining what we were doing, which in retrospect probably seemed mysterious to the point of being suspicious.
Thank God she trusted me.
She emerged from her car bundled in a down coat that made her look like a cheerful marshmallow.
“Cooper, are you finally going to explain what you’re doing out here? It’s too damn cold to be standing around playing twenty questions.”
The complaint was valid. The cold was the kind that bit through any exposed skin and made your lungs ache if you breathed too deeply. It made snot freeze in your nose. But that same brutal temperature was essential for what I hoped to accomplish.
“The cold is the whole point,” I said. “We need it to be this cold for what I want to try.”
Joy looked between me and the fire truck, clearly trying to piece together what possible connection there could be between emergency equipment and festival decoration. “Okay, I’ll bite. What exactly are we doing?”
Instead of explaining, I gestured to Matt and the others. “Let’s get the ladder extended first, then I’ll show you.”
The guys moved, extending the truck’s aerial ladder to its full height and positioning it directly over the empty corner space. The ladder’s reach put the tip about twenty feet above the ground, creating a perfect overhead position for what I had planned.
“Now the hose,” I called. Elijah began feeding one of the smaller attack lines up the ladder, securing it at intervals until the brass nozzle hung down like a giant showerhead positioned directly over our target area.
Joy watched all this preparation with growing bewilderment, her arms crossed against the cold as she tried to make sense of our setup.
“Cooper,” she said with exaggerated patience, “I’m freezing my ass off out here. Can you please tell me what we’re building?”
“Trust me,” I said, moving to the truck’s pump panel and making the necessary adjustments. “Just give me ten minutes.”
I signaled to Tony, who was positioned at the base of the ladder with the hose controls. “Start with a fine spray pattern, low pressure. We want mist, not a deluge.”
Tony adjusted the nozzle, and suddenly a cone of water droplets began falling from twenty feet up, creating a misty shower that immediately began to react to the frigid air.
In temperatures this low, the water didn’t have time to hit the ground as liquid—it froze almost instantly upon contact with the air and whatever surface it touched.
“I still don’t understand what—” Joy started, then stopped as she began to see what was happening.
The mist was freezing into a circular base on the ground, building up layer by layer as Matt maintained the steady spray. The droplets crystallized as they fell, creating a foundation of clear ice that grew taller with each passing second.
“Be patient,” I said, watching the process with the same fascination as Joy. Even though this had been my idea, seeing it actually work was something close to miraculous.
After ten minutes, we had a circular base about three feet in diameter and six inches high. I signaled Hansen to adjust the spray pattern, narrowing the cone slightly, and the ice began building up in a more focused area, creating the beginning of a tapered shape.
“It’s working,” Matt said with obvious amazement. “It’s actually working. It’s starting to look like a tree.”
That’s when I implemented the second phase of my plan.
“Elijah, bring me that case from the truck,” I called, nodding toward a plastic container I loaded earlier.
Inside the case were coils of LED light strips, the kind used for holiday decorations but rated for outdoor use and cold weather operation.
As Matt continued the spray, I began carefully laying the lights on top of the latest layer of ice, working quickly before the next application of water could freeze them in place.
“The lights are going to be embedded in the ice?” Joy asked, finally understanding what I was attempting.
“That’s the idea,” I said, placing another section of LED strip and signaling Matt to resume spraying. “If this works the way I think it will, we’ll have lights running through the entire structure.”
The process was painstakingly slow. Spray a layer, let it freeze, place lights, spray another layer. The sculpture grew taller and more complex with each layer.
By the time we’d been working nearly two hours, we had created something that looked unmistakably like a Christmas tree made entirely of clear ice, standing nearly eight feet tall and embedded with dozens of LED strands that were currently dark but promised to be spectacular once activated.
I hoped. I really hoped the weight of the ice wasn’t too much.
“Holy shit,” Elijah breathed, stepping back to admire our creation. “That’s actually incredible.”
Joy was circling the ice tree with obvious awe, her earlier complaints about the cold forgotten in the face of what we had accomplished. The sculpture caught the light from the fire truck’s work lamps, refracting and reflecting it in a way that made the entire structure seem to glow.
“Cooper,” she said softly, “this is amazing. But how do we test the lights? Are they even going to work after being frozen in ice?”
I walked to the base of the sculpture, where I had carefully positioned the power connection and control unit in a waterproof housing.
The LED strips were designed to operate in extreme temperatures.
The control system was rated for outdoor use, but this was definitely pushing the equipment beyond its intended limits.
“Only one way to find out,” I said, flipping the switch.
The effect was pure magic.
Light bloomed from within the ice tree, the embedded LEDs creating a bright, colorful glow that seemed to emanate from the structure itself rather than from any external source.
The clear ice acted as a perfect diffuser, spreading the light evenly throughout the sculpture and creating an almost ethereal quality that made the entire tree seem to be lit from within.
The lights were programmable. I quickly set them to cycle through different patterns—a gentle pulsing that made the tree seem to breathe with light, followed by a twinkling effect that looked like stars caught in crystal.
“Oh my God,” Joy whispered, her voice filled with wonder. “Cooper, this is… this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Matt and the other guys were equally impressed.
They seemed to be genuinely amazed at what we had created.
Even I was stunned by how well the concept had translated into reality.
The ice tree stood like something out of a fairy tale, casting colored light across the snow and transforming the empty corner into something magical.
“This is what was missing,” Joy said, turning to look at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. “This is exactly what the memory station needed as a backdrop. Families are going to take the most incredible photos with this.”
She was right. The ice tree would provide a stunning focal point for the community memory station, something uniquely beautiful that would make every photo special and memorable.
“How long will it last?” Rodriguez asked practically.
“Should be good through the weekend, as long as temperatures stay below freezing,” I said. “The LED lights generate almost no heat, so they shouldn’t cause any melting from within.”
“And if it warms up?”
“Then we’ll have the most spectacular puddle in the history of Christmas markets,” I admitted with a grin.
“And then it will make an ice rink when it freezes down again,” Elijah offered.
Joy was still staring at the ice tree, shaking her head in apparent disbelief. “I can’t believe you did this. I can’t believe you thought of this, planned it, and actually pulled it off.”
“It was a team effort,” I said, gesturing to Matt and the others who were already beginning to pack up the equipment.
“No,” Joy said firmly, stepping closer to me. “This was your vision, your plan, your Christmas miracle. And it’s perfect.”
She went up on her toes. “Are you on shift tonight?” Her question was meant just for my ears.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
“I’m coming over.”
Like I was going to argue. “I’ll ride with you.”
Every red light was torture. Every stop sign was an eternity.
I was out of the car and around to her side before she could finish unbuckling her seatbelt.
The moment we were through my front door, I had her pressed against it, my mouth claiming hers in a kiss that was desperate and hungry. She practically mauled me as she kissed me back with equal fervor.
“I’ve been wanting this all day,” I murmured against her lips, my hands roaming over her curves through her coat.
“Just today?” she teased, but her breathing was already unsteady.
I helped her out of her coat, then shrugged out of mine, both of us moving with urgent efficiency. When I pulled her sweater over her head, revealing the black lace bra underneath, I had to take a moment just to look at her.
“You’re so beautiful,” I said, tracing the edge of the lace with one finger.
Her response was to reach for the hem of my shirt, pulling it up and over my head before pressing her mouth to my chest. The feel of her lips on my skin sent fire racing through my veins.
“Bedroom,” I managed to say, though coherent thought was becoming increasingly difficult.
“Too far,” she breathed, her hands already working at my belt.
She had a point. The couch was right there, and I wasn’t sure I could make it down the hall anyway. I lifted her easily, carrying her the few steps to the living room and settling her on the cushions.
I knelt between her legs, taking my time to worship every inch of exposed skin. When I unhooked her bra and took her breast in my mouth, she arched beneath me with a soft cry that went straight to my cock.
“Cooper, please,” she gasped, her fingers threading through my hair.
“Please what?” I asked, moving to her other breast and lavishing it with the same attention.
“I need you,” she said, her voice breaking slightly. “I need all of you.”
I helped her out of her remaining clothes, my hands shaking slightly as I revealed more of her perfect skin. When she was finally naked beneath me, I had to pause just to take in the sight of her.
“You’re incredible,” I said, running my hands along her sides, memorizing every curve.
She reached for me, her fingers working at the button of my jeans with determined efficiency. When she finally freed me, wrapping her hand around my length, I groaned and thrust into her touch.
“I love watching you lose control,” she said, stroking me slowly.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” I promised, catching her wrist and pinning it above her head. I settled between her thighs, not having the patience for foreplay.
Next time.
When it came to Joy, there was always a desperation driving me. I promised myself next time I would slow down and take my time.
Next time.
I entered her slowly, savoring the way she stretched around me and the way her eyes fluttered closed as I filled her completely. The sensation was overwhelming—the heat of her, the way she clenched around me, the soft sounds she made as I began to move.
“God, you feel perfect,” I groaned, setting a rhythm that had us both breathing hard.
She wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me deeper, meeting each of my thrusts with her own movement. The couch creaked beneath us, but I didn’t care about anything except the woman in my arms and the way she was making me feel.
“Harder,” she demanded, her nails digging into my shoulders.
I obliged, increasing my pace until we were both lost in the desperate rhythm of bodies seeking release. The sound of skin slapping against skin filled the room.
“I’m close,” she gasped, her body beginning to tremble beneath me.
I reached between us, finding her clit with my thumb and rubbing in tight circles. The effect was immediate. She cried out, her back arching as her orgasm crashed over her. The feeling of her coming around me, the way her body clenched and pulsed, pushed me over the edge.
I came with a groan that sounded like her name, spilling inside her as pleasure exploded through every nerve ending. For a moment, the world went white around the edges, and all I could do was hold on to her and ride out the intensity of my release.
Afterward, we lay tangled together on the couch, both of us breathing hard and slightly stunned by the force of what had just happened between us.
“That was…” she started, then trailed off.
“Yeah,” I agreed, my arm tightening around her. “It really was.”
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and pulled away.
“Stay tonight?” I asked quietly, the words coming out more vulnerable than I’d intended.
She lifted her head to look at me, and I saw something in her eyes that made my chest tight with hope.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said softly.