Or maybe farcewas a better word.
But why? If Luke loved her like he claimed, and thought she loved him equally as much, then why couldn’t he have been honest with her?
Cam buried her face in Tigger’s fur, wishing for her mama. She dearly needed her mother to explain to her why she’d fallen in love with a closed-minded, patronizing . . . know-it-all. She didn’t care if Lucian Pascal Renoir was handsome and sexy and smart, or even strong and brave and loyal; if he couldn’t wrap his mind around the magic, then he couldn’t uncompromisingly, unpretentiously, and unconditionally love her.
The sled suddenly stopped, and Luke walked back to open the side of the tarp. When she wouldn’t look at him, he slid his finger under her chin and lifted her face.
He sucked in his breath. “Are you crying?” he asked, wiping his thumb over her cheek. “Goddammit, you should have told me you were cold!” He reached down and started unlacing her boots. “Is it your feet? If they hurt, that’s a good sign you haven’t gotten frostbite yet. I’ll find us a sheltered place to build a fire.”
She covered his hands to stop him. “I’m not cold.”
“Then why are you crying?” She saw him suddenly stiffen. “Camry, you’ve got to come back to reality. What I believe about magic doesn’t matter, as long as you believe that I love you.”
“I-I told you yesterday that loving me means accepting who I am.”
“I do! You’re Camry MacKeage—no, dammit, Camry Renoir—the physicist who’s been driving me nuts for over a year.” He cupped her face in his palms, his thumbs gently brushing her cheeks. “The woman I fell in love with within days of meeting in person.” His grip tightened. “How can I make you understand that nothing else matters but our love for each other?”
She covered his hands with her own. “By believing,Luke,” she whispered. “By honestly believing that miracles aren’t something that happen only in books and movies, and that there’s really more going on than our science can explain.”
He visibly recoiled, sitting back on his heels. “So are you saying you can only love a man who thinks the way you do? And that I must not really love you because I can’t understand how your five-month-old niece can also be sixteen, or how an old hermit can be your long-lost ancestor as well as a drùidh?” He hesitated. “Is that what you’re saying, Camry?”
Unable to face him, she looked down at Tigger. “I don’t know what I’m saying,” she whispered. She suddenly looked back at him. “Would you believe my mother? If Dr. Grace Sutter explained the magic to you, would you believe her?”
He stood up and walked to the front of the sled. “We’ll discuss this later,” he said, the wind carrying his words away. He settled the rope over his shoulders, then glanced back. “You make sure you tell me if you get cold.”
She nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat. Luke called Max to his side and started off, and the sled lurched forward. Cam buried her face in Tigger’s neck, the image of Luke’s wounded expression burning her eyes like hot sand.
It was well after dark when they reached Megan and Jack Stone’s camp lot, and Luke was more than a little surprised that they actually found it, considering they had to battle both darkness and blizzard conditions. But with the last of his reserves fading from towing Camry, Tigger, and eventually Max, as well as their minimal gear, he’d given in to Camry’s plea that he let her put on the snowshoes and tow him for the last few miles. He’d finally conceded when he’d realized they were mostly downhill miles, and that they’d both be better served if he conserved his strength for tomorrow’s trek.
With an efficiency of effort and a few lumber scraps they found around the lot, they used the storm fly of the tent to construct a makeshift shelter, then crawled into the sleeping bag—with the dogs—to share their body heat. Luke sandwiched Camry between himself and Max and Tigger, then fell asleep almost before he’d even closed his eyes.
But when he woke up the next morning, he was alone. He bolted upright, shouting Camry’s name as he scrambled to the entrance.
“I’m right here,” she called back from the shoreline. She held her arms wide. “Look, Luke. Isn’t it beautiful?”
He rubbed a hand over his face, shaking off the last vestige of terror, and took a calming breath as he stood up. He blinked in the sharp sunlight breaking over the east end of the frozen lake as he looked around, surprised by how utterly calm the air felt. It was a winter wonderland as far as he could see, everything blanketed in glittering, pristine snow.
“Yes, it’s beautiful,” he called to her, even as he thought about how difficult that beauty was going to make today’s hike. But Roger’s time constraint notwithstanding, their sitting still was not an option. Luke slipped into his boots and walked to her. “How much ice do you think is on the lake?” he asked, eyeing the snow-covered expanse.
“Anywhere from six inches to a foot. But some places could be only an inch.” She shook her head. “And with the snow covering everything, there’s no way of telling what’s safe and what isn’t.”
Luke bent down, scooped up some snow and rubbed it over his face, giving a shiver as the last cobwebs of sleep fell away. “Then I guess we stick to the tote road. How long have you been up?”
“Half an hour. I started a small fire and melted some snow to make soup.” She gestured toward the campfire burning a few yards away. “Max and Tigger and I have already eaten. The rest is yours.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?” he asked, going over and lifting the pot off the coals.
“I figured you’d wake yourself up, once you got the rest you needed.” She knelt down beside him, picked up a stick, and pushed the embers into a pile. “I’ve thought about what you said yesterday,” she continued softly, not looking at him. “And I agree that we should ignore Roger’s ultimatum that we get back to Gù Brath before the solstice.” She glanced at him, then back down at the fire. “The only people who have any say about our being married is us. We’ll get home when we get there, and we’ll be legally married when we want—by whowe want.”
She took hold of his sleeve, her sharp green eyes direct, her expression defiant. “We’re a team, and together we can conquer the world if we want to, and trump Providence without even breaking a sweat.” She reached down, lifted his hand, and fingered his ring. “Apparently I’mthe one who forgot that the unconditional part of love works both ways,” she whispered, smiling crookedly as she raised her eyes back to his. “I love you, Luke, for exactlywho you are.”
He slowly set the pot down in the snow before he dropped it, then just as slowly pulled her into his arms and held her against him with a sigh. “Thank you,” he whispered into her hair. “For loving me just that much.”
She melted into him, her own sigh barely audible over the sound of slurping.
“What the . . . ?” Luke glanced down to see Tigger’s nose driven into the pot of soup. “Hey, that’s mine!” he yelped, grabbing the dachshund and shoving her at Camry. “Your dog was eating my soup!”
“My dog? You were the one calling himself Daddyyesterday.”
Luke picked up the pot and sat down, holding it protectively against his chest when Max came bounding up, his tongue licking his sniffing nose. “I think we should hook themup to the sled and make them pull ustoday.”
“Come on, guys,” she said with a giggle as she scrambled to her feet. “Let’s go pack up while Daddyeats his breakfast. We all have a long day ahead of us. But just think about the fabulous tales you’ll have to tell Suki and Ruffles when you get back,” she pointed out to them, her voice trailing off as she ducked into the shelter.