Under Joanna's fiery glare, I was conducting more heat than the jar of jam I'd just opened.

Because the last time I saw Joanna Parsons was when she tumbled out of James' bed wearing nothing but his tee-shirt. When she ripped the coffee I'd bought him from my shaking hands, then smirked before slamming his door in my blood-drained face.

Now, James was pinning me to the counter of his parents' kitchen, feeding me cheesy pickup lines while my lips were still imprinted with the memory of his.

Maybe I should have felt victorious. I didn't. Rather, my limbs were locked tight, my feet anchored to the marble floor. My mind was on alert, shouting at me to run. To take James with me while everything was still intact. But every other part of me was waiting. Watching. I couldn't help it. I was as helpless as a gazelle holding a lion's stare. I knew I should flee, but I also knew that fleeing was futile.

And it wasn't just me who felt uncomfortable, I realized. Uncertainty and awkwardness seeped out of all three of us, rising into the air and encasing us in silence. It was so quiet that I could hear the clock ticking above us. Literal seconds of silence were playing out like hours.

Joanna must have realized it at the same time as I did. She never was one to be bested by vulnerability.

In an instant, fire turned to ice. Her stare became hazy, almost as though it was obscured behind a veil. The corners of her mouth lifted in a smirk that didn't quite make it to her eyes, as cool and as hard as a sudden rippling breeze.

"Jimmy." Her greeting was dry and plain, like butter on toast. She stretched her smile lazily, though her insincerity was overwhelming.

"Hi, Jo."

It was only when James spoke that I realized how much he'd hardened. His limbs were stiff, as though he were a plank of wood. His chin was still resting on my head, his hands on my waist, but it felt as if he was drifting a hundred miles away.

It was a stark contrast to how we'd been before. Laughing. Teasing. Affectionate. Happy. And, god, did my heart feel the distance. It was suddenly so sore. It was holding its pace, just like my lungs were holding my breath.

As long as we're here, nothing can change.

Why was I so quick to disagree?

Joanna turned, regarding me slowly. Carefully. She was assessing me like I was the one who'd just stumbled into the kitchen, or like I was a foreign being who'd fallen out of the stars.

"And ... Madeline."

"Madison," James corrected. His tone was still hesitant, his grasp still slack. But he didn't miss a beat before saying, "You know that."

Her eyes moved again, two sizzling embers concealed behind a carefully constructed fortress. But when they traced his arms further and further down, when they found his hands clasping my waist, a millisecond of uninhibited emotion flickered like candlelight. She couldn't mask it, it was too intense. It was something like anger. Something like pain.

Something like heartbreak.

I saw it, then I felt it. It'd been months since I'd felt that cold.

I inched my face to the left. I threw James a quick, meaningful glance. He didn't quite catch the whole message, but he did loosen his grip.

When I turned back to Joanna, I made sure I was smiling.

"You can call me Madi." I glided out of James' arms, rounding out from the counter to meet her by the entryway. I ignored the way she scrunched up her nose as I approached. I even ignored the way she appraised my outfit from head-to-toe. I extended as cordial a greeting as I could muster, planting a light kiss on her bronzed cheek. "You look gorgeous! Did you change your hair?"

Her eyes bounced from me to James before swinging back. That clock was still ticking above us, its hands drawing out the silence.

"Yes."

"Highlights," I confirmed, eyeing the caramel streaks woven through her brown mane. "I like them."

"Thanks ..." she drawled, that 's' seemingly never-ending. But though her gaze was still as icy as when she first entered the room, her pink pout lifted into the faintest of smiles. Or into her version of a smile. I tried not to take the fact that it looked more like a snarl too personally.

A flurry of activity pierced through the stillness of the kitchen, a mass of bodies joining us in the suddenly too small space. Joanna and I lurched back as James' mother hurried past, eyeing the assortment of food we'd prepared before motioning to her staff to take it into the dining room.

"Joanna!" she managed to exclaim over the fanfare, greeting her with a kiss as I'd done seconds before. "Oh, wonderful. Wonderful! We're all here."

"Wonderful, indeed," Noah muttered as he approached, making no effort to mask his scowl as he leaned against the door.

I threw him a curt look.

He rolled his eyes, but he complied.

Once the pancakes and waffles had left the kitchen in a whirlwind of sweet, sugary smells, Mrs. Bennet's hand fluttered to my arm. She guided me away from the others, bowing her head to mine in a not-so-subtle secret huddle.

"About the ... thing. You know—"

"I know," I confirmed, excitement bundling my stomach.

"Should we go this afternoon? We could slip out after tea?"

"Perfect."

She squeezed my arm gently, throwing me a wink before sauntering away. It wasn't elusive enough to escape James' eagle eyes, and he regarded me with an expression dripping in confusion.

I smiled innocently, dashing back to Joanna as she lingered awkwardly on her own.

"When did you get here?" I asked, more so in an effort to escape my friends' interrogative glances rather than any genuine intrigue I held for her whereabouts. "We missed you on the slopes."

"Last night." She was still regarding me coolly, her spine and expression regally stiff. But at least she was answering me. "The road was a mess, but we arrived at about eleven-thirty."

My features crumpled with concern. "You drove through the storm?"

Joanna's features scrunched with confusion. "The storm?"

"The storm last night."

Her frown only deepened.

My mouth opened as clarification tugged on my tongue. But, just as quickly, realization stung me like a bee.

Noah and Dex coughed in perfect synchronization. So perfect that I didn't even need to see them to know that they were masking laughter. To know that I'd been played.

Massively.

I hadn't realized until right then and there that it never had actually stormed the night before.

In all fairness, I'd been rather distracted.

I felt like a prized idiot as Joanna finally retreated, spinning on her Versace heels and slipping down the hall. Out from her intense presence, Noah and Dex weren't able to conceal their hysteria much longer. They covered their faces with their hands, sniggering like children who'd been caught in the midst of a schoolyard prank.

James came up behind me, drawing me back to him like a fish on a line. I didn't try to fight it, didn't question why he was so hot again after turning so cold. I gave in to his offer of comfort, groaning into his sweater in total mortification.

"Oh, god. She probably thinks I'm stupid." I burrowed my head into his chest pitifully. "I think I am stupid. I was just trying to be nice."

"Trying?" He chuckled lowly. "You were nice. Nicer than I was going to be."

I peered up at him through my hair, falling into his eyes as he blinked down at me.

And that's when I understood. I understood why he'd gone so cold when Joanna walked in on us, why his body froze over like a block of ice. What I'd interpreted as hostility or fear—or worse, regret—was simply neutrality.

James was waiting for me. Waiting to see how I'd react to Joanna. Waiting to mirror it, to have my back unapologetically as though we were on the same team. Because we were.

Relief washed over me. Relief stemming from the fact that I'd chosen to play things the way I had. That I'd chosen to take the high road, even if it hadn't gone exactly to plan. Because I don't know whether I could have lived with myself if I'd been rude to Joanna. If James had been rude to her in turn, if I'd then had to stand there and watch as her heart broke through her guarded eyes. That's not the kind of person I wanted to be. I never wanted my happiness to come at a cost. Not even someone else's. Not even hers.

I needed to make that clear.

"Let's try to be mindful," I urged James gently.

He regarded me silently before shaking his head from side to side, a movement as soft as it was reflective. He appeared grateful, and I understood why. I knew him. He was annoyed at Joanna, and I couldn't at all blame him. She was kind of the worst, and he'd dealt with her antics far longer than I had. But I also knew his heart. It was good. I knew that, like me, he would never want to be the cause of someone else's pain. Even if that person was once the catalyst for ours.

His lips grazed my cheek, his voice soft and smooth. "You're a good person, Madi."

Once, my heart beat with so much pain that I worried it might break. On that December morning, it was being fed so much affection that I thought it might explode.

"I want to be, for you. Because you're a good man, James."

I didn't realize the weight of my words until I said them, until James drew a breath so deep that I felt it against my chest. I didn't know that was something he needed to hear—I thought it was a fact as plain as the sky being blue. But now that I knew saying it made him melt like he did, that it warmed his gaze and drew his lips to mine, I vowed to never stop. To never stop telling James Bennet what a good man he was, about how he drove me to be the kind of woman he deserved.

"Ewww," Dex groaned, eyeing us as we kissed. His earlier amusement turned to disgust, his little face scrunching up into an ungodly scowl. He made a gagging sound as he pushed himself away from the wall, turning to Noah as a shudder ruptured his demeanor. "Remind me again why this is better than how things were before?"

Noah raised an eyebrow. "You preferred it when they were merely screwing each other with their eyes?"

I giggled guiltily against James' mouth, a soft heat dancing on my cheeks. The two of us had spent so long restraining ourselves around each other. It was hard to chain ourselves up again now that our shackles had been opened. It was hard to remember that there was even a world outside of the two of us.

But there was. And we were going to have to try a little harder to be sensitive of it.

I sighed, taking a step back and lacing my fingers through his. Being mindful was a lot easier said than done.

I stepped out of the Bennet's Mercedes, brushing some stray fur from my coat before draping it over my shoulders. The early evening breeze slapped my cheeks, the slush crunching under my boots as I walked to the rear of the car. I couldn't have been gone for more than an hour, but the Van Der Yates' elves had been hard at work.

The entire valley of the resort was now home to game stalls and carnivals rides. Emerald green leaves filtered the fleeting sunlight, casting it over the wintry landscape in glimmering shades of gold. A bright red Ferris Wheel towered into the sky, transporting passengers to the clouds before bringing them back down to the snowy ground below.

The Winter Wonderland Festival was unlike anything I'd ever seen in real life. It made our bonfire in Capri look like a quaint tea party. I leaned against the back of the car to take it all in, to indulge in the homely smells of candy and pastries that filled the arctic air.

I didn't realize how very tourist-like I must have looked—not until James' mother emerged from the driver's side, tilting her head sweetly as though questioning why I'd frozen in place.

"It's beautiful," I tried to explain.

She withdrew her gaze, trailing the path mine had left on the horizon. She took a few steps forward until she was hovering beside me, her doe eyes glazing over as they reflected the images of Christmas cheer.

"You're right." She sounded wistful. She sounded almost surprised. "I suppose I got so used to it."

"I don't think I ever could," I admitted.

Her expression softened even more, but she didn't say a word.

But then she looked over my shoulder again, and urgency crumpled her poise completely.

"Oh, dear." She spun on her pink heels, throwing the shopping bags in her hands back into the car and slamming the door hard behind them.

She really wasn't one for subtlety, though I think she thought she was.

While I didn't need to confirm the reason for her sudden panic, I turned around anyway. Noah and Dex were crossing the road to meet us by the chalets, a half-confused, half-amused James leading their charge.

Mrs. Bennet signaled to her husband as he watched us from their porch. He seemed just as bemused as James did, but he was quick to dash down those steps.

"Do you think you can distract Jay for a little while?"

My eyes locked with her son's, and I chewed on my smile. "Yeah, I think so."

Cold air slipped through the thin material of my dress as I propelled myself toward my approaching friends. I fastened the tie on my cherry red coat, extending my arms out to turn them in the other direction.

"The fun's this way," I said, motioning back to the lines of tents and rides.

While Dex and Noah agreed, James hovered in the middle of the road. He was assessing me closely, tilting his head. "Where were you guys?"

I shrugged. "Nowhere."

A scoff caught in his throat. He wasn't letting me off the hook that easily. Really, I should have known. After all, he was so very disagreeable.

"We went into town." It wasn't a lie. It was simply a very vague truth.

"For?"

I hesitated before giving into a coy grin, eyeballing our friends pointedly. "Icing sugar."

Dex's cheeks puffed up like a blowfish, but he couldn't swallow his laughter for long. Noah looked over his shoulder to mask a smile, and even James couldn't resist giving in to a low laugh. But, naturally, the curious edge to his expression didn't let up.

Seizing the opportunity for a subject change, I wedged myself between the mischievous pair and laced my arms through theirs as we walked toward the festival.

"Where did you guys go last night?"

"Don't look at me!" Dex threw his other arm in the air, surrendering to my interrogation before it'd even begun. "I actually did go to the main hotel, thank you very much."

"And you?" I asked, clasping Noah's arm tighter.

But Noah didn't answer me. Not verbally, at least. Rather, he turned so that we were face-to-face, eye-to-eye, a devilish glint in his brown stare telling me everything that I needed to know.

Everything and more, actually.

My eyes popped from my skull, my cheeks burning despite being bitten by the frigid wind. I couldn't help but giggle like a giddy school girl, nuzzling my head into his shoulder and muffling a squeal.

If Noah and Blair's night was anything like mine and James', then there was nothing that frosty air could do to diffuse the fire claiming us all.

Hi guys! I hope you're all enjoying the story, despite the curveball that I threw at you at the end of the last chapter!

I just wanted to give you a heads up that there are two chapters left of TCT. I'm still in denial about it ending—I don't know how I'm going to be able to let these characters go!

What do you think about Madi's reaction to Joanna? Would you have reacted differently?

Any predictions as to what's going to happen at the festival??

- Danielle