*****132:

There was no way Danny could carry Megan up the pathway in the side of this snowy hill that Blaze Phelps was bringing them to. It was too slippery, and he was too off balance. Tracy stopped him, shook her head at him against the cold, and hauled Megan by the arm into her other free arm. Okay, she thought in annoyance, now she was hefting two 24 pound one-year-olds. And she was unprepared....at least the kids had snow clothes, pantsuits and hats and gloves, but she was still in tennis shoes and jeans, a lighter weight jacket and a borrowed hat. Blaze was quite a way ahead of them, smoking as he walked, carrying a large bag, supposedly of their picnic lunch. But it was snowing, her inner self-protested. Let's go back!

"Just a little way more." He yelled back to them and Danny, finding his usual self-assurance without the burden of his sister, ran ahead to see what 'just a little way more' entailed. Grimly, Tracy blinked snowflakes out of her eyes and turned to see how far away from the car they were, could she make it back? Wow! Maybe a hundred feet, of course, she could make it back! She kicked an unseen rock, stumbled, righted herself and turned back to see Blaze and Danny disappear over the top of the incline. She readjusted the well bundled and rather slippery twins and trudged ahead with snow in her shoes. For heaven's sake, hiking the ski lift from the Park City house was farther than this, and she'd done that with a baby on her back and a baby on her front, several times. Huffing and puffing, she made it to the top, and stood there.

Ahead, in perfect still vast relief was the most pristine little pond, surrounded by a veritable dazzle of crystallized pine trees, and a warm and inviting little cabin, with smoke coming out of the chimney. She blinked to make sure it was real, and then with gladness in her heart made it the last few steps. He hadn't taken her out into the wilderness after all... selfish, insensitive beast....

She smiled. Blaze had opened the door of the cabin and Danny had already gone inside. She let Melia down as her arm started to cramp, and then slid Megan off her also, and stood there in the snow as the two toddled precariously toward the house. See, even they knew where to get warm, Tracy surmised.

When she got to him, Blaze gave her a quizzical look and then brushed snow off her hat, staring the whole time, enigmatically into her eyes. "Did you think I was taking you deep into the forest to leave you there with no breadcrumbs to help you find your way back?"

"No." Tracy lied.

He nodded in an exaggerated way, rolled his eyes and was rewarded with her laugh of acknowledgment. She shrugged. "You did make me carry the twins."

"Well, you didn't tell me they were coming, I had already brought a heavy load for myself and for you to carry. I had to carry both." He said, and dropped his heavy load on the floor as he shut the door.

Tracy stood staring around. It was a little cabin. This one room, lit by a huge rock wall fireplace, sported three couches placed in a horseshoe facing that fireplace, and blocking the twins from immediately rushing into the fireplace.... And a wall kitchen, seriously, the left wall was the sink, stove, small refrigerator, and counter, with a really small bar at the end with one stool. The windows were small, but cozy, the trunk against the left wall had a stack of blankets on top. Tracy blocked the way so the girls were unable to get around her, as they made their beeline for the most dangerous place in the room. There were two doors, one on either side of the fireplace. Blaze saw her glance at them as he emptied his bags onto the kitchen counter.

"Bedroom, bathroom." He said and jerked his head in either direction. He held up a bottle. "Sparkling cider for you and...." He held up another bottle and Tracy felt her heart skip... was he going to drink? "Sparkling cider for me." he laughed, seeing her expression. "Man, your thoughts are all over your face, lady."

Tracy let her eyes roll, and then turned away to take the girls' jackets off them, but Blaze's hands stopped her quickly. "Na ah ah! We're going back out." He stated and this time scooped up a twin and marched outside, leaving Tracy to grab the other twin, and follow Danny quickly through the door, so as not to be left behind.

At the edge of the pond stood a gazebo, and inside were two pairs of ice skates. Delight widened her eyes and she set the toddler down. "Seriously? I love to skate!" she cried and flipped her shoes off easily, grabbing the offered pair. He was grinning as he put his own skates on.

"You don't have to worry about the kids. The pond is shallow and it's frozen solid." He said. "It stays colder up here."

Tracy realized his reassurance was unnecessary. They'd driven an hour outside of Paris, up into hills that at first had seemed rolling, but in fact were quite steep. She knew as it started snowing and the ground remained covered with icy burm on each side that wherever they were going was going to be frozen solid.

In seconds they were heading out onto the small ice covered pond. Tracy, reveling in the sudden release from restraint, glided backward, giggling, then twirled and raced quickly around the edge, searching for anomalies, and when none came to mind, she switched to backward and then executed a perfect double jump, and then came down on one foot, gliding effortlessly. She squealed in excitement and then did a few more moves that let Blaze, who was now staring in amazement, know she wasn't an inexperienced skater.

"It's like getting on a bike." She called. "I may not have skated since before the twins were born, but I know how to skate....!"

Blaze was coming toward her. "I can see that you do." He said in awe and grabbed her hand, pulling her in, he wasn't inexperienced himself and having a partner that knew what she was doing was actually thrilling.

As they skated, they exchanged stories of how they had learned to skate. She had six years of lessons as a child, in fact her mother had been expecting her to go to competition when she'd found out about being pregnant with Sam, and everything except the piano had changed. But her dad still took her skating occasionally when she saw him, he liked to watch skating, and had wanted his daughter to be a skater. Blaze had been on a hockey team till his parent's divorce, when he was 16.

"It's funny that music replaced the ice for both of us." She said as they took off their skates an hour later, when playing in the snow lost its sparkle for the three childen.

Blaze nodded as he slid his boots back on. "And acting.... We both sort of fell into it."

"You wanted to be a musician didn't you?"

"But my band fell apart." He laughed as she cocked her head to one side, realizing that her band had fallen apart as well.

"That's kind of a weird coincidence, don't you think?"

He shrugged, took her skates as she tied her tennies, and led the way the short distance back to the warm cabin. "It's the way of quite a few of us."

He had packed an easy lunch of fried chicken, potato salad, rolls, coleslaw, and French pastries. There was plenty for the children, and they ate companionably in front of the fire, and it wasn't long before even Danny was yawning. Tracy put the twins to bed with a rolled up blanket barrier around them on the queen size bed in the one bedroom. Blaze brought the sleeping little boy, who yawned and stretched and then curled into a little ball and snuggled into the covers.

Blaze ushered Tracy out and pulled the door to just a little, so they could hear if the children awoke and then he turned her and put his arms around her in front of the fireplace. His expression was knowing, his goatee twitched in reasonable mockery, but his hands held her firmly in place.

"Why did you let me kiss you last night?" he asked, searching her face pragmatically.

Tracy's own arms were holding him as well, and she realized she felt no fear, she rather liked the quiet background music he played in her life. She sighed. "I didn't, exactly. I wanted to give you a kiss to seal the... the music we were hearing before I left, but you took a little more."

"Is that it? I kind of thought you were responding there."

She didn't answer.

"All I'm saying is maybe you aren't as sure about this eternity thing as you think you are."

He let her go as she went to curl up on the couch and stared into the fire. Last night she had wondered what Raine would have said about her sleeping with Julian, and the cold feeling of doubt made her realize, it wasn't right, she shouldn't be sleeping with Julian, and somehow she'd told herself, because she wanted to, she supposed, that Richard wouldn't care. Richard might care, she now acknowledged. Like the way she knew suddenly that Julian cared, it was hard for him, he loved her, he wanted to be more in her life, sleeping with her was.... Had to be.... Hard. And now... she was out with another guy... not a member of the church, someone who had no clue about her standards. He had respected her enough to not drink around her, and he wasn't swearing at all, and had only smoked on the way up, but not since. And he didn't mind her children.... But how would Raine feel about her being out with Blaze Phelps? She bit the inside of her cheek as a sudden feeling of anguish overcame her. It had only been a few days since the one year mark.

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