“I need to see the cabin for myself,” she said, curling against me for warmth, her hand resting easily on my thigh. We bumped and slid over the familiar road in Randy’s old truck, and I smoothed my palm over her hand.

“I know, sweetheart,” I said, softly, pulling off onto the driveway. “But we saw it from the air… in all likelihood, there won’t be anything left at all.” I picked up her fingers and warmed them on my cheek. “Almost nothing, anyway.”

Winter had arrived. It had taken a long time, and cost us so much in the waiting… but the whole world was finally blanketed in cold, perfect white. Reilly, glad to finally be rid of his bandages, raised his head to the window and watched the snow fall in gentle whirling drifts. He made a sound in the back of his throat and perked his ears. Though nothing looked the same at all, he still knew he was coming home.

I swallowed the feeling in my chest and pulled up in front of the cabin’s broken remains. A few walls still stood, one leaned heavily against the old cookstove. It had warmed and fed so many generations, watched so many children grow. Now, its black metal surface was stone cold, the oven door hung open as it tilted unevenly on its feet… yet it still marked where the heart of the house had once been.

We climbed out and Reilly took off, racing over the snow and barking in happy excitement. For him, home was simply the place, the land itself. And he was glad to be back. But bitter regret burned inside me. I couldn’t bear that she had to face such an enormous loss. Somehow, I should have prevented this…

“Ember…” I started, taking her hands in mine, searching her face. “We’ll rebuild, if it’s what you want. I know it can’t ever be the exactly same, but I’ll build it with my own two hands and I swear, I’ll do everything in my power to give you back what you’ve lost…”

She bent slowly and picked up the old iron kettle, putting it back on the stove where it belonged. She leaned down and brushed snow and ash off a small metal box. I wandered through what was left of the living room. There wasn’t even a trace of her wedding gown.

“No,” she replied softly, shaking her head. “It’s not what I want…”

She came closer and I watched snowflakes fall, resting on her brilliant hair as she bent and stirred through the rubble with a gloved hand. She picked up a twisted piece of metal and brushed off the snow. A piece of her typewriter…

“I don’t want it to be the way it was,” she said, smiling in a way that made tears burn behind my eyes. “I’m not the same… we’re not the same anymore,” she said. “Don’t you see? It’s like the slate’s been wiped clean… and we get a chance to start all over again, from the very beginning.

“A real second chance.”

In two strides, I had her in my arms. “We’ll need a much bigger place… for lots of babies,” she said, smiling up at me, teasing me. She reached inside my jacket and suddenly the air around us didn’t feel cold anymore. “I want a house of my own, with my husband,” she said. “The cabin was my parents’ home, and it was a lovely place to grow up.

“But I want a home with you, a home all our own.”

I kissed her until we were both breathless, clouds of steam filling the air between us. “Come on,” she said, taking my hand, pulling me along with her. Reilly barked his approval and leapt through the snow, blazing a trail. We didn’t stop until we were standing in the grove, the grove where she’d always wanted to get married. The snow was perfect white, clean and untouched. And the trees, although they’d been burned and shattered, were now covered in a thick layer of pure, crystalline ice. They sparkled in the brilliant sunlight, blindingly… surprisingly beautiful.

“I want to build our house here,” she said, holding her arms up and spinning a circle. “This is the place, right here. In my favorite spot in the whole world.”

I wrapped my arms around her, and swept her brilliant, coppery hair back from her cheeks. They were pink from the cold and her eyes were dark and shining. “You’ll have it,” I promised her. “But there’s something I need to tell you…”

“All our cards on the table?” she asked, looking utterly unafraid. I nodded and brought her hands up to my chest, chafing them with mine.

“I’m off the hotshot crew… officially,” I said slowly. “There won’t be any calls in the night taking me away from you.” I slipped a protective hand over her belly. “This is where I belong and taking care of my family is all I want. But you already know, I’ll do anything I have to, to protect what we have. If this valley is ever in danger again…”

“I need to tell you something too,” she said, cutting me off, focusing on my eyes. “I can’t be grateful for the fire, Jason. It cost too many people too much. But in all of this, there’s one thing I am grateful for…

“I got to see the work that you do. I watched you give everything to save people you care about… and people you’ve never even met. I didn’t really understand it before… all I could see were the risks you were taking, and my own fears of losing you. But out there… I saw for myself what you’re capable of.

“I think you could survive anything.” Tears were shining in her eyes, glittering like the chapel of ice that surrounded us. “I love you for the man you are, just as you are. I don’t own you,” she said, reaching up to put her warm fingers to my jaw. “And I won’t let my fears try to change that anymore. You’re not the only one in this family who’s brave. I found out that I can be strong, too.”

“My god… my Ember…” I whispered. “You’re only wrong about one thing,” I breathed. “You do own me. Body, mind and soul. And the only thing I want now is to build you the house of your dreams, to plant trees again… and not to stop until the whole valley’s been rebuilt. It could take a lifetime… a long, beautiful lifetime working side by side.” I looked at her and smiled, wryly. “It’s about time some of the family fortune went into doing something useful.”

I swept her off her feet and held her against me, kissing her until I was sure the snow around us would melt. Her lips were swollen and deliciously red. Her hair tumbled over my chest, my shoulder. If it hadn’t been freezing, I would have stripped her bare right there in the field and taken her. I was hot and pounding in my jeans, raging with a need that would never burn out. She was my perfect woman. Brave, courageous, more loving than I could have ever imagined.

Rye came running up from across the field and tossed himself carelessly at our feet, smiling up as he panted hot plumes of breath. He rested comfortably on the snow, one ear flopped foolishly over his big head. Ember smiled down at him, her arms tight around my shoulders. “I didn’t think of it until just now,” she said, blinking up at me suddenly with bright, lovely eyes, “of all days…

“This was the day we picked, Jason. Right here, in this spot. Today. It might not look exactly the way I used to dream of it, but it is still beautiful.” She put her hands on my chest, on my heart. “This was supposed to be our wedding day…”

I put her down and reached into my pocket. Never a man to be without a ring when he needs one, I brought out a sparking circlet of gold and diamonds.

“It still is, babygirl,” I said.

“It still is.”