“What else would you like to know about me?” I ask Lance as we begin to move again.

“Tell me about your powers. I know that each witch has specialties. Right?”

“We do.” Coming here and using my powers for more than occasional tarot readings, I’ve learned I never really developed my powers to their full potential. “But I’m not sure what all of mine are yet.”

“How do you find out?”

“With practice. In Florida, I didn’t use my magic much, so I never worked on discovering the depth of my abilities.” Magic wasn’t something I needed at home, but my mother would have been happy to help me explore my powers had I asked. I think she never pushed because neither of us ever thought I might be a clan witch and need to know. “I never expected to end up here.”

“I imagine being thrust into a situation unprepared must be a little unsettling.” Lance stops for a moment to open zippers in the armpits of his jacket.

I say, “It would be if I were facing great dangers every day, but I’m not.”

“I heard you saved a Robichaux warrior.”

I laugh. “There are no secrets in this town, are there? But I wasn’t the one who saved him.” I think about how I helped Bella save her soul mate by taking action. All my life, I’ve had sudden truths come to me when I needed them most. Like the time when I knew a shark was in the water, and even though I didn’t see him, I screamed at two surfers to stop them before they headed out in the water. They were grateful when we spotted the shark just minutes later. When Cade’s heart stopped beating, I was given the sudden truth I needed to save him. Because Bella and Cade have a soul-mate connection, I knew she needed to be bonded to him to amplify her magic and bring him back to life. So I grabbed a scalpel covered in his blood to slice her wrist and create the bond.

I say, “I’m pretty good at knowing what to do in emergency situations. I have a keen mind for creating spells, and I have some telekinetic powers.”

“You do?” Lance stops. We’re at the edge of the forest, and he drops his pack again to grab more water. “Will you show me something?”

“Okay. I’m pretty sure I’ve only tapped into this side of my magic because it definitely takes practice, but check this out.”

I notice the bar of chocolate in his pack, and I point at it as I focus my powers to lift it up and have it come toward me. I grin when I catch it.

“Whoa! What else can you do?”

I thrust out the fingers of one hand to send my magic at the ground, and snow blasts up as if it exploded.

“Hey, you could have cleared your driveway with magic.”

“I could, but it would take a lot of energy, and I’d need a major nap and a lot more chocolate afterward. It’s less strenuous to just shovel.” I slide my fingers under the candy wrapper to open it up. I snap off a piece and put it in my mouth before I hold out the bar to Lance.

“Makes sense. I never thought about how much energy it must take to use your powers.”

“Yeah. And I likely use more than necessary because I haven’t fine-tuned it yet. But I’m getting better.”

“You impressed me,” Lance says as he steps closer to me and the chocolate.

He breaks off a square, and I open my mouth so he can pop it in. I let out a small noise of pleasure when the sweetness hits my tongue, and his nostrils flare. I react by placing my hand on his chest and swallow down my chocolate with a gulp. Lance cups my chin with his hand, and his lips turn up in a smile before they land on mine. Our kiss is soft, nipping, with a hint of sweetness that comes from more than the sugary treat.

When we break apart, I take a much-needed breath, and my cheeks heat up as I smile.

He asks, “What would you like to know about me?”

What your hands would feel like on my bare skin, because I bet you’d be good with them. I blow out air as I regain my composure. “Tell me what you do for work,” I say as we begin to move single file on a path in the woods.

“I work at the mill.” Snow flips up from his snowshoes and splatters on his legs as he walks.

The Veilleux clan’s major business is a specialty paper mill that creates products for artists, and I say, “So you are good with your hands.” Oh god. A flush returns to my cheeks when he glances back at me. “I mean—” I let out a sigh because Lance is laughing.

“I am very good with my hands,” he says. “In my spare time, I draw and dabble in watercolors.”

“I’d like to see your work sometime.”

“Are you inviting yourself over to see my...” He glances over his shoulder and waggles his eyebrows at me. “Paintings?”

“What? I—”

He’s laughing again, and I stoop down to pick up snow and form a snowball. I throw it and hit the back of his head.

“Hey!” Lance turns around with a grin. “You sure you want to start that?” He steps close to me and gazes at my mouth. His voice lowers, making me think his insides are trembling with desire the way mine are. “Because it’s going to end up with us on the ground.” He pulls off his glove and hooks his finger in the opening of my jacket to tug me closer. “Covered in snow.” I let out a shaky breath as he lowers his mouth toward mine, and he whispers, “And very wet.”

I melt faster than a snowball in the Florida sun as our second kiss gets heated, and I clutch at Lance’s jacket, wishing I could remove it along with everything else he’s wearing.

He’s the one to pull away first, and he asks, “How do you like winter now?”

“If that’s winter, I have been doing it wrong.”

Lance says, “At this rate, we’re never going to get to the river.” He starts walking again. “I left a little surprise there for us in case I could convince you to come.”

“I like surprises.” I trudge along behind him, and it doesn’t take long for us to reach the river. It’s mostly frozen over, but water still rushes by, and I can see it through various nooks and crannies in the ice.

We walk over to a fallen log, and Lance clears the snow off of it for me to sit. He drops to his knees and begins to dig. He pulls up what looks like a neoprene bag one might use on a boat and hands it to me. “Go ahead and open it up,” he says. When I do, I pull out a loaf of French bread, a container with pieces of cheese, another with pepperoni, and a bag of grapes.

My stomach growls at the sight of food.

“Aha!” says Lance as he holds up two bottles of beer. “Our winter picnic. What do you think?”

“I think you’re amazing, because suddenly I’m starving.”

A bottle cap pops as he removes it, and he hands me a beer. “Snowshoeing will do that to you. I swear it makes food and beer taste better too.”

As he sits beside me, I take a sip of the beer and notice a bit of slush in it. The icy-cold liquid feels good in my mouth, and after I swallow it down, I say, “Wow. That really does taste better.” I tilt my bottle toward him. “I think this is the best beer I’ve ever had.”

He taps his drink against mine. “To new discoveries.”

“To new friends.”

“Friends, huh?” Lance frowns and leans in to kiss me but stops when he’s inches from my mouth.

I pull back to scowl too. “What’s wrong?”

“I want us to be more than friends, Dawn.”

I smile as my crush on him fills me with warmth. “Me too, Lance.” I lean forward and kiss him with the kind of passion that reinforces what I said. When we stop, I say, “I think I’m beginning to like winter.”

“Uh-huh,” Lance leans in for another kiss. “And it’s only just begun.”