Page 96 of Through the Snow Globe
Rochelle:It’s like I woke up in a winter wonderland. The only bummer is that we won’t be able to have our traditional birthday drinks tonight.
Diana:Rain check. Correction—snow check.
Rochelle:What will you do with your free day?
Diana:Spend it with Linus.
Rochelle:Where’s Dustin?
Diana:Grandma Joann’s. She kept him overnight.
Rochelle:Very nice of her.
Diana:The woman spoils him rotten. Now I know why Linus is the way he is.
Diana and Linus had officially adopted the boy this summer. All he needed was someone willing to love him unconditionally.
Rochelle:Snowed in with your hubby sounds heavenly.
Rochelle sent a GIF of a woman waggling her eyebrows and Diana laughed. Then she set her phone down and closed her eyes, savoring the stillness of the morning and looking forward to spending the day with the man she loved. She laid there long enough, with her eyes shut, that she started to doze off again.
“Wake up, sleepy girl,” Linus said, walking back into the room with two plates of food. He handed her one.
“Mmm. How did I get so lucky?” She breathed in the delicious aroma wafting beneath her nose.
Linus sat down on the bed beside her and grinned as he bit off a piece of his bacon. “I could say the same about you.”
“Have you ever made me breakfast in bed before?” she asked. Because maybe he had in some version of time that she’d completely forgotten. Time was a slippery thing after all.
Linus furrowed his brow as he thought on his answer. “I don’t believe so. How about this for a new tradition? Every time we’re snowed in, I’ll make you breakfast in bed.”
“I like that tradition.” She somehow suspected Snow Haven would have a lot more snow in its future. Something had shifted, not just for her and Linus, but for Dustin and Maria. For Addy. For everyone. A lot could change in one day.
They ate their breakfast together, talking and laughing and being the “us” that Linus had longed for during their time loop.
“Can we just live like this?” Linus mused as he ran his hand down the side of her arm.
Goose bumps rose to the surface of her skin. “Every day from now on.”
“We’d run out of food,” he said.
“We could survive on love alone.”
Linus grinned, looking equal parts adorable nerd and sexy toy salesman. “I like this mushy side of you, Mrs. Grant.”
She finished off her second slice of bacon. “In that case, I also want to say I’m glad we found each other. I know I’m not winning any wife of the year award, but I love you.”
“Youarewinning wife of the year award. At least in my book. And I love you back,” he said. Then he got up from the bed and stashed his breakfast plate on the nightstand. “Okay, I can’t wait until tonight. Let’s open our gifts to each other now.”
Diana laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Rarely. But right now, yes. Dead serious.”
Diana shook her head. “You are one big kid, you know that?”
“Guilty as charged.”
She placed her empty plate off to the side too and got up to retrieve his gift from inside her underwear drawer while Linus slipped into his closet. She guessed his hiding place was once again behind a curtain of silly ties.
