Page 64 of That Thing You Brew
Slowly, I sat up. The cabin was dark and cold, but the fire was going strong. A handful of candles flickered light around the room.
Xavier brushed my hair to the side. “Power’s out. I woke up a bit ago after dreaming I face-planted into the ice. Turns out, it was just your face.”
I raised my eyebrows and tried to hold a straight face. But that was funny. I favored him with a snort.
“There it is,” he said. “I could wake up to your smile and laugh every day.”Icould wake up to his rumpled hair and his morning voice every day. It was a bit gravelly, deeper, and comforting.
“Ditto, Baron von Schwann.” I’d forgotten about his title until Quinn Brewer mentioned it yesterday. Me, Penny Palmer, a real live baroness.The baroness barista,they could call me, if they knew. “My noseisa little cold,” I admitted.
“Allow me to remedy that, Baroness Lady Lucky Penny von Schwann.”
“Eh. We’ll have to work on th—” His mouth covered my nose in a big, wet kiss. I laughed, and soon we were kissing again. Neither of us seemed to care about morning breath.
That was love, right?
Love.
We eventually unfolded ourselves from the window seat and moved to the small sofa facing the fire. Until Xavier’s stomach growled. I traded my blanket for the puffer jacket Tasha packed for me and pulled on my sherpa-lined boots. On the bed, our wedding clothes were laid out, waiting to be packed back into their garment bags. I’d mentioned how much I loved his costume, and he’d joked that he might wear it weekly, just for fun. I’d swatted him and followed up with ayes, please.
Xavier warmed up breakfast while I made coffee. My sister had thought of everything, hand-packing his preferred light roast into little pods and putting together a cooler bag of all the ingredients for his toffee coffee, including the coffee ice cream. Never mind that he didn’t have a game today or that there was no power for the single-serve coffee maker. I gave it my best effort with the boiling water, pouring it over the coffee in the pod and hoping for the best.
“I hope it’s not bad luck to have this on a non-game day.” I set the coffee on the table and slid into the seat across from him.
“We’ll see. I don’t think I’m making it to practice, so no harm.” He nodded toward the door. “The road below still isn’t plowed. If we’re not dug out in the next hour, I’ll call Coach.”
I grimaced. “Will you really get in trouble?”
He shrugged. “Might have to do extra laps or pay a fine if I’m the only one who doesn’t make it. Not afraid of that, either.”
“Oh no?” I teased. “Then I’m afraid I must impose a penalty of my own.”
Just as I’d hoped, his eyebrows drew together into his curiously cute expression. “Ohhh … Let me guess. A volunteer position at the Ren Faire?”
“No. I like that idea, though. But I probably won’t be working it this year.”
“No?” he asked. “Why not?”
I tapped my chin. “There’s this thing called the Stanley Cup final, and it sort of overlaps with the beginning of the Faire. And the Faire is every weekend in the summer, and I kind of want to spend that time with my husband, if he’s amenable to that plan.”
“One hundred percent amenable,” he said quickly. “You think we’ll make it to the Cup final?”
“How can you not with endless toffee coffee?” I teased.
“Touché,” he agreed. “So, my penalty?”
I laughed. “Right. After lunch. We need to brush up your medieval and Renaissance history. Robin Hood was late twelfth century, so the Bryan Adams song, while lovely, and now ours, is medieval. Your Musketeer costume was right on but just only. They were founded in 1622.The Princess Bride,nope. While it may seem Renaissance, or even medieval, there’s a reference to prisoners being sent to Australia, so it would have to take place after 1788. The Renaissance ended around the early 1600s. However, I do love it when you say, ‘As you wish,’ so that transgression is forgiven.”
He let out a long dramaticwhew!“Thank goodness. I do like saying that. As for you not working the Ren Faire, are you sure? That’s been such a big part of your life.”
“And miss the chance to meet both sides of your family and stay at Chateau Schwannenschloss? Not a chance.” I hoped I was clear enough, with the stress on meeting his family.
“I better start planning now.” He smiled and set down his fork. “You still haven’t said what my penalty is.”
“Oh … Well.” I swiped my phone and selected my favorite ballads playlist. “An hour slow dancing to some of my favorite songs should do it. Don’t you think?”
“As you wish.” I giggled and quickly pressed the play arrow for “All for Love” as he came around the table and drew me to my feet. “I think that’s a light punishment and I might need more than an hour of penance.”
“I’ll have to reassess after the last song,” I said. “But yeah, probably more than an hour.”
