Ithaca, New York

2019

Hale laid the letter down in front of me as he finished reading and then threw an arm over my side, tugging me closer to his chest.

"Well shit," I said, staring into the low-burning fire. "She loves him. Honestly, I did not see that coming."

"I think there's a lot you didn't see coming," Hale mumbled into my hair. I could hear the smile in his voice.

"True," I admitted, my grin hidden from him to see.

He bolted upward then before patting down the many blankets and discarded clothing that surrounded us.

"What are you doing?" I asked, swiveling to watch him pound at the ground like a lunatic.

"Trying to...find...my.." He peeked under one particularly white and fuzzy blanket. "Aha!" Producing his phone, he beamed at me. "My phone. I was trying to find my phone."

I gave him a peculiar look, and he threw his hands up in defense. "I'm just going to google it, okay? I won't pay for ancestry.com or any of that other shit, just good ole' Google."

I fell down into the blankets again, chuckling. "I highly doubt that Felix Graham is going to pop up in any google searches. And we don't even know Nora's last name."

But Hale was ignoring me, already eagerly typing on his phone. I watched as he tilted his head back and forth, waiting for the page to load. Unfortunately, my wifi was often unreliable. When his head stopped moving, I knew the connection had gone through. Hale's cheeks dimpled, and a crease appeared in his forehead as he read something.

"What?" I asked.

"Give me a second," he mumbled.

He continued to scroll on his phone, so I let my head hit the blankets and stared at the ceiling. It was as white as the snow falling outside, but the shadows from the darkening room made my living space feel almost cavernous—as if Hale and I were someplace far away, in a time not our own.

I heard Hale shifting around and glanced over to see that he was sliding down on his back, lying parallel beside me. He was still scrolling on his phone, holding it above his face.

With him totally engrossed in his research, I took the opportunity to admire him—just everything about him. I mean, did he go to the gym? I honestly wasn't sure, but if he didn't, I had no idea how the muscles on his chest were so defined. For crying out loud, the man was a librarian.

There must be a lot of heavy books at Cornell.

He was chewing on his bottom lip, and I resisted the urge to fling the phone out of his hands and kiss him again. Now that I could, I didn't want to stop.

Sighing, I looked back at the ceiling. Moments later, however, I heard a definitive thud.

"Ow," Hale complained, and I twisted my head to see his phone lying on his cheek.

"Did you just drop your phone on your face?" 

He threw me a dirty look before promptly picking the phone up again. "Like you've never done it."

I couldn't help but laugh at him, lying there looking so indignant. There was an irony to it all—Hale the genius, not even able to hold his phone straight. But he was ignoring my obvious amusement at his expense, reading something on his screen before jerking forward.

His phone fell onto the floor from his hands, and he looked at me with a bewildered expression.

"Lana," he exclaimed. But he didn't finish his thought, instead jumping to his feet, pacing across the apartment. The still only had his sweatpants on-nothing else-and I found it very distracting. 

"Mm, yes?"

"I can't believe this," he muttered, completely oblivious my perusal of his fine-ass body. Hale threw his head back with a smile and shook it like there was a joke that only he knew. 

God, he was something.

Finally, the guy stopped, running his hand through his hair and facing me.

"Lord Felix Graham was the son of a viscount by the name of Lord Trotten. Wikipedia lists the names of all titled lords in the British peerage and their offspring, so Felix actually popped up pretty quickly when I searched there."

"That's cool," I commented, though the information actually meant very little to me. But I liked that I could watch Hale talk without worrying that I was staring too much. Because right now...I was definitely staring. 

He rolled his eyes. "No, it's not. Well, I mean it is. But only because Lord Trotten was married to the sister of England's prince consort at the time."

"Prince consort? As in the husband to the queen?" I asked, testing my knowledge about monarchies.

Hale nodded, confirming that I was correct. "Felix Graham's aunt was the Queen of England."

My jaw dropped open slightly.

"Through marriage, of course," Hale added, but he still maintained his giddy, enlightened expression. "And that's not all, either."

I sat up on my elbow, intrigued. He slid down next to me, unlocking his phone to show me the Wikipedia page on Lord Trotten, which was surprisingly lengthy. Hale scrolled to the bottom where it went on about the viscount's family.

"The viscount's second son, Felix, traveled to America in 1837 to live with his wife, Elinor Graham," Hale read aloud. "He took over the American branch of Potter Publishing, which was later sold to a man by the name of Henry Oscar Houghton. Today the company is known as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt."

"Isn't that the publisher of like every textbook I've ever read?" I asked, the name ringing a bell in my mind.

"Yes!" Hale exclaimed. "And about a million other books!"

Okay, now I was little bit stunned. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Call your mom," he said suddenly, shoving his phone out to me. When I looked confused, Hale clarified. "So we can know if you're related to Felix and Nora or not!"

Feeling a little numb from all the information being thrown at me, I took his phone and set it down on the floor. Then I reached over to grab my previously discarded shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"I can't call my mom without a shirt on," I said, as though it was apparent, throwing the long sleeve over my head.

"That makes absolutely no sense," Hale reasoned, giving me an exasperated expression.

"She'll just know."

Hale rolled his eyes again but said nothing else. I found my mom's contact info and pressed dial, thinking about what I was going to say. She picked up after the first ring, and I realized it was likely because she thought Hale was calling.

"Hello!" she chimed.

"Hey, mom! It's me."

"Lana?" I could hear the momentary confusion in her voice.

"Sorry, I'm just using Hale's phone," I said. "Um, I have a question for you."

"What's up, honey?"

I took a deep breath. "I was looking through those old Christmas decorations that you sent home with me, and I found a box of really ancient ornaments."

"Oh, did you now?" The words came out slyly, and I instantly realized that my mother knew all about what I was going to ask her.

"You know about them?" 

"Of course, I do," she replied smoothly.

"Then why are they underneath a bunch of crap? And why haven't you shown them to me before?"

"Well," my mom began, dragging out the words. "I thought it might be more fun for you to...discover them." There was a slight pause before she added, "So you called Hale over, did you?"

"Yeah, I thought he might be able to help me understand them better. And I knew he'd be interested in seeing it all."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And then what happened? Did you find the notes about Felix and Nora? Two friends falling in love...rather sweet, right? Did you and Hale read them together?" my mother persisted.

And that's when it clicked.

"Mom..." I said, my voice a warning. "Did you plan this?"

"It depends," she hummed, considering. "What does this mean, exactly?"

I opened my mouth, but then closed it. Then opened it.

The damn woman.

"Is Hale coming to Christmas this year, then?" my mom intercepted my floundering.

I was abruptly relieved that I hadn't left the phone on speaker for this conversation. But then I glanced at Hale and noticed his delighted expression, the knowing in his eyes. He could still hear.

"I would love to come to Christmas," he murmured. "If you want me to."

He flashed me a dimpled, sheepish grin, and my stomach flipped.

"Yes." My voice came out breathy as I responded to my mom, not looking away from Hale as I did. "Yes, Hale's coming Christmas."

Hale's slight grin broke into a broad one, and I couldn't help but return the look.

"Splendid," my mom cheered, and I could hear as she clapped her hands together in glee.

"Mom," I said, ushering the conversation along. I didn't want to go into any more details at the moment with her. "Am I related to Felix and Nora?"

"Well, of course you are darling. They're your great-great-grandparents. Wait...yes, I think that's right."

I shook my head as I took in the information and watched as Hale's face lit up.

"What do you know about them?" I asked her.

"Not much, if I am honest. I just know that they're your father's great-grandparents. Your grandma passed the letters down to us after Christmas last year."

Not wanting to explain everything that Hale had just told me and then field the undoubtedly many questions my mom would have, I just replied, "Well, we learned some things about them today, and we can fill you in at Christmas."

"I'm looking forward to it," she trilled in response before we both said our goodbyes, and I hung up the phone. I handed the device back to Hale, and the corner of his mouth tilted up.

"I told you that your mom loved me. I've always known."

Raising a brow artfully, I shot back, "And yet you didn't know that I loved you?"

Hale scooted closer to me, and he reached up to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. "You hid it from me, Lana."

I couldn't help but lean into his hand until he was cupping my cheek. "Not anymore," I whispered and tilted my head up to kiss him, slowly, languidly. I wasn't sure how long it lasted, but time didn't matter.

When we paused to breathe, I said, "You hid it from me, too."

Hale closed his eyes momentarily. "I know," he admitted. "I tried stupid tactics to get you to notice me, but I should have just told you a long time ago."

"Notice you?" I asked with incredulity.

He shifted his eyes, reluctant to admit whatever he was going to say. "That girl Katie you were talking about earlier? Who I had staying at my place when you came to visit? Yeah, I remember who she is now. I asked her to come over that weekend to make you jealous."

I swatted at his hard chest. "Jerk," I accused. "It worked. Too well. I didn't want to live with you because I was afraid that I was going to have to watch you with other girls all the time."

Hale shook his head, chuckling slightly. "I know. I'm an idiot." His eyes raked over my face, his brown eyes sucking me in. "There are no other girls, Lana," he said. "Only you."

I began to feel hot and uncomfortable in my skin, and I knew it had nothing to do with the fire at my back. Without even looking toward the window to check, I said, "I think the snow is getting heavier."

"Is it now?" Hale asked, his eyes not leaving mine either.

"You'll probably have to spend the night," I said lowly.

"You're probably right," Hale agreed. "What should we do while I'm stuck here?" His gaze flicked up and down my body, and I squirmed. He hadn't even touched me yet, and I was already squirming.

"I have some ideas," I managed to get out before Hale was kissing me again, and we were both gasping for breath. He reached beneath my shirt, his warm hands gliding over my skin before he tore it off.

"You better not put that back on again," he growled as he pushed me back down to the floor once more, and we got tangled in blankets and touches.

I gave a noncommittal response before Hale climbed on top of me, pinning both of my wandering hands to the floor on either side of my head. Then he sat back with a heated gaze.

"You don't know how gorgeous you are, Lana. How smart and funny and amazing you are."

My heart leaped. Shaking my head, I said, "And you don't know that you are all those things and more, Hale."

"Sounds like we are perfect for each other, then," he quipped. "How did it take us so long to figure it out?"

His smile grew by a few degrees, tugging at the corner of his soft lips and making me want to kiss them.

But I just grinned. "I think we always knew."

"I think so too," Hale whispered before leaning in and kissing me. And he didn't stop until the morning came. He didn't stop kissing me until the snow had settled like a frozen ocean, and I realized how the chilled air merely rushes in warmth to the heart.

It was going to be a very white Christmas. And an even warmer winter.