Forest Edwards is always running. Either literally, because of his dog, Fletch; running to escape his tiring work life; or, well, running away from the possibilities of love.
But when Natalie Dayholt, together with her dog, Bailey, waltzed into his...
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IT'S BEEN DAYS, yet her heart still beats a little faster whenever she glances out of the window. Because the image of the two of them standing under the warm streetlight in the midst of the swirling snow that day was all that went through her mind.
For Natalie, the week had sailed by in a rush, her schedule packed with work, quality time spent with Haley, and, unsurprisingly (or not), text messages to Forest. She hadn't seen him since that night, since it was an extremely busy week for the both of them, but it didn't really feel as though he'd just disappeared.
Forest was always there to send her some lame joke he'd found on Pinterest or some other website ever since he figured that she liked them, and, as expected, they always brought a stupid grin to her face.
But today was going to be different. Natalie pulled the hood of her parka over her head, feeling snug in her blue turtleneck as she shut the main door behind her. Because today was the first day of their cooking classes together.
Despite her mixed feelings that never seemed to be sorted out, Natalie couldn't lie — she was looking forward to seeing the person she was accompanying with to the class.
And in fact, the said person was already standing outside of her door, leaning against the brick wall while scrolling through his phone.
"Hey, you." Forest said, pushing himself off of the brick wall as he strode towards her with an easy smile. "I thought you'd never come out of your house. Shall we go?"
Natalie raised a brow. "How come you're here? I thought we'd be meeting there instead?" She asked, confusion clouding her face. Natalie pulled her phone out to double check their messages again, but Forest shook his head with a small smile, lightly pushing her hand down.
"I decided against that, Natalie. It makes more sense for me to walk together with you."
"Oh."
He shuffled his feet. "You don't mind, right?" Forest scratched his nape awkwardly, before he looked at her sincerely, "I mean I just wanted to spend a little more time with you."
Natalie briefly wondered how she still had mixed feelings. Because Forest was Forest and how could anyone not like him? She bit back a smile, turning away as she wrapped her scarf round her neck till it covered her pink tinted cheeks. "No, uh, I don't mind at all."
She quickly walked forward, ahead onto the pavements as Forest laughed lightly behind her. "Okay, good."
She sped up while walking, biting on her lip as she sighed audibly. Natalie wished that Forest wouldn't laugh so adorably at everything she did, because it made her feel things that she didn't know if she wanted to feel.
"Wait."
Natalie's heart lurched when she felt his warm hand hold onto her wrist gently, pulling her to a stop.
