Frost

13. December

At exactly 9am sharp, Jack stood in front of her door, wearing that smile she had missed. Summer had cleared things up at the coffee shop with Bev who told her to take the day of with the one condition that Summer promised her a big present for Christmas.

So now, as Summer stepped outside of her house in the thickest jacket and scarf she owned, Jack lent her his hand as they trotted down the street to her car.

"So where are we going?" Summer asked, caught somewhere between worry and excitement. She couldn't remember the last time someone gave her a surprise, looking aside from the time he walked into her coffee shop with his silver hair and golden smile.

"A place I hope you'll be open to staying at," Jack mysteriously replied. "Stay open minded today, Summer. Have the mind of a kid for one day."

Mind of a kid for one day. That should be doable. "Alright then; Take me away, Mr Frost."

~~~

They drove for just about twenty minutes into the deep landscape surrounding Whitefish. Summer who had lived here all her life was being taken places she never knew existed and drove down roads she hadn't seen before. When they stopped up and parked by a forest, she began to worry.

What if he brought her here to tell her he was a wanted murderer or something? He had taken her far away from her town and was now leading her into the woods. She knew so little about him, should she really be doing this?

"Coming?" Jack asked and smiled at her. His eyes twinkled with that Christmassy sparkle, and just like that, Summer knew there was no danger. Just like that.

She had to be crazy.

They walked in about ten minutes of silence through the frosty landscape. The air was chilly. Summer could see her own breath as they stepped over frozen foliage and fallen branches. The sky was blue above them and the sun shone down on the snowy trees so they sparkled. Kind of like Jack's eyes.

Finally, he stopped up when they reached a small clearing with a frozen lake. He turned and smiled at her. "Here we are."

Summer looked at the lake and had to frown. "Did we just come all the way out here for... a lake? You do know that Whitefish has lakes much closer by, right?"

"I wanted something excluded," He confessed and took a few steps towards her, "so I could talk to you and... maybe get you to understand."

"Understand what?" Summer was confused. She couldn't for the life of her see where this was going.

"I know we said we weren't going to go into... each other's pasts," He then started and looked deeply into her eyes. "But for this to have even the slightest chance of going just a little well, I need you to understand that... snow and ice wasn't what killed your parents."

Summer shut her eyes and released a breath. She couldn't believe he was going to do this, she saw his plan clearly now. "Jack, please don't...."

"No, remember what I told you?" He said and caught her hand when she was backing away. He pulled her back and pinned her flush against his body. "Innocence of a child today. Before your parents died. I want you to remember the joys of winter. The joys of playing in the snow, of building frosty the snowman," He cupped her face gently and leaned down to her. "Of skating on the ice."

Tears were welling up in Summer's eyes. She had avoided ice ever since her parents died—had hated it with a burning passion, and now she was supposed to just leave it all behind and go skate? "Jack..."