She likes to blame her shivers on the weather, but Winter in Four Corners is never really that cold. It isn't the wind kissing her dark cheeks as she goes to the stables and offers a different horse each time an apple to help keep them warm that gives her own self a blast of heat as she walks by Ezra's corner table and feels his green eyes and ample smile upon her form. It isn't ice sliding through her veins when their hands brush as she refills his drink that makes her shiver but rather the hottest heat she's ever felt. Summer never felt like this, nor did Winter or any other season.
Inez knows, no matter how much she prefers to proclaim otherwise, that these feelings all stem from the man himself. His roguish gaze makes her tremble inside whenever it rakes over her, and it's not a bad tremble. She doesn't fear him. She knows he would protect her until his last breath. It's something else entirely, something for which she's not sure she's ready.
She swore she'd never love. She swore she'd never let a man into her heart, but he's there already. All of the Seven are, but Senor Standish especially has inched his way pass her every guard. She loves him, but she'll never say the words until he does. She'll continue to blame these shivers on anything else until he takes her into his arms and proclaims his undying love to her. Only then will she succumb to them, but sometimes, she wonders if that will ever happen beyond her fondest dreams.
The End