Chapter 25

When Luke said they'd go out for dinner, he really just meant dinner. After the meal, Kayla suggested taking a walk around the pedestrian street. While holding a cup of hot latte, she strolled side by side with Luke through the holiday crowd. "What a shame that it didn't snow today. By the way, Luke, does it usually snow around this time of year?" It had been years since Kayla spent Christmas in Astra. The last snowfall she remembered was from high school. Luke paused for a second, then sheepishly shook his head. "I'm not sure." "You're not sure? Weren't you here?" "No, I was in Jolsa." "Jolsa? Were you there for work?" She was just making small talk, but Luke stopped walking altogether. He turned to her, looking down at her cheeks, flushed red from the cold. "I went there to see you," he said. "What?" "Last Christmas, you spent the evening with him and the foreign students he mentored. The year before that, he wasn't home, so you went downstairs and bought yourself an appl