"Gosh, where are you taking me?" she asked, willingly following the man who managed to send her blood rushing so early in the morning.

"Outside-"

"Outside? I'm in a dress, God knows where I left my boots and it's freezing-!"

"-to the porch," he continued calmly. "Seeing how you're the little nature lover, I thought you might like to see this."

Curiosity got the best of her.

"See what?"

Chris opened the door and heard her gasp. He wasn't sure if it was the crisp shock of the cold air or the lovely sight of the untouched hills and snow covered trees. The sun was high in the sky, making everything beneath it a bright glittery surface like a thousand diamonds under light.

"Oh wow, Chris. It's amazing." She stepped up to the screen and breathed in the crisp air. She glanced down at the goose bumps on her forearms then back at the landscape. "You could at least-"

She felt Chris step up behind her and wrap both his jacket and his arms around her. She finished lamely, "Share your coat."

He laughed and hugged her closer.

They were quiet for a while and then Giverny spoke.

"Why didn't you try and make it work with CJ?"

"It's not like I didn't make it work... But she'd have found out sooner or later. I- we knew it was a bit forced despite all her issues coming out over that weekend. Because she actually met John before Thanksgiving!"

"What?"

"I knew before I met you that your sister and I wouldn't make it past friends."

"Wait!"

He was going too fast for Gigi and she said so. So he explained.

CJ and Chris got along just fine but their relationship hadn't started as a romantic one. At all. He realised quite early on that CJ wanted someone who would take care of her, so he'd had his friend John come over for drinks the day before the two of them had flown down for the Thanksgiving weekend.

The two of them- CJ and John- had hit it off but when Chris mentioned it, Claudette had laughed and said John Hart was too old.

Thanksgiving had thrown Gigi and Chris together in more ways than one and it had been then that he'd made his decision.

"What decision?" Gigi asked, no longer seeing what was outside. Throughout his tale, he'd been rubbing her arms in another effort to keep her warm and now her skin was tingling and her face felt flushed.

"I'd see CJ happily with another man before making moves on you. I didn't want you to feel it was your fault."

"M-making moves?" Giverny stammered.

"Yeah, you know- calling you, taking you out... trying to kiss you again," he finished softly.

Giverny was thoughtful for a while.

"So do you think you could skip the first two moves and get to the-"

Christian turned her in his arms and kissed her softly.

There was no urgency- just a sensual caress designed to send more tingles down her spine. Indeed, she shivered before drawing back a bit.

She took a breath and then asked, "Does CJ know?"

He nodded and laughed. "She practically kicked me down the stairs this morning!"

Gigi's eyes widened.

"Yeah, she said she saw you kissing Pickner and while he is a nice guy, she would rather have me try my luck and you know- have cute babies like hers and JH's."

"What?" Gigi screeched. "They're having a baby?"

"Not yet," he assured her, "but the ring on her finger promises they'll be trying pretty soon."

Giverny opened and shut her mouth, digesting the news quietly. "I'm happy for her."

"Good. I'm glad. Now will-"

"Wait. There's one thing I need to figure out." She frowned.

"What is it?"

"Well, what we talked about last night. Your gut feeling for my sister."

"I don't have one," he said simply.

"But you-"

"Listen to me Giverny," he said gently, "I said I have that gut feeling- granted. If you weren't so dreamy and romantic, you'd have had the sense to ask me about it and I'd have told you honestly that the gut feeling was all about you.

"I've never been so confused in my life. At first I wondered if it was the baby and then there was my reaction to your kiss- and the way it has haunted my dreams every-"

He wasn't able to speak anymore as Gigi reached up and brought his head closer to hers for yet another heart knocking kiss.

Looking back on that morning Giverny laughed.

She'd walked back into the ski lodge alone, with Chris's jacket around her. CJ had been sitting on the stairs, grinning stupidly at her hand and when the two of them caught sight of each other they burst out laughing hard enough to wake the other girls, who screamed over CJ's ring.

Come to think of it, only Casey had expressed regret when he saw the joy on Gigi's face.

"You're next," he had said with a wry smile.

"Time will tell," she'd said, hugging him with an apologetic smile on her face. "It was nice meeting you."

Now, she was flying home to her parent's house and she knew when her concerned mother asked her if she was happy, she would have only one thing to say.

Entirely