Jack watched the two lovers kissing. It angered him. There he was slinging around a bit of wintry wonderland in a place that so desperately needed to chill out, and there they were heating it back up.

He reached out a hand and dipped some frost on the eaves above them. He took a breath and blew it out, directing it right at them. The cold didn’t deter them. The bigger one only pulled the smaller one in tighter.

That wouldn’t do.

Jack’s frigid heart seized a little. He wanted to see the lovers cold inside—wanted to freeze their hearts. He needed to do something about this. He stepped closer, examining them. He couldn’t find anything special there. How could they ignore the cold as if it didn’t bother them at all? They made it insignificant. Unimportant.

Curly brown hair fell along the edges of the taller one’s plain face. The shorter one wore his slightly darker hair straight and pushed back from his forehead. His face relaxed into pure bliss as the couple kissed. Jack wanted to freeze it that way.

He vowed to split this couple up. “Their love is meant to be destroyed.” He should forget this southern hell-scape and head north up to the mountains where he could roam the country. But he stayed. He could not let this go. Unreasonable. Irrational. The need to freeze their hearts moved through his blood like a glacier—imposingly large and desperate.