Shaking the Chill

By Katie Fitzgerald

A frigid burst of air followed Alan inside, and Amanda yelped.

“S-s-sorry,” he stuttered, feeling almost pained by the warmth from the heating vent as he set aside the snow shovel and shut the door.

Amanda rose from the couch. “You’re shaking.” Her fingers drew the ice from his cheeks.

“Y-y-yeah.” He laughed at his quivering jaw. “Not as warm-blooded as I thought.”

“Oh no?” Amanda leaned in, pink lips smiling, and pressed her mouth to his.

The kiss was like firelight, like sunbeams. Instantly, his veins thawed. When Amanda pulled away grinning, Alan no longer trembled with the cold.

🩷🩷🩷

Katie Fitzgerald is co-editor and a regular contributor here at Micromance. Katie has also been published in Spark Flash Fiction, Havok Publishing, Syncopation Literary Journal, Written Tales, Spillwords, Painted Pebble Lit Mag, Dragon Bone Journal, Zest of the Lemon, KissMet Quarterly, and various anthologies. Her serial romance column appears quarterly in Clean Fiction, and collections and stand-alone ebooks of her short stories are available from Amazon. Katie has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Cupid Prize, and she was a 2024 Sparkie Award winner for romantic suspense.