has Carmelita so she doesn’t have to cook either, but Abby and I…” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “It’s damn good they’re such good-lookin’ guys. That’s all I’m saying.”
Carla laughed at that. She knew Iris was deeply and completely in love with Declan, dirty clothes on the floor or not.
“Well,” Carla said with a regretful sigh, pushing away from the kitchen counter and heading for the door, “I need to go shut down the shop. Merry Christmas, my dear.” They hugged, and then Carla opened up the front door, sucking in a lungful of freezing air that set off a round of coughing.
Winter in Idaho. Why do I live here again?
She crunched down the sidewalk and to her turquoise van, waving back towards the house one more time before sliding inside. She turned the key and sat waiting for a minute for the engine to warm up.
Almost noon. She’d told herself that she’d keep the shop open until two, but now…the two hours stretched bleakly out in front of her.
She shifted the van into gear and crunched forward over the frozen tracks of ice and snow that would cling to the streets of Sawyer until spring.
It was time to go back to the shop and while she counted down the two remaining hours, she’d figure out what to eat for dinner. Somehow, they’d overlooked discussing Christmas Eve before now, and after he’d practically ran out of her apartment last night like his ass was on fire, she wasn’t particularly inclined to beg him for a dinner date.
But to spend Christmas Eve by herself? Her parents had invited her and Christian over, of course, but she’d turned them down, telling them that she and Christian had plans.
She didn’t want to call them back and admit the truth.
When she got into the shop, she dropped onto the beat-up couch in the back room and began petting Leo, the dim afternoon lighting of a wintry day the only illumination.
Faith. She needed to have faith in Christian.
She snuffled a little, trying to hold back the tears.
Unfortunately, faith was a little scarce on the ground at the moment.
Chapter 32
Christian
And as they reached for each other— Nah, it’s kissing again. You don’t want to hear that.
~Grandfather in The Princess Bride
Throw up or let out a whoop of excitement.
Those were his options, and as far as he could tell, he was on a razor-thin blade between the two of them.
“Good luck!” Jennifer called down the hallway of the old Miller homestead as he headed for the front door, and he could’ve sworn he heard laughter in her voice. Somewhere in the depths of his soul – way deep down – he could vaguely appreciate how someone on the outside might consider what he was about to do to be cute. Adorable. Something to cheer about.
From his point of view, though…
He white-knuckled the steering wheel all the way back to town, and not just because of the icy roads. Hell. He’d lived in Sawyer, Idaho all his life. Icy roads didn’t make him hold onto the steering wheel as if it was his only lifeline.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
It was going to be fine. Carla loved him. She loved their baby. She wanted to be with him. Just because this baby wasn’t planned didn’t mean it wasn’t wanted.
“Don’t screw this up, big brother.” It’d been the parting words of Yesenia last night. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
As if that was news to him. He already knew Carla was so far out of his league, they might as well be in different galaxies, but somehow, she hadn’t figured that out yet and from what he could tell, wasn’t prone to thinking that way.
Which he considered to be nothing short of a minor miracle.
He crunched through the ice and snow to a stop in front of Happy Petals, relieved to see Autumn’s little Toyota sitting there.
She’d remembered. Autumn had said she wouldn’t miss this for the world, but still…Seeing her car there allowed Christian to suck in his first full breath in days.
Things were coming together…whether into a nuclear explosion or a fireworks display of happiness was still up for debate.
A coin toss, honestly.
He reached over into the passenger seat and grabbed the paperback copy of As You Wish, a behind-the-scenes book written by the guy who’d played Westley in The Princess Bride, and stuffed it into the console to hide it. He’d talk Yesenia into wrapping it up with a pretty bow for him tonight.