The Broody Brit for Christmas (Holiday Springs #1) - M.J. Fields Page 0,68
and I deliver apples and pumpkins to the Sweet Spot. Nellie is still here, sitting behind the counter with a notebook and pen, scribbling away at what I know is her top-secret plans to improve business—that I can’t look at until Saturday— when we walk in.
“Hey, Nate.” She smiles, waving.
“Hi, Nellie.” He carries two large bags inside.
Nellie slides off her stool and grabs one of them from him. “So, what do you think about your dad and Nikki?”
“Nellie,” I gasp.
He looks up at her as if he’s trying to figure out how to answer her.
She laughs. “I think it’s a good thing. That means I’ll get to hang out with you more often. Maybe someday, we’ll be family.”
My jaw? It drops.
Nate looks at me before telling Nellie, “That would be cool.”
Nellie lets out a sweet laugh. “Come on, Nate, let’s put these in the back.”
Lucky for her, she lives to see another day.
After unloading at the Sweet Spot, we head to Blizzards. Nathaniel, clearly feeling comfortable with me, turns on the radio.
“Favorite Holiday?”
He smiles. “Christmas is the best.”
“All the presents, right? Twinkling lights. The tree and the snow. I love it all.”
He shrugs. “All of those things are bonuses. For me, it’s really because those are the memories of Mum that I can still remember.”
My chest tightens, and God, how I want to hug this boy, like all the time, but I pull myself together.
“My favorite is Halloween. My parents and I used to dress up together and make all sorts of Halloween treats for the kids who would come by.”
“What’s your favorite treat?”
“Hands down, caramel apples. But anything with a hint of pumpkin flavor works, too. Until I came back here, I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Do you have a favorite Christmas treat or tradition?”
“Christmas Eve at my grandparents’ house. Christmas morning with Dad, and then we have to leave to go back to their house.”
“Have to?”
“I mean, it’s what we do now.” He looks out the window, a faraway look crossing his features.
“What did you used to do?”
“The pictures of us, when Mum was still on Earth. I was in a little red sled, and we went ice skating on a pond, I think. Mum and Dad skied at night, too.”
“Do you ski?”
“A bit. Do you?”
I laugh. “It’s been years, and I’m not all that athletic, but I used to love skiing the beginner trails.”
Lord help me, I want all of those things for him, and so much more.
These past two hours have been such a gift. Nathaniel is such a gift. He’s filled me with realizations I’d otherwise had missed and hope.
So much Hope.
Rule Number Twenty-Two
Never Judge A Book By It’s Cover
Raff
Nathaniel and Nikki bringing apples and pumpkins into the bar, both smiling with no restraint, warms my heart, and not for purely selfish reasons. The two of them both show a lot of similar qualities, have walls that sprung up due to life circumstances that I will never understand because I’ve never had the kind of love that Nathaniel, and I assume Nikki, had with their mothers.
And then, they lost them.
“We’re going to decorate.” Nathaniel grabs Nikki’s hand and drags her back to my office, both of them laughing, smiling, and obviously fully into the season. It is a beautiful sight.
As much as I’ve tried to make things normal for Nathaniel—which is why we moved over four thousand miles—it’s not been without issue.
When he spoke of Nikki that day weeks ago on the phone, I felt the air shift. When I met her, I knew my life was on the cusp of change.
The way she fought me was infuriating, yet I saw unspoken reasons for it. I knew it wasn’t just a horrible breakup. It was, in fact, a chain of events.
I never in my life thought I’d find someone who could fill my heart with as much love as our Hope had filled it, and I can logically say that it feels like it’s even more full.
For her.
For me.
For us.
When they come back out with boxes of decorations, I hurry to them and take the heaviest one out of Nathaniel’s hands.
“He wouldn’t let me carry it,” she whispers.
My heart swells a bit more that my son, Hope’s and my son, is a little gentleman.
“Get back behind the bar. We got this.” She smiles and then pecks me on the cheek.
For two hours, the two of them are on a decoration frenzy. The bar is officially filled with Halloween spirit.