Wrapped Up in Christmas Joy - Janice Lynn Page 0,26
suit altered in the next couple of days. I know you need it next week.”
Still staring at the yellow cat, he nodded. “I appreciate it.”
She smiled. “Thanks for helping today. Sorry I have to go back to work before we completely finished.”
His gaze refocused on the woman sitting in his passenger seat. As Sophie opened the SUV’s passenger door and stepped out, he had a flashback of how he’d feel when his mother took away his latest pet.
“No problem,” he mumbled. “I’ll take these boxes to the last couple of places on our list.”
“It’s safer to go in pairs,” she reminded with her usual bubbly smile. “If you’re free, we could go together after the shop closes.”
Safer to go in pairs? Cole snorted. She didn’t really he was in danger by himself on the mean streets of Pine Hill. And if they went together and ran into trouble, did she really think she’d be the one protecting him? What did Sophie think she’d do, talk their assailant into giving up? Unleash her Butterflies on them, maybe? He fought grinning at the notion.
“I think I’ll be okay on this one.” Delivering toy collection boxes by himself in Pine Hill seemed way safer than spending more time with Sophie.
“I—okay, but I had a good time today and wish we could deliver the rest of the boxes together. I’d like for us to be friends.”
Her disappointment was palpable, which had Cole feeling guilty. But today had been a mission, not a precursor to their becoming friends.
She saw him as another charity case, he reminded himself. She could save her charity for someone else who deserved it.
“We’re not friends and never will be.” Pushing the words out was harder than he’d expected.
Sophie winced, and for a brief second, Cole wished he could take back his blunt words, that he could give in to the desire to be his friend shining so clearly in her lovely eyes.
“I, well, I thought…never mind what I thought. If that’s how you feel—” She paused, swallowed, and he couldn’t help but wonder if she was fighting back tears.
Yeah, he was a real piece of work and deserved the guilt shredding his insides. Guilt that he’d allowed today to happen without realizing what it meant to her. He’d been trying to get their obligations over with, and instead Sophie had thought they were becoming buddies.
“Then fine, we won’t be friends. But for the record,” she lifted her chin, “you are missing out, just like that silly cat is, because I’m a great friend.”
Cole suspected she was, but he was determined not to find out firsthand. Just like the cat, he didn’t need her to come along and try to rescue him. Some things were beyond rescuing.
Sophie couldn’t fix the parts of him that were broken.
Chapter Six
The Friday before Thanksgiving, Sophie backstitched her seam, clipped the thread, then pulled the material from the sewing machine and looked at what she’d sewn. Perfect scant quarter-inch seams bound the two pieces of fuzzy red material together. There. She was done with the Santa suit.
She shook the material and smiled at how well it had turned out. The pants should fit him perfectly, as should the coat. He’d be a dashing Santa.
Cole was pretty much a dashing everything.
Groaning at the thought, Sophie changed the thread in her machine over to navy, then picked up two pieces of precut navy material. Over and over, she sewed pieces together, adding them to a growing stack. Soon, she’d press the pieces and start combining them together into a quilt of stars and stripes—the best design she’d ever created. Every block needed to be perfect, as she’d likely use it for a prototype block-of-the-month at some point in the future.
The bold colors and design would have been perfect for Cole if he’d ever let her award a quilt to him. She still held out hope that one day, he’d accept it.
Even if he didn’t want to be her friend.
What a mix the man was. Dark and deep, but with a sense of humor that would come out at the oddest moments. During the times he’d dropped his guard, she’d enjoyed delivering the boxes with him and had been thoroughly disappointed he’d rejected her friendship. Again.
She knew why, of course. He was embarrassed that she’d pried into his personal thoughts without his permission. Not that she could have gotten his permission beforehand since she’d only read the journal in the first place to find out whose it was.