I don’tdare give Holly the proper rundown on what happened between Sabrina and me. There’s no way I’ll ruin her Christmas by letting her in on the fact her livelihood is in peril. Sure, Tom makes great money as an optometrist, but face it—Gingerbread isn’t all that big, and he’s fixed just about every eyeball within our city limits. If they want to add to their brood, and put Savanah and Baby X through college, they’ll need a thriving second income. And when she finds out that my little matchmaking scheme has backfired on me spectacularly, I might just let her say I told you so—just this once. It’s the least I could do after she realizes she’ll be losing her home. I’ll lose my home, too, and we’ll both end up back with our parents in our old bedrooms. Only she’ll be sharing a twin with Tom and Savanah, and I’ll be in mine with Noel. In theory, my scenario seems far rosier, but in truth, Noel kicks like a mule in her sleep. I’m liable to end up with a broken nose and six cracked ribs. I’m pretty sure Sabrina will find some creative, yet equally destructive, way to make Graham’s life miserable, too. Like flying to New York on her broomstick and tossing a Molotov cocktail through his penthouse window. My God, she’s going to reduce his entire building to cinders, altering the lives of thousands of people, all because I had the urge to teach Graham Holiday a lesson.
I guess the only one learning a lesson around here is me.
My little foray into revenge just might cost me everything.
I try my best to shake Sabrina and her volatile threats out of my mind as I get back to loading the van, but the effort proves impossible. I tell both Jenna and Holly that I’ll do the run myself. As much as I’m looking forward to spending time with Graham this afternoon, I’m deathly afraid of what will happen once Sabrina discovers my little ruse.
By the time I finish getting the very last platter of sugar cookies into the Boys and Girls Club, I find both Graham and Noel seated on the rear bumper of the van when I get back.
“Hey, hot stuff.” An ear-to-ear grin springs to my face as I say it. “Can I get a picture with you?”
Graham’s lids hang low as if he were suddenly trying to seduce me, and, dear God, it takes far less than that to do it. “Would you like it with my clothes on or off?”
“Gah!” I swat him with my purse as if he were a mugger. “I was talking to Noel. But since you’re here, I don’t see why the three of us don’t take a few selfies by the lake. I hear you can see clear across to Cater. And if I remember correctly, if we stand on the highest peak of the bridge, you can see the smokestack from a certain pie factory that’s about to explode onto the culinary scene as the latest greatest sensation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Food Channel wanted to do an exposé on you.”
Graham belts out a laugh as he stands and caresses my cheek with his thumb. “I was thinking about doing a few exposés myself. On you. So much has changed. You’re all grown up, and I want to know everything there is about you. You know, fill in the blanks—tell me what I missed.”
I bite down on my lip while looking up at this god who has generously chosen to grace my world. “I think we’d better hurry and get to the lake. It sounds like we have a lot of ground to cover.”
I jump into his truck as we drive to the outskirts of town where an expansive body of water shimmers a fantastic shade of crystalline blue—the exact color of Graham Holiday’s eyes.
“It’s so beautiful,” I whisper as we get out and marvel as the snow meets the water. “There is nothing more breathtaking than seeing the sky kiss the water. And when you add snow to the equation, the world just becomes that much more enchanting.”
Graham wraps his arms around my waist from behind and lands a careful kiss just under my ear. “I can think of at least one thing—onepersonfar more breathtaking than any of the above.”
I spin in his arms and can’t help but bite down a smile. “Noel?”
He inches back playfully perturbed. “How’d you guess?”
She nips and barks as if trying to get our attention while tugging wildly at the leash. “Speaking of which”—I take a few steps out with her, and she’s pulling hard to get right into a giant field full of fluffy white powder—“I think she’s a little snow fiend.”
“Yeah, well, I suppose there are far more nefarious things to covet. Why don’t we head over and make all of her frozen dreams come true?”
Graham and I wade in ankles deep as Noel all but does a somersault with glee.
He yanks a pair of gloves out of his jacket and hands them to me. “I’ve got a great idea,” he says before producing yet another pair and donning them himself.
“Have gloves will travel.” I pull them on, and my fingers instantly warm back to life. “Thank you. This was very thoughtful of you.”
His left eye comes shy of winking. “Never leave the house without them. You never know when the mood to build a snowman will strike.”
“Snowman!” I pick up a pile of the white stuff and toss it over our heads, causing frozen chunks of ice to pelt us. “It’s on,” I say, bending over and greedily gathering all the snow around me as if it were a scarce commodity. “I’ll make mine ten times bigger than yours, Holiday!”
“I wasn’t thinking about a competition.” He falls next to me and starts assisting me in the effort. “I was sort of hoping we could work on one together.” His blue eyes latch to mine, and their bold color gives both the lake and the sky a run for their cobalt money. “I was sort of hoping we could do a lot of things together. You know, like a real couple.”
A breath catches in my throat. “A couple?” My mouth falls open. “Why, Graham Holiday—did you just ask me to be your girlfriend?” I invoke my infamous country accent that I used to drive him insane with way back when. He loved it then, but he would never admit it.
“Why yes, I did, Sprig. So, what do you say?” His features grow serious, and the air around us stills as if it, too, were anticipating my response. “You in?”
“I’m in.” I lean forward as if I’m about to plant a good one on him, and deep down I know that if I start, I will never want to stop. “I can build this snowman singlehandedly in less than five minutes!” I shriek, and he laughs right along with me as we slap together the world’s roundest, perhaps most unstable snowman on the planet. I find a pair of black stones for its eyes, and Graham finds a stubby little stick for the nose and branches for its arms. The two of us stand back a moment and admire our work of art, panting and red-faced from the effort.
Graham slings his arm around my shoulders. “How about we take that picture now of the three of us? We can use it as our Christmas card.”
A quiet laugh brews in me as I scratch at his chest, my head resting on his shoulder. “That sounds great, but it might not get out until next year. I’m pretty swamped this week.”
Graham glances down, his lips upturned at the idea. “Next year? I like the sound of that.”
“Me, too.”
