“Yeah.”He looked down at his cup, then back at her.“Ellie, about last night...”
She looked at him now, really looked.But she didn’t say anything.Just waited.
“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” he said quietly.“I know we’ve got history, and I don’t want to mess up what we’re doing with the toy drive.Or ...whatever this is.”
She didn’t answer right away.Then, finally, she said, “You didn’t make me uncomfortable.”
Hope flickered in his chest.“No?”
“I was surprised.That’s all.”
He leaned forward, arms braced on the table.“Surprised in a bad way?”
“No,” she said softly.“Just ...surprised.”
They sat in the quiet again, only this time it didn’t feel quite so heavy.
A sudden patter of footsteps broke the moment.Maddy barreled into the room in a flurry of rainbow pajamas and damp curls.“Mr.Dasher!”
He turned just in time to catch her before she could leap fully onto his lap.“Hey there, penguin.You brushing your teeth or running a marathon?”
She giggled and squirmed her way onto the chair beside him.“Mom said you brought cinnamon rolls.”
“I did.You get half.I already claimed dibs on the gooey middle part,” he said.
She gasped, scandalized.“That’s the best part!”
Ellie laughed and reached for a fresh napkin.“He’s kidding, sweetheart.I’ll split mine with you.”
“I like him,” Maddy declared solemnly, reaching for her own roll.“He’s funny.”
Dasher winked.“Your mom didn’t always think so.”
“She’s not always right,” Maddy said with the clarity of a kid who hadn’t yet learned tact.
Ellie choked on her coffee.
Dasher just laughed, the tension easing from his chest.For a minute, the three of them ate like it was normal.Like this was just a Sunday morning with cinnamon rolls and laughter and warmth.Like he hadn’t spent the last several years haunted by what he left behind.
When Ellie got up to refill their mugs, Maddy leaned closer and whispered, “Are you gonna come again tomorrow?”
Dasher glanced toward the kitchen where Ellie was humming under her breath.“I think I just might.”
“Good,” Maddy said, satisfied.“You make her smile.”
He swallowed hard.“Yeah?She makes me smile too.”
****
The snow started justoutside of Hollow Ridge.At first, it was beautiful.Fat, lazy flakes swirling past the windshield like something out of a movie.Ellie had even cracked a joke about snow globes and cinnamon spice commercials.But an hour later, the joke wasn’t funny anymore.
“I can’t see the road,” she muttered, squinting through the windshield.“Are we even on the road?”
Dasher leaned forward, wipers going at full tilt.His jaw was tight, his hands firm on the steering wheel.
“Yeah.Barely.The turnoff should be a few more miles.”
The wind howled, a solid white wall pressing against the truck.Ellie gripped the door handle, adrenaline humming in her veins.Beside her, Dasher was all tension and silent concentration.
