Her bluebell eyes lit up. She led me away from the table to a hay bale they’d pulled out for seating. “Just remember, you asked.”
“I want to know everything.”
And what surprised me most, was that I did.
8
tate
I triedto get back to Amber, but there were far too many fires to put out.
It was the end of the night and well after midnight, but I always made sure to listen to my employees when they had concerns. I knew far too well how it felt not to be heard. Between my father’s my-way-or-the-highway mentality and working shit jobs all my life, I refused to be that kind of man.
“Tate, are you listening to me?”
I tore my eyes off Amber and back down to Valerie. “Yes, I am. I’ll definitely take it under advisement about the game tents for the winter showcase. You have great ideas about reinforcing the tents against the weather.”
She practically preened. “I know. We just can’t have another mess like the one with the tent today.”
“You’re right.” I patted her arm. “I’ll make sure Molly orders the extra stakes and more durable poles.”
“I just want to make sure everything is perfect for you, Tate.”
“I know you do. And I’m so glad I have people like you on my team.” Even if she came up with all the ideas and didn’t want toactually do the work. “Excuse me, I want to go talk to Molly for a second.”
“Don’t you mean, Amber?”
Something twinged between my shoulders at the way she said Amber’s name. “Amber is...” She wasn’t exactly a friend. We’d known one another most of our lives, but didn’t overlap a helluva lot. I wasn’t quite sure why after that damn kiss. “An old friend.”
“I bet.”
I arched a brow at her. “Problem?”
“No. Sorry. Of course not. I just noticed is all.” She pulled at the Daphne-like scarf at her neck to make way for her cleavage. “She’s not one of us, Tate.”
“One of us?”
“A regular person. She’s rich and famous.”
I waited a beat to see if she’d come on back down to earth. When she didn’t, I just shook my head. “She’s Amber Dalton from Haven. Period.”
“Not anymore. She hasn’t been back here in a long time.”
“Funny, I seem to remember you left for a few years to go to college.”
“That’s different.”
“Is it?” I walked away from her before I said something I couldn’t take back. A fair number of us left Haven at least for a little while. Amber was still just Amber as far as I was concerned. Maybe some of her confidence might be different from the shy girl I remembered, but we all had to grow up sometime.
She and Molly had their heads together when I caught up with them.
“So, it’s a little artist village?”
“Hopefully not so little in a few years,” I said in way of greeting.
Molly grinned up at me. “I was just telling Amber about your plans for Haven Winter Wonderland.”
I automatically looked for pockets to hide my hands, but only found my very tight costume. I linked my hands in front of myself instead. “I’d like to make it for all the major holidays, but Christmas is definitely my focus.”
