She folded her hands and when Scout nudged close, sliding her head onto her lap, she released her clasp to pet the insistent animal.
“You can tell her no if she’s bothering you,” he offered. “She’s not super great with boundaries.”
“Are you kidding me?” She ran her nails through the retriever’s thick coat of fur. “I’m loving every minute of this.”
“You’re an animal person?”
“I am, but I can’t have any in my apartment per the lease’s strict rules.”
“So you can’t have a tree and you can’t have a pet.” Flakes of snow began to flutter down like iridescent pieces of confetti. Holden flipped the windshield wipers on low to swish the flurries from his line of sight. “What’s keeping you there?”
“Well, Icanhave a tree. It’s just that it’s not all that convenient.” Her shoulders lifted an inch in a shrug. “But your question is a valid one. One I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.”
“Is it your job, then?” He looked over his shoulder as he switched lanes. “That’s keeping you there? You must really love it.”
“If loving something is the same as dreading it, then I’m head over heels.”
Holden noted the biting sarcasm that infiltrated her words like a splash of strong brandy in eggnog. “So if you don’t love it, then why do you continue doing it?”
“There’s this thing called an income. It’s really helpful for things like paying rent. Keeping food on the table. All that good stuff.”
“I understand what you’re saying.” He laughed softly. “I’m just wondering why you’re in a job if you don’t love it one-hundred percent. Life is too short to be spent doing something that doesn’t bring you joy.”
“But it does bring me joy,” she insisted, her hand stilling over Scout’s back a moment. “At least the thought of a management position does.”
“You think once you climb your way up the corporate ladder, you’ll achieve happiness? From what little I know of you, I’m not convinced that you’ll be satisfied with that.”
“No?” Her gaze confronted him. “Why’s that?”
“I think you’re motivated by the challenge. The race to the top. But what happens once you finally get there?”
“Then I’ll look for something different, I guess.”
“Yikes.”
Her jaw set. “What?”
“I’m just hoping you don’t adhere to that same line of thinking regarding your relationships. Being all about the chase and everything.”
“I don’t really do relationships.”
Holden’s heart nosedived clear down to the truck’s floorboards. “How come?”
“I don’t have the time.”
“Everyone has time for love.”
“Maybe not everyone has the capacity for it.”
That statement shut the lid on the conversation, but it didn’t keep the questions from forming in Holden’s mind. There was certainly more mystery to this woman than just her name, and suddenly Holden worried none of it was his to discover.
CHAPTER13
“That’s the one.”
Rachel knew the moment she laid eyes on the tree that it was the winner. Sloping green branches led from a perfectly pointed tip down to a full, leafy skirt. There was enough density to handle a heavy ornament without being crowded, and yet it wouldn’t be considered at all sparse. It was pine tree perfection.
And the smell. Spruce and cedarwood met her nose when she took a deep inhale. It had all the natural characteristics of Buddy’s cologne, that woodsy, somewhat spicy scent that had Rachel feeling Christmas vibes to the tenth degree.
