“Are you worried what they’ll say? About you and me, I mean?”
He looked up then because he wanted her to know that didn’t bother him at all. It was the opposite. What he wanted to do was to go over to her parents’ house now and ask her father for permission to marry her. However, he didn’t want to scare her off by admitting that.
“I want them to know,” he said, hoping to reassure her.
Her relieved sigh was loud in the otherwise silent room.
“Is it because you miss your mom?”
Brady hadn’t expected Reilly to go that route, but she’d hit the mark perfectly. For the most part, he could make it through the day without his chest squeezing too much. He missed his mother. They’d been close, and it had only been a year since she died. Last Christmas, he’d managed to make it through the holiday because he’d still been in a fog. This year, her absence was noticeable.
More so now that Reilly was here. He wanted nothing more than to call his mom and tell her he’d finally met the woman he could see himself with forever. She’d understood when he divorced Alyssa, and she always told him when he found the one, he would not have any doubts.
I have no doubts, Mom. None at all.
“What did you two do on Christmas?” Reilly asked, clearly taking his silence as confirmation. “I mean, besides having dinner with us.”
He turned his attention back to the stove and finished making his sandwich.
“We would watch movies on Christmas Eve. I’d buy cookies and popcorn and come over that evening so we could hang out. I always spent the night. Then we went to your parents’ house for dinner the next day.” He grinned wide. “She hated cookin’. Like seriously hated it. But she didn’t mind helpin’ your mom.”
Reilly laughed. “That sounds like fun,” she said, her gaze lingering on him as she ate. “You’ve got great memories.”
“I do, yes.” Brady carried his plate to the bar. “And yes, Reilly, I’d be happy to go as your plus one.”
“Really?” Her eyes crinkled at the corners as though that was the best news she’d heard in a long time.
“Yeah. And I’d like to make some new memories this year. With you.”
Reilly stopped chewing, and her eyes teared up. “I’d like that,” she said around a mouthful of food.
She really was fucking adorable.
Seventeen
“You think it’s safe to close?” Donovanasked Tate.
After their encounter in the storage room, Donovan dressed and returned to the front to unlock the door. That was four hours ago. Since then, they’d had two customers. One had purchased the last set of twinkling lights, the other a box of wine. Besides the woman who’d come in for toilet paper, no one in Coyote Ridge seemed to need anything that couldn’t wait until Tuesday.
“I hope so,” Tate said from his perch on the counter. “Otherwise, one of us is gonna have to go get food. I’m starvin’.”
Donovan was, too. He hadn’t bothered to eat when he’d gone with Brady to talk, and the granola bar he pilfered earlier had burned off long ago.
“You good with the diner?” Donovan offered as he headed for the front door to lock up.
When Tate didn’t answer, he looked back to see he was staring at him with a blank expression.
“You do eat real food, right?”
Tate nodded. “Of course.”
“So unless you’re embarrassed to be seen with me…”
Tate shook his head. “No. Definitely not.”
“So what’s the hold-up?”
“I guess I just…”
