Page 77

She hadn’t had time to buy coffee from her favorite drive-through this morning, but she could smell that he’d put on a pot and hoped it would get her through the day. “Fine. I just overslept. I’ll work part of my lunch hour to make up for it.”

He waved her words away. “I’m not worried about a few minutes. I know you must be exhausted after the festival. You were running all over the place.”

She hadn’t gone back downtown Thursday night, but she’d been there Friday after work and through the weekend—had spent some of that time with Jack and Ari while making sure things were running smoothly. She’d decided not to stay away just because Kanon was leaving town. She should’ve expected that, remained braced for it. The change in his plans had just come so soon—and out of nowhere. “I wanted to distribute as much information as I could and collect email addresses.”

“Smart. Are you happy with the way things went?”

“Definitely. We gave away all five hundred cookies, could’ve used even more. I thought we’d get that many attendees, but I wasn’t convinced we could get five hundred people to participate in the cookie promotion.”

“People will do a lot for a free cookie,” he said jokingly. “And we had well over five hundred attendees, so there were plenty of people to support everything. Everyone loved it.”

“Hard Luck’s businesses are better off now than they were. That’s what matters. From here, we just need to grow the festival and start adding other events throughout the year. We’ll get this place on the map yet.”

“If anyone can do it, you can,” he said with a chuckle.

“Your donations made a big difference. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the help. The check you wrote me is what funded the cookie incentive.”

His lips curved into a smile. “You helped me start this business. It’s possible I wouldn’t even have it without you. I owed you.”

At last, he’d acknowledged her contribution! That felt like the cherry on top of what would’ve been a fantastic weekend, if not for Kanon. She still couldn’t think of him without feeling a huge sense of loss. Obviously, she’d gotten way too excited about finally caring so much about someone. She hadn’t been able to protect her heart. But there was some solace in knowing she could fall that hard, some hope that one day she’d find the same magic again. “I appreciate you saying so.”

“Do you know how much your father collected for underprivileged kids?”

“I don’t,” she replied. “I stayed away from that side of town so I wouldn’t run into him.”

He scratched his neck. “You two are still on the outs?”

“I haven’t been able to make myself talk to him quite yet.” She rolled her chair closer to her desk. “With Kanon leaving… I don’t know, I feel like my dad will be glad to hear the news—that he’ll take it as a win and start pressuring me to move home. I need him to understand my desire to be out on my own and to be okay with it. I just don’t know how to get there.”

“If you stand your ground, you’ll get there. So…what are you doing for Christmas?”

Normally, she and Jack traded off having Ari. One year, she’d have Ari on Christmas Eve, and he’d have her on Christmas Day. The next year, they’d switch. “I don’t have any specific plans. I guess I haven’t quite accepted the fact that I won’t be spending it with my father—but it’s certainly looking that way.”

“Why don’t we watch Christmas movies at my place while we make plates of cookies and take them around to the neighbors on Christmas Eve—like we used to? We can cook whatever we want to eat and have hot cider or hot chocolate or…whatever. Then we can have a more formal meal at your house on Christmas Day.”

She smiled back at him. “Spend it as a family?”

“Why not? I think it’ll be good for Ari—a memorable Christmas. And we could invite your father on Christmas Day. He may not want to come if I’ll be there, but we could leave that up to him.”

“Whoa!” She pressed a hand to her chest, teasing him with feigned shock. “You’d be willing to be in the same room as my father?”

He shrugged. “I think it’s about time. I’m certainly open to letting bygones be bygones if he is.”

That sounded like the perfect solution. She wasn’t willing to beg for her father’s forgiveness, not this time, but she was fine sending him an invitation and letting him decide if he wanted to be the one to cooperate, for a change.

And if he didn’t want to? She was willing to let the situation be what it was for a while. She could always drop Ari by his place for a few hours on Christmas Day so they could see each other; she would never try to keep them apart. “I appreciate that. It’ll be nice to forget the past. I’ll text him.”

“Great.” He started to walk away but turned back when he reached the door to his office. “Have you heard from Kanon? Would you like to invite him and Kelsey, too?”

She thought of the text she’d received from Kanon, where he’d congratulated her on the success of the festival. She hadn’t responded yet because it was too painful to even think of him. He hadn’t been in town very long, but he’d managed to change her whole world. And she had no clue how to find her way back to what was familiar.

Actually, she knew it wouldn’t even be good for her to go back to what was familiar. She’d been settling before, and she needed to evolve. Hopefully with time, the new iteration of Patience would be happy and confident—someone she liked and trusted more than the person she’d been before. “I appreciate you being willing to include them.”

He studied her for a moment. “I want you to be happy, even if it’s not with me.”

She and Jack had finally found common ground. They had a long history—and they shared a child. She was glad they could lower their defenses and begin to trust each other again at last. “I feel the same about you.”

He arched his eyebrows. “So…are we inviting Kanon and Kelsey?”