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Whitney had to think about the song for a moment until she could hear it in her head. “Okay, here we go. Let the storm rage on…”
“…the cold never bothered me anyway.”
“Impressive,” she said. But can you sing it?”
“You’re heartless.”
“Just wondering how committed you are.”
“Oh, I’m very committed. One hundred percent in, darling.” And then he sang the line, “The cold never bothered me anyway!”
Whitney laughed, delighted. “That was awesome. Thank you.” She kept laughing and had to wipe tears from her eyes. “I wish I’d recorded that. I’d love to share your vocal with all Sheenan Inc. employees.”
“Again, you’re heartless.”
“I’ve learned from the best,” she said with a nod at him, but then softened any sting with a smile. “You don’t need to walk me back. I’ve got it.”
“Wouldn’t feel right letting you walk in the dark. I’ll see you there. Come on, let’s get going.”
“Want to sing me the rest while we walk?”
“No, sassy pants. Entertainment’s over.”
But he was grinning and she smiled right back. Cormac Sheenan wasn’t all bad. In fact, Cormac Sheenan could sometimes be very good.
Chapter Eleven
‡
He’d made her laugh, which was good. That was the bright spot in an otherwise difficult week.
Daisy, who’d been so delighted that Whitney was under the same roof with them at the Graff, was shattered to discover that her godmother was now gone. Cormac tried to comfort her but Daisy didn’t understand why Whitney would stay somewhere else when the Graff was huge and beautiful and looked just like Christmas. And then Daisy wanted to know if Whitney would be having Thanksgiving dinner with them, and he told her no, which made her cry harder.
On the home front, the remodel of his house was at a standstill. Cormac and Josie couldn’t communicate. Whitney had no problem understanding his vision but Josie just looked blank when he was talking. There were times he honestly did not think they were both speaking English, which frustrated him to no end. He didn’t have time to waste and he hated repeating himself. Most of all, he hated the whole blank thing. What was that?
To make it worse, Heath phoned Cormac Tuesday night to tell Cormac to lay off Josie, that it wasn’t Josie’s fault that Cormac couldn’t make a decision to save his life. Before he knew it he was in a pissing match with Heath, and when Cormac slammed the phone down, he wasn’t sure he even had a contractor anymore.
Hell.
Nothing was going right.
And now Thanksgiving was just a day away and instead of Cormac focusing on his business and the move and the house, he found himself worrying about Whitney. He felt guilty for kissing her. He felt like a schmuck because he knew she had a boyfriend but in that moment outside his hotel room, he hadn’t cared. In that moment, he’d wanted to be the boyfriend.
If he were brutally honest with himself he’d admit that part of him still felt like her boyfriend.
There had never been another woman that had meant as much to him as Whitney. If he believed in soul mates and all that, maybe he would have said she was his…
But now it was too late. He knew it was too late. She rebuffed him at every turn. And so he didn’t reach out to her to ask about her plans for Thanksgiving, but he wondered and worried. He hoped she wouldn’t be alone for the holiday. He hoped someone might have extended an invite to her. Or maybe the B&B was doing a special dinner.
Let someone have extended a hand…
*
After lunch on Wednesday, Whitney headed over to Copper Mountain Chocolates to buy chocolates to give to Josie and Heath as a small Thanksgiving gift. She also planned on picking up something for Eliza Bramble to share with her husband and great-aunt, although Mable Bramble wanted as little contact with the guests as possible.
The chocolate shop was busy with customers ordering last minute chocolate turkeys and cornucopias for their Thanksgiving tables, but Whitney was happy to wait her turn.
The pretty redhead owner, Sage, was behind the counter with two aproned helpers today, and even though she was slammed, she spotted Whitney and made a point of waiting on her personally. “How are you?” she asked warmly. “How is everything at the Bramble House?”
“How did you know I was staying there?”
“Eliza Bramble is my cousin.”
“Small town.”
Sage laughed. “Very small. And I know almost everyone here.” She offered Whitney a chocolate truffle sample.
Whitney popped the dark spicy chocolate into her mouth. Her eyes widened.
“Mango chile,” Sage said. “It’s got a bit of heat.”
“But delicious.” Whitney licked a smudge of chocolate from her lip. “I wanted to get three boxes of something to give for Thanksgiving gifts. What do you recommend?”
“I’d do a mix of our salted caramels and truffles.”
“Let’s do that.”
As Sage rang up the purchase she asked Whitney if she was going to be joining the Sheenans for Thanksgiving.
Whitney shook her head. “No. I think that would be awkward for all.”
“Taylor was in here yesterday. She said you watched the football game with them on Sunday and that you were wonderful. I’m sure you’d be welcome over there—”
“It’s not that comfortable for Cormac and me.”
Sage shot her an assessing glance. “But you’re here in Marietta with him.”
“Working for him.”
“Taylor said you two used to date.”
Whitney flushed, cheeks growing hot. She didn’t know where to look. “It’s complicated.”
“I had one of those relationships,” Sage replied, sympathy in her eyes.
“How did that turn out?”
Sage grinned. “I married him.”
*
Whitney didn’t need to worry about having to eat at the diner for Thanksgiving dinner. She ended up getting an invitation from Taylor and Troy—which she turned down—as well as an invite from Eliza Bramble to join the Brambles and Carrigans at the Circle C Ranch.
Whitney turned that invite down, too, until Sage, the owner of Copper Mountain Chocolates, showed up at the B&B Wednesday night and urged Whitney to accept the invitation t
o join her family for dinner at the Carrigan ranch. “You can’t spend Thanksgiving alone,” she said. “It’s wrong. Come with us to dinner. Dawson and I can pick you up so you don’t have to worry about finding the Circle C—”
“I don’t want you to have to fuss.”
“It’s not a hassle. We live just down the street so it’d be very easy to swing by and scoop you up. It’s always fun to have a new face at the table.”
*
Dawson, Sage and Savannah picked Whitney up at noon. It was a twenty minute drive to the Paradise Valley ranch and Sage pointed out various properties and landmarks on the way. It was a clear day, and bitingly cold. Even at noon, frost still glittered on fence posts and barn roofs.
“That’s the MacCreadie ranch,” Sage said as Dawson’s big truck traveled down the narrow lane. “And over that way is the Douglas ranch. Not sure if you have met McKenna. She’s married to Trey Sheenan. She was raised there.”
“That must be TJ’s mom,” Whitney said. “Daisy talks about them a lot.”
Sage gestured out the window. “And that river is the dividing line between the Sheenan spread and my family’s place.”
Whitney craned her head to get a good look. “Your property butts up against each other?”
“It was an issue growing up. Bill Sheenan and my father did not get along. We were forbidden from playing with the Sheenan boys.”
“Do you all get along now?”
“For the most part. It’s an interesting relationship.”
Dawson slowed as he approached a large handsome log cabin house. Barns and outbuildings flanked the house with more fences and corrals.
“Looks like Eliza and Marshall are already here,” Sage said. “Let’s go introduce you to Callan and Court.”
“Is Callan the one doing all the cooking?” Whitney asked, as Sage pulled a covered casserole and pie from the back of the cab.
Sage laughed. “No. Or we’d be eating frozen waffles for dinner.”
*
Happily the house didn’t smell like waffles. It smelled like turkey and stuffing and candied sweet potatoes and Whitney’s mouth watered.
“It looks like we still have an hour,” Callan said, after the introductions. “Why don’t we grab our wine glasses and sit down? Whitney, I understand you work for Cormac?”
