“Bye, Ry. Bye, Auddy.”
He smiled at her and closed the door, then turned to Holly.
“Thanks again for the listening ear,” Ryan said.
“Anytime,” she answered.
As she slid into her car and eased her car into reverse, her grip tightened on the wheel. How was she supposed to guard her heart against a man like Ryan, especially when a big part of her didn’t want to?
Chapter Twelve
HOLLY GLANCED AT THE FARMHOUSE CLOCK HANGING IN THEstore, then at the stack of invoices for deliveries that had to be made that day, including a condolence bouquet for a viewing scheduled later that night.
How was she going to juggle everything?
She really hated to close the shop in the middle of a busy shopping day, especially since the foot traffic in town had increased exponentially since the town’s annual Christmas market had opened the weekend before.
The Shelter Springs holiday market had become a tradition for people in the entire region, which was a boon to all the local small businesses. Shoppers didn’t only restrict their spending to those retailers with booths at the market.
Run by her dear friend Amanda, the market featured music, food and shopping. She loved that a portion of all sales went for a charitable cause each year. This year the market was raising funds to add on to the town library and expand the children’s area, a cause close to her heart.
Among the many things she had to juggle this season, Holly knew she definitely had to add a visit to the market. Lydia loved it and the market was always a great place to pick up last-minute gifts. Besides that, she loved supporting other small businesses.
As much as she wished she could spend the day wandering up and down the stalls, it wouldn’t happen today.
She looked at the clock again. If she closed the shop for an hour, she could possibly finish the deliveries and take one more thing off her plate. Hopefully she wouldn’t miss that many walk-in sales.
It wasn’t the best solution but she didn’t know what else to do.
She grabbed her Back in One Hour sign out of a drawer and headed for the front door. Before she could reach it to hang the sign, the door opened and she was astonished to see Ryan enter the store.
Her heartbeat kicked up as memories flooded her mind of his mouth on hers days earlier.
That kiss hadn’t been far from her mind since it happened. She hadn’t seen him since leaving the park. At times she wondered if she had imagined the whole encounter, but the memory was entirely too vivid for her to have made it up.
At stray moments, she would find herself reliving it and would have to give herself a stern lecture and jerk her mind back to the present.
It was only a kiss. Not some kind of cataclysm. Except somehow it felt earth shaking, as if her carefully constructed world had shifted half a step to the left. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t quite manage to nudge it back into place.
“Oh. Ryan. Hello.”
He gave her a brief smile and she had to wonder if he was also remembering that charged instant between them.
“Hi. You look like you’re headed somewhere,” he said, looking at the sign in her hand. “Are you off for lunch?”
“I wish.”
If she wanted lunch, she would have to grab a protein shake out of the fridge in the break room and drink that on her way to make the deliveries. Again.
“Busy day?”
“You could say that. I’m on my own today, since both of my two current employees are out with the flu.”
“Oh no. That can’t be good.”
“Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of illness going around. I guess it’s that time of year. I’ve got five deliveries and four of them are get-well bouquets.”
“What’s the other one?”
