Page 8 of His Christmas Love Song

Jesse turns his coffee cup up gratefully. “Please.”

“Pretty much everyone gets the Lodge Special, but if you want something else, I can see what I can do.”

“Does the Lodge Special come with biscuits?”

The woman, petite with dark hair and eyes, smiles. “You know it.”

“Sold.”

The server bustles away and while he waits for his breakfast, stomach rumbling, he checks his phone. This close to the holidays, things are slowing down on the work front, thank god. He knows Sadie, his and Ryan’s manager, and Hector, their tour manager, can handle most anything that might come up. He needs to buy Christmas presents for his family, though, and confirm his and Ryan’s flight to home to Nashville next week. Though if Cameron actually shows up, he and Ryan might decide to spend the holidays together. It’ll kind of suck to fly back to Tennessee alone, but if Ryan’s smile reaches his eyes again, it’ll be worth it.

He looks up from texting his mom to ask for gift ideas for his dad when the server comes back with a plate laden with food.

“This looks amazing, thank you.”

She sets down jars of peach jam and marmalade, clearly homemade. “I thought you might enjoy both.”

“You thought right. Hey, what’s your name?”

“Joy,” she says, her smile turning more personal. “What’s yours?”

“Jesse,” he says, sparing a dimple for her. She’s cute, but that’s not why he’s asking. “You know Hank Moore, Joy?”

Her eyebrows knit together. “Sure, everyone knows Dr. Moore. He’s my boss’s brother.”

“Maybe this is a weird question, but is he married, or seeing anyone, as far as you know?”

The groove between Joy’s eyebrows intensifies. “Excuse me?”

Jesse winces at her understandable wariness over the personal question and hurries to explain. “We were in the Peace Corps together, and I haven’t seen him in years. Just wondering what he’s been up to.”

She relaxes slightly. “He’s single, I think. I heard he was dating a teacher at the high school for a little while, but that was last year.”

“A teacher?”

“Yeah, Mr. Hodge. He teaches biology.” Joy frowns, as if she’s regretting telling him, but Jesse turns on his most charming smile.

“Thanks, Joy. I can’t wait to try these biscuits.”

“So, what about you?” she asks, her good mood restored. “You were in the Peace Corps? That’s so cool.”

Jesse laughs a little. “It was cool,” he says. “I learned a lot.”

“Maybe you could tell me more about it. I cover the desk in the afternoons.”

“Yeah, maybe.” The last leg of tour was so busy, and he’s been so preoccupied with Ryan that Jesse hasn’t been with anyone in a while. Joy is attractive and seems interested, but ending his own dry spell isn’t a priority.

She shrugs off his lukewarm response and tops up his coffee before she goes to wait on another table.

Jesse digs into his breakfast, checking his phone one more time. No word from Cameron. His mom texted back though, suggesting a home brewing kit for his dad, who recently retired and has been having a hard time filling his days. He files that idea away, then puts his phone in his pocket. He doesn’t want to be one of those people who has to be on his phone when he’s alone. Instead, he slathers marmalade on one half of the biscuit and peach jam on the other, and gazes around the room. Two women share a table not far away. Their ankles touch under the table and one’s talking animatedly while the other looks on with a fond tilt of her head.

Jesse’s chest aches all of a sudden. The quiet one’s expression seems so familiar, somehow. He thinks they must be really close friends for half a second, until his heteronormativity goggles fall away, and he realizes they’re a couple. Something about them makes him feel kind of—sad? Which doesn’t make any sense, because they seem perfectly happy, and young love is always something to celebrate.

Young love. Hmmm. He opens his phone up again to jot down a couple of words in his notes app. Maybe there’s a song there.

When he looks up from his phone, the women are standing up to leave. He watches them go, walking so close their arms brush, still inexplicably unsettled. He must just be tired.

Joy stops by to check on him again, and he orders a Lodge Special to take back to Ryan. A few minutes later, she brings him a large paper bag and a steaming paper cup of coffee. He juggles both carefully as he passes by the main desk, hoping to run into Hank or Emma, but there’s someone new there, an older man with short gray hair, who smiles at him pleasantly. Jesse nods back, then walks up the road to the cabins. In the light of day, he can see just how well situated the property is, the Green Mountains a backdrop for the evergreen woods behind the buildings. It really would be beautiful with snow, but it’s nice that it’s not so cold that he doesn’t even need gloves.