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“Yeah. Seems like a long time ago.”
“Wanna know a secret?” At his nod, she answered, “I really liked that guy.” She put her hand over his on the table. Her words were so quiet he had to lean in to listen. “But I like this one even better.”
When she glanced up at him, her golden eyes glimmering, and her cheeks flushed, her soft lips inviting, it was all he could do to keep from kissing her right there at the Christmas dinner table, in front of everyone. And he knew, once he tasted her lips again, how hard it would be to stop with a chaste kiss. Instead, he took a deep breath and whooshed it out slowly, sitting back in his chair.
Maybe they could move the wedding date up.
Chapter Seventeen
GRACE PULLED GRAM ASIDE after dinner. “Gram. I’m so impressed. Your secret weapon seemed to work quite well—Josh was so jealous. Did you put Collin up to all the flirting?”
“No. Evan’s boys flirt enough without any extra prompting. But that wasn’t my secret weapon. That’s still to come.” Gram clapped her hands, demanding the attention of the room.
“And now, Gus and I have a little surprise for everyone. Since the weather cooperated and we have some nice snow on the ground, we’ve arranged for everyone to go on a sleigh ride.”
“Yay!” called Jace, above the murmurings of excitement.
“You’ll have to bundle up and take turns of course, but there are three sleighs out back awaiting your pleasure. Two small ones for two or three people, and one big one that will hold four or six, if you squeeze in tight.”
“I want to go!” Jace bounced like a basketball.
“Of course you do,” said Gram. “You can go first, with Josh and Charlie. And I bet you’d like to ride up front with the driver. Maybe he’ll let you hold the reins.”
Gram whispered to Grace, “There’s nothing more romantic than a sleigh ride.”
CHARLIE FOUND HERSELF bundled up on a sleigh with Josh before she knew what was happening. The driver was a teenager, and Charlie hoped he knew what he was doing. But he was chipper and happy to let Jace sit beside him and help him drive the horse. They set off across the field on the smooth snow, listening to the jingle of the bells on the horses harness.
Sitting next to him, huddled against him for warmth under the blanket, she realized this was the first time they’d ever had any semblance of a date. They really hadn’t spent much time alone together. She was painfully aware of the way his hand felt as it clasped hers, his thumb gently rubbing on her skin and sending little tingles up her spine. Or maybe she was only shivering from the cold.
“I get to mark this off my bucket list now,” remarked Charlie.
“First time, huh? It’s nice, isn’t it? I hope we get to do a lot of first things together.”
Charlie’s mind immediately flew to the wedding night. They hadn’t really talked about that aspect of the marriage. She’d told him she wanted a life-long commitment, with no divorce, so of course it meant they would eventually be man and wife in every sense of the word. But she didn’t want to be physically intimate with him until she was sure he loved her. And how on earth would she know when the time came? She stiffened and pulled away.
“I... I didn’t mean...” He bit his lip as he glanced ahead to be certain their conversation was private. “I wasn’t talking about sex, Charlie.”
She was grateful for the darkness hiding the rush of blood to her face. How had he managed to read her mind?
He blundered on. “I meant I’d like to do a lot of new stuff together. You know, mark things off the bucket list.”
“Yeah, I know. But we haven’t talked about it. You know. About the physical part.”
“Well, there’s plenty of time. Three weeks before the wedding.”
“Right, three weeks,” she squeaked out.
“Are you still okay with it? Do you want to back out?”
“No, I don’t want to back out. But maybe you do?”
“Not me,” said Josh. “Why would I want to back out?”
She hesitated. “We haven’t spent that much time together, really. I have some faults you don’t know about.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Like... I’m not really a morning person.”
