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“So we can’t just fire up the furnace and chuck in some metal?” asked Kade.
I grinned back at him, thinking of the tears that had been in his eyes just yesterday evening. “No. It’s a bit more complex than that.”
So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours! I’d gone from being fired from my job and losing a big opportunity to sharing a very special Christmas Eve at Kade’s brother’s house. And then last night; the guys’ bomb-drop of a gift. I was practically crying afterward, and way too excited to sleep. Wanting nothing more than to get to Toronto as soon as possible, I spent the next five or six hours pouring and prepping a new wax figure to replace the one I’d broken back at work. They stayed up for as long as they could to keep me company, but one by one I watched as they dozed adorably off.
By six in the morning I was mixing plaster and curing a new flask, sprues, funnel and everything. By eight o’clock I was fast asleep in Kade’s arms, resting briefly as Brock and Valerio drove us across the New York-Canadian border and then through to Toronto. The city dawned big and beautiful, and uncharacteristically silent on Christmas morning. And while it was too early to check into our hotel, somehow Brock convinced the foundry’s owner to meet us down here and let us in, so we could at least get started on what I needed to do.
“If everything goes smooth I can finish one project today,” I said. “And then one tomorrow.”
“Sounds magical,” grunted Kade.
“Anything you need us to do,” said Brock.
The guys stood before me crossing their arms, waiting on my command. As I pushed the two oversized buttons that would fire up the induction furnace, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
“How about breakfast?” I said, even as my mind silently calculated the steps in the process. “And coffee?”
Valerio’s face lit up. “We could do that!”
“Goodcoffee,” I admonished him. “There are a lot of tea drinkers up here. They don’t take their coffee seriously enough. Keep that in mind.”
“We might have to settle,” Brock suggested. “Not many places are gonna be open. After all, itisChristmas.”
Looking down at the four-foot plaster-smeared box that would soon become a beautiful bronze statue, I stared back at them and grinned.
“The best Christmas ever, actually.”
Thirty-Seven
SLOANE
The view from the hotel wasn’t just nice, it was breathtaking. And the room wasn’t a room at all, but a multi-bedroom suite with a large central living space. We had our own kitchen, our own bar, our own everything we could possibly want. Only there were three bedrooms instead of four, so I’d be bed-hopping and taking turns with the boys.
I saw it as a fun little spin on them usually taking turns onme.
“We did good right?” asked Brock, pulling me to the window so I could look out over the waterfront and the lake beyond.
“Better than good,” I yawned tiredly. I smiled back at the others, dropping our bags just inside the door. “This is amazing.”
It was getting dark already. We’d finished casting my angel statue over an hour ago, and it had come out even more incredible than I thought it would. It still needed the sprues cut, and the seams sanded down and buffed out. I’d spend a few hours giving it a patina too. There was just so much to do.
But for now…
“Showers,” Kade said, pointing in the direction of two different bathrooms. “Then sleep.”
“Then food,” Valerio said, rubbing his stomach. “Then…”
The guys stopped and all turned their gazes toward me. It was so much simultaneous attention it made me blush.
“Other stuff,” I said playfully.
They smirked. One by one they nodded.
“Lotsof other stuff,” said Brock.
A shiver of excitement surged through me, knowing what was in store. We had five whole days here. Five long days of them… and me.
Mmmmmmm…
