AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or maybe two.
* * *
Christmas Eve day actually wasn’t as busy as I’d feared, although I had enough shoppers that I was still glad I’d decided to close early. And a little after two, Josie came in, resplendent in a red velvet blazer and yet another Christmas tree pin. No greeting, just a grab of my left hand and the demand, “And exactlywhenwere you going to tell me?”
“When I saw you next,” I said serenely. “Which is now. It’s not the sort of thing I felt like announcing over the phone.”
She absorbed my statement, staring down at the ring on my hand, and then let go. “Is that a diamond?”
“No,” I replied, doing my best to ignore the note of judgment in her tone. “It’s a white sapphire. Calvin knows I don’t want to support the diamond industry, so he got me something I would feel comfortable wearing.”
“Well, it does look like you,” she said, which could have meant a lot of things. However, she apparently decided it was best to push aside her disappointment that Calvin hadn’t bought me a huge rock from Tiffany’s, because she went on, “And of course I’mextremelyhappy for you both. When’s the big day?”
“We haven’t decided yet,” I told her. “But sometime in late May or early June. As soon as we know, you’ll know.”
“I’d better,” she twinkled. “Oh, and I just heard that the D.A. is probably going to introduce more charges against Miriam Jacobsen, but first he wants to have a forensic accountant go over the Chamber’s books. The investigation should start after the first of the year.”
“I assume that’ll keep you pretty busy,” I said demurely, and she sent me a knowing look.
“Not busy enough to prevent me from helping you with the wedding,” she replied.
Because I’d already anticipated such a request, I said quickly, “Oh, I don’t think we’re going to have anything too big. But I’ll definitely want your input.”
This offer seemed to be exactly what she was angling for, because she beamed at me and said, “Wonderful! We can get started as soon as you like. But now I need to head over to Brett’s — he and Terry have me over for Christmas every year. I assume you’ll be with Calvin?”
“Yes,” I replied. “He’s coming over just as soon as I close up the store. Have a very merry Christmas, Josie.”
“You too, Selena.” She gave me a cheerful pat on the arm, then waved at a few of my patrons before heading out.
I could only shake my head. Maybe I was opening a can of worms by allowing Josie to help me with the wedding…but I also couldn’t help thinking it would have been a lot worse if I’d turned her down flat.
After all, my months here in Globe had already taught me a few valuable life lessons.
* * *
As promised, Calvin arrived a little after four, bearing a bottle of wine…and some champagne.
“We never really toasted our engagement,” he said after he’d given me a hug and a kiss. “So I thought we might do a little celebrating.”
“Sounds perfect,” I replied, then went ahead and put the champagne in the fridge. “I got Napoleons for dessert, so the champagne should be a perfect match for those.”
He sent me a warm smile, the kind of smile that made me all happy and gooey inside. “I see your instincts are as sharp as ever.”
“Well, I try.”
After that, I had to head back into the kitchen to finish the meal prep. Surprisingly, Archie hadn’t bolted for parts unknown as soon as Calvin showed up, but instead lay on the armchair, pretending to be asleep but probably listening to every word we said.
Well, it was pretty cold out…and getting colder by the minute, according to the last forecast I’d checked on my phone. They kept promising snow, but I had my doubts.
And although Calvin sent one slightly questioning glance in Archie’s direction, he didn’t say anything, only opened the bottle of wine he’d brought and went ahead and lit the candle in the centerpiece.
Dinner turned out wonderful, and once again, Calvin was all compliments. Maybe someday I’d get jaded and wouldn’t care what he thought of my cooking, but somehow, I didn’t see that happening any time soon. And Archie even deigned to come over to the table and allow Calvin to feed him some choice bits of roast duck, which seemed like a sign to me that he was trying his best to get used to the idea of all of us being an odd little family.
After dinner, though, he headed into the office so he could sleep off the rich meal on his bed there, and Calvin and I sat in front of the fireplace in the living room, and popped the bottle of champagne and toasted one another.
“To thousands of tomorrows,” he said, and we clinked the Waterford flutes that Tom had given me for Christmas years earlier.
“Thousands and thousands,” I agreed, and took a sip of champagne. It was Perrier-Jouët in the pretty flower bottle, not the sort of thing you could exactly get at the local Walmart. Calvin must have driven all the way to Mesa to buy it.
