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She looked slightly surprised that he was wanting to go from spectator to participant. She wasn’t the only one, but it just felt right. He was home that holiday season. He should try to be more involved.
“This was the last one I’d signed up for…” She paused. “But I did hear Mr. Cranston say they could use some volunteers to help cut down the trees for delivery.”
He nodded quickly. That he could do. “Perfect. Can I borrow your axe?”
She beamed at him, and it was definitely true that no act was truly altruistic. Mitch would cut down the entire lot if it meant that she’d continue to smile at him that way.
Chapter Eight
December 7th…18 Days Until Christmas…
Jessica pulled her delivery van into the driveway of Dove’s Nest B&B early the next morning. She lowered the visor and checked her reflection in the mirror. Hair curled, makeup on, a new pair of jeans that she’d normally never waste on work, she couldn’t deny that she’d dressed up a little that day just in case she ran into Mitch during her delivery of the inn’s baked goods. It was early, but maybe he was awake. She stared through the windshield at the guest rooms on the third floor and a memory of his smoking hot kiss the night before that had steamed up the car windows made her pulse race.
Maybe she should deliver breakfast to his room. Right, and then the rest of the deliveries would not make it to their destination that morning. She climbed out of the van, went around to the back, and opened the doors.
Wes, Sarah’s fiancé and co-owner of the inn, exited through the kitchen door on the side of the old Victorian house. Dressed in paint-splattered jeans and an old sweater, he was obviously headed out to a construction job that day. “Hey, Jess.”
“Good morning.” It was a good morning. She was still enjoying that euphoric feeling of a great make-out session with promise of more to come. And she refused to get too far ahead of herself and start thinking about what would happen after the holidays. Stressing about tomorrow didn’t change the future, it just stole today’s peace, right?
Stay in the moment, enjoy the moment—that was her new motto.
“You’re early,” Wes said, eyeing her with suspicion.
No doubt it was the lack of yoga pants and ponytail, her usual delivery look, that had him perplexed. “Yeah, the holidays are busy for me, so I thought I’d start the deliveries early.”
Her gaze drifted to the balconies. Which one was Mitch staying in? Damn, all the blinds were drawn. Not even a chance of catching a peek of him.
“Where’s your helper this morning?” she asked. Wes’s ten-year-old daughter, Marissa, loved living at the inn. The family had officially moved in with Sarah the month before, and the little girl practically ran the place when she wasn’t at school. Marissa helped at the front desk, in the dining room, and she always helped unload the baked goods. Jessica suspected it was to get first dibs on the sweets.
Wes reached inside the van for a tray of fresh bread and dinner rolls. “She and Sarah were up and gone this morning at four a.m. Some new iPhone they both wanted released today, so they drove out to L.A. to line up outside the store.” He shook his head. “A phone. You’d think it was a basketball signed by Michael Jordan or something.”
Jessica laughed. “Different priorities, I guess.”
His daughter was a techie like Sarah. The two of them had formed an amazing bond that summer over their mutual love of coding and web design.
Jessica nodded toward the pad of paper he was writing on. “The online inventory system down?”
“Nope. This is the old school method.”
“Still haven’t learned how to use it, huh?” Marissa was usually the one working the iPad during deliveries.
“Nope,” he said honestly. He carried the trays into the kitchen and Jessica followed with her invoice. She scanned the main dining area, but there was only one woman sitting in there, enjoying a tea. “Is it busy here for the season?”
“Not yet. But Mitch just left about ten minutes ago to go pick up Lia and Malcolm from LAX. They should all be back here soon. And then we have a family from Maine arriving…Mrs. Darkington’s family…”
Jessica was barely listening as Wes continued to detail the arriving guests. Lia and Malcolm were going to be here soon. Sweat pooled under her arms, and it had nothing to do with the heat in the kitchen.Thatmight hinder things if Lia had an issue with them seeing one another. How was Lia’s presence going to affect her budding relationship with Mitch? She hoped he’d still have time to hang out. She’d kinda gotten used to seeing him every evening, but obviously now that his sister was in town, he may not be as available. What if he told Lia, and she did freak out about the two of them dating? Her mouth felt like sandpaper.
“Hey, you okay?” Wes asked, a look of concern on his face as they headed back to the van. “You look a little pale.”
“Yeah. Totally fine,” she said. As long as Lia didn’t turn out to be the Grinch who stole her sexy Christmas.
…
Whatever couples therapy his sister and her husband had going on was definitely working. Maybe a little too well. Earlier that year, there had been trouble in paradise, according to his mom, and the two had been headed for divorce. But their falling out seemed to be long forgotten as they’d made out like teenagers in the back seat of Mitch’s rental the whole way from LAX to Dove’s Nest.
Now they were taking a hell of a long time getting “settled” in their room, while he paced the foyer and fended text messages from his mother asking why they were late. He suspected his sister was in less of a rush to get to their family home than he was, and he wasn’t all that eager himself. He’d rather be spending the day with Jessica.
The smell of fresh-baked bread coming from the dining room reminded him of her. Would he ever smell delicious baked goods again and not think of her? He suspected every spiced latte and cinnamon roll he had in the future would remind him of how she’d smelled and tasted during their make-out session the night before.
