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He kissed her quickly as Sarah joined the group and welcomed everyone. Wes and Marissa followed behind with trays of hot chocolate and cookies she’d supplied from the bakery.
“This was something her grandmother did?” Mitch whispered next to her, as Sarah explained the tradition.
Jessica nodded. “Sarah wanted to continue tradition.”
“Is that her grandmother’s Christmas sweater, too?” he asked.
Jessica eyed Sarah’s holiday sweater with the reindeer with the red nose on it that had to be three sizes too big. “Maybe.” She’d never seen it before.
“So, how does this work?” he asked, watching families open the boxes of ornaments.
“Everyone is welcome to bring a special ornament of their choosing and Sarah supplies the regular bulbs and garland to fill in the rest.”
“Sounds like it will be a very mismatched tree.”
Jessica laughed. “I take it your family Christmas tree was all matching bulbs and tinsel strategically placed?”
He shook his head. “Tinsel is tacky.”
Her eyes widened. “Do not let my Aunt Frankie hear you say that. She thinks it’s the essence of the holidays.”
Mitch reached for her hand and a warm sensation flowed through her. She didn’t care who saw them together, holding hands. Except Lia, of course. “Thank you for agreeing to do this. I know it isn’t exactly your thing.”
He nodded as he slowly glanced her way. “It’s a lot less not my thing when I get to do it with you.”
Oh God. She was falling hard and fast and she needed to put the brakes on. Keep it casual. He had no intentions of staying in town and the minute she fell in love with him, he’d discover his soul mate on his next tour overseas. “Well, I suspected you didn’t bring your own ornament, so…”
“Oh you did, did you?” He reached into his back pocket and retrieved a tiny bag from the holiday shop on the boardwalk.
Her eyes widened. “You bought something?”
“I suspected the tradition went along those lines and I had to participate if I was going to decorate, right?” he said with a grin that had her emotions completely toppling over the edge of casual into the deep depths of torturous, unrequited love territory.
He’d promised not to fall in love that holiday season. She needed to remember that. Not that the knowledge was helping her control her own developing feelings.
He handed her the bag and she opened it. Reaching inside, she took out a personalized holiday ornament of two snow people wearing chef hats and holiday aprons, baking cookies. Mitch had their names written on them, with that year’s date. It was one of those family collectibles. This one was clearly meant to be for a couple’s first Christmas together.
Her heart pounded so loud in her chest, he had to be able to hear it above the holiday music playing around them as the families got to work on the tree. She stared at it in her hand.
What did it mean? Was he trying to tell her something?
He cleared his throat in her silence. “Hey…I just thought because we baked together the day we met. I didn’t mean for it to be…”
Right. Of course. It meant nothing. Just a cute reminder of how they’d met. She waved a hand and laughed awkwardly. “Oh, I know. Don’t worry, I wasn’t reading anything into it,” she said as painlessly as possible.
Mitch studied her but he nodded slowly. “Should we hang it before all the good spots are gone?”
Jessica smiled. “Definitely. I have the perfect spot.”
…
He was such an asshole. How could he not have realized that Jessica would think the ornament meant something? It was clearly a couples’ ornament. When he’d bought it, he’d just thought it was the perfect way to summarize their holiday time together. It was cute. He was trying to be thoughtful.
He may have gone too far. The look on Jessica’s face when she saw it had spoken volumes. His chest was tight as he watched her hang it on a branch near the front in the very middle of the tree.
Problem was, he wasn’t so sure it didn’t mean something anymore. His feelings for her were growing stronger each minute they spent together and there was no one else he’d be doing this for. That meant something in itself.
He felt horrible for basically implying that the ornament didn’t reflect his growing attraction or how he saw them together, but he couldn’t commit to something he still wasn’t sure about. His feelings were confusing the hell out of him, and until he sorted them out, he didn’t want to mislead her.
