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Today’s meeting will be another step toward fitting in.
Healing, well, that’d take a bit more than planning a holiday party.
Fixing a smile on his face, he brushed snow off his wool coat and wiped melted flakes from the lenses of his glasses with his gloved thumb. He scanned the cozy tables for Garnet James’s habitual cloud of curly auburn hair, but the only flashes of red came from the shop’s holly-and-tinsel Christmas garland.
Maybe she had a punctuality problem to go along with her free-spirited reputation. He’d met her a few times since moving to Montana, not many. Adjusting to being a family physician instead of a surgeon took most of his emotional energy. He hadn’t made enough strides to build his social network yet. Garnet had always been congenial, though. She was in tight with his two closest friends in town—fine, his only two friends—who swore she was the friendliest person on the ski patrol.
Hopefully that was the truth, considering Caleb had volunteered to work side by side with her for the next couple of weeks. The medical clinic and the holistic health center where Garnet worked part-time were planning a joint holiday party, a celebration of the ongoing close relationship between the two facilities’ staffs. But according to Garnet’s panicked email, some sort of glitch meant they suddenly didn’t have a venue. She and Caleb had been tasked with finding a replacement. Surely her concern was misplaced. Couldn’t be that hard to find a replacement in a sleepy mountain town.
Jamming his gloves and knit cap in his pocket, he made his way over to the short lineup and perused his options from the chalkboard behind the elf-hatted barista.
An elbow nudged him. “Still enough of a newbie that you need to read the menu?”
He straightened and turned toward the source of the lightly teasing voice. Yep, just as he’d remembered. Gray eyes like a summer storm. Vibrant hair tucked under an oversized, hand-knit hat. A wide smile and a handful of freckles took her from model pretty to interesting. A couple years ago, he’d have dived in headfirst—the outdoor-healthy vibe she had going on used to be exactly what he looked for in a woman. A guy could get addicted to her wide, generous smile.
She was damned easy to look at.
But her ski-addict lifestyle was hard for Caleb to even think about.
“Me and the flatlanders,” he volleyed back, feeling his smile stiffen at the words. Hopefully no one could see he was carrying around enough baggage to stop a 747 from getting airborne.
Her brows drew together under her turquoise beanie. “I thought you were from Colorado.”
A lump clogged his throat. Denver just represented loss to him now.
She cocked her head and a loose curl fell across her cheek. “You okay?”
Coughing to get rid of the memories blocking his airway, he said, “I’m from Brooklyn, originally.”
“Yeah, I can see New York on you.” Her eyes danced as she gave him an exaggerated once-over. “Fancy duds, Matsuda.”
His cheeks heated and he shrugged. Maybe he needed to temper his need to look nice with Sorel boots and layers of Gore-Tex in an attempt to blend in with the locals. “It’s my lunch break. I dress up for work.”
A hint of heat flickered in her eyes. Did she appreciate the effort? It’d been a while since a woman had looked at him with interest, or at least since he’d noticed it—
And there was no point in figuring out the meaning of the sparkle in her gaze. Nothing about Garnet James was good for him. They had zilch in common. Despite his choice to keep living in the mountains—a failed attempt at exposure therapy after the accident—he had no plans to set foot on the slopes again in this lifetime.
She clapped her hands, her mittens muting the noise. “Speaking of work, we have our fair share to do. We should order. I worked here part-time until I started at the wellness center in September. I can vouch for the eggnog latte and the cheese scones. And the vegetarian croissant is amazing.”
Once they had coffees and sandwiches in hand—well, sort of in his case, since the lack of mobility in his right hand meant he had to awkwardly prop his plate between his palm and his stomach—he motioned her ahead. Most of the tables were lunch-rush full, but she had a couple to pick from. “Lead the way. Do you have a regular spot?”
