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“You two,” he said immediately, pointing at Sarah and then Colette. “Don’t go sticking your noses into this. She met Margaret and the kids at the hardware store the other day and wanted to help out. That’s all.”
Colette held her hands up in front of her as a display of innocence. “I didn’t say a single thing.”
“It’s just worth noting,” Sarah chimed in. “That both of you are lovely, attractive human beings. It would make sense that you would gravitate toward each other.”
“No one is gravitating.”
“That’s not what Derek is saying.” Colette gave Clark a pointed look, waggling her eyebrows at him.
“Derek is a busybody,” he grumbled, turning his attention decidedly toward William, who was very deliberately ignoring everything that was happening at the counter.
“I, for one, don’t think it’s a bad thing that you two are getting to know each other a little more,” Sarah added, still looking at Clark.
“Oohhh,” Colette trilled, clapping her hands together excitedly. “Who do you think will end up luckier to have met the other? Clark or Valerie?”
Clark rolled his eyes, trying his best to tune the two women out but failing.
“I think Valerie,” Sarah answered quickly. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s great. And she has the whole movie star thing going, but Clark is one of the best men around.”
“I think Clark is the lucky one,” Colette argued. “He does a lot of great things for the community. But do you remember all of the stuff she did for hurricane relief? She ended up helping a community ravished by tragedy.”
“Good point.” Sarah nodded. “But what about everything that Clark has done for the Hiltons and covering a big portion of the supplies?”
“How do you deal with this?” Clark asked William as the other man turned around, grinning as he held out Clark’s order to him.
“I deal with it by agreeing with them. I think you’re both a catch.”
William gave him a friendly wink, and Clark could no longer hold back his groan as he grabbed his things off the counter. The two women, excited to have William also joining in the conversation, began to chatter at each other even more excitedly.
Clark shook his head at them, muttering a goodbye before turning and walking toward the front door. None of the three people inside did more than just give him an errant wave.
He placed the pastry box on the front seat, tucking the two to-go coffees into the cupholder before firing up his truck. He sat there for a moment, letting it idle as he thought about Colette and Sarah.
Yes, they were meddling with what was happening between him and Valerie. But even though he found it rather frustrating, he also found it more than a bit endearing that they cared about him enough to put that kind of energy into talking about his dating life.
“You aren’t dating her,” he said aloud, shaking himself internally as put his truck in reverse and backed out of his parking spot.
Clark tried as hard as he could as he drove toward the Hilton house not to think of Valerie, not to let the fact that other people were now lumping them together get to him. But the one thing that he couldn’t shake, the one thought that had rooted itself into the back of his mind and was refusing to let go, was that while he may not know her very well now, every single part of him wanted to get to know her more. Because everything he had gotten to know about her so far, he had absolutely adored.
* * *
Valerie’s boots crunched over the snow as she all but ran toward the Hilton house. She was still so unused to getting up early that it was hard for her to wake up, even with an alarm. Which was exactly why she had slept through not one, but two alarms that morning.
She was lucky that her subconscious had realized that she was getting a suspicious amount of sleep and shook her awake. Otherwise, there was a one hundred percent chance that Valerie would still be lost in the land of dreams.
She turned the corner of the road the house was on, pulling out her phone and checking the time. It was eight o’clock on the dot. Somehow, she actually wouldn’t end up being late.
As she got closer, more and more of the house came into view. Clark’s truck was in the driveway, and he was leaning against it, gloved hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. Valerie almost stopped short at the sight of him, the way the early morning light was hitting him and illuminating his features.
His full lips tugged up in a smile at the sight of her, and her heart began to pound.
“You made it!” he exclaimed, pushing himself off of the truck as she approached and opening the door to his truck. “I brought something for you.”
She had just opened her mouth to tell him that it wasn’t necessary and that he shouldn’t have brought anything when she caught sight of what he was holding.
“Is that a box from Sweet Thing?” she asked, her mouth immediately watering at the thought.
“You’ve got muffins, croissants, and breakfast sandwiches to choose from,” he answered, thrusting the box out to her before leaning into the truck once more. He drew back a moment later, holding two to-go mugs of coffee and extending one to her. “And this.”
