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Shelley glanced at Noah, clearly putting two and two together in her head and figuring out who he was. Her gaze shifted back to Mindy, who nodded subtly to confirm her friend’s silent question.
Mindy introduced the two of them, and as Shelley and Noah shook hands, her mind began to scramble. She had hoped to impress Noah with the town’s state-of-the-art rink, and had also hoped that they might catch a class while it was in session so that she could show him how Shelley brought years of figure skating experience to her teaching. But now? She could only imagine how drab and decidedlyunimpressive everything looked to him.
One of the men working on the rink called out to Shelley, grabbing her attention. With an apologetic smile, she excused herself, leaving Mindy and Noah alone once more.
“Well.” Mindy stuffed her hands into her pockets, feeling a bit deflated. “I guess we should head on to the next thing I wanted to show you.”
Noah nodded, although her worries were confirmed by the fact that he didn’t look excited about the next stop on their tour at all.
Darn it, she thought.This isn’t off to a great start. So much for making him fall in love with all the things I adore about Snowy Pine Ridge.
She was determined to turn this tour around, but unfortunately, things only went downhill after their inauspicious start.
The next place she took him to was Winter Run Racing, Derek and Lacy’s dogsledding business. But when they got there, the sign on the office front door was flipped to CLOSED. She heard Lacy’s voice around the back, and when she and Noah walked around the large building to see what was going on, Lacy explained that the dogs had gotten into some food scraps that they shouldn’t have. And while they would all recover just fine, they were having some very unfortunate side effects that meant they wouldn’t be able to offer any sled rides for a day or two.
Feeling more discouraged by the second, Mindy took Noah to a quaint little antique shop that specialized in novelty decorations and toys. At least Happy Memories Antique Shop was actually open for business, unlike their first two stops had been--but while they were browsing, one of the vintage animatronics set on a large display table began sparking. A few of the sparks landed on Noah’s coat, leaving several tiny burn holes before he and Mindy were ushered out of the building so the owner could get the toy unplugged.
They went to the town square, but although a massive Christmas tree stood in the middle, it hadn’t yet been decorated for the upcoming tree lighting ceremony, so it looked a bit plain and unremarkable.
Noah never said anything negative or rude about the less than stellar tour she was giving him, but Mindy couldn’t help but feel like she was failing. She had set out to impress him, to show him the magic of this town, but instead, she felt as if she were just confirming his clear belief that the town was a boring, unsophisticated place.
Every single thing she tried to show him ended up being even more disastrous than the last, and by the time a few hours had passed, Mindy was feeling so defeated that there was a lump in the back of her throat. She cast about for anything at all that she could say, any topic to bring up that would hopefully steer Noah’s thoughts away from the chaos of the evening, but only one thing came to mind.
She had successfully avoided referencing their past for the most part, navigating the conversation away from it any time Noah had even hinted that he might be about to bring it up. But now, with nothing else to say and nothing to lose, she pushed past her nerves and began talking.
“So, how have you been?” she asked, her voice a bit strained. “How is your dad? Your mom? How’s work?”
Noah glanced at her sideways, one eyebrow raising skeptically. Clearly, he’d noticed the fact that she’d avoided talk of their past like the plague up until now, but he didn’t comment on it as he answered.
“Things are going great, actually,” he said, a bit of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “I’m still in Boston, working with Dad.”
“How’s the world of real estate investing?” she asked, giving him a smile of her own and Noah chuckled.
“It’s good. It keeps me busy.”
He reached up, raking a gloved hand through his dark hair as he spoke. It caused a few locks of his well-styled hair to fall across his forehead, and a memory popped unbidden into Mindy’s mind. Running his hands through his hair had always been a nervous tic of Noah’s, and she could recall how it had felt all those years ago to reach up and brush the strands that fell out of place away from his face. Her fingers tingled from the memory of it, like they were itching to repeat the gesture now, and she shook herself internally.
“So you’re enjoying it?” she asked, her voice a bit shaky. She hoped he wouldn’t notice.
Noah nodded. “Yeah, I am. My dad can be a bit tough, but I’m pretty sure you already knew that.”
The corner of his mouth tugged up in a wry smile, and Mindy laughed and nodded. During the entire time they had dated, she wasn’t sure she had ever seen Brett do more than crack a quick smile, and that had only been because he was sharing the news of a big acquisition.
“What about you?” Noah asked as he threw a pointed glance at the town that surrounded them. “What brought you to Snowy Pine Ridge? How did you end up here, of all places?”
Mindy shrugged. “I came here for a girls’ trip years and years ago, and I fell in love with it then. I knew that when it came time to open up my own bakery, I wanted to do it here. And I’m glad I did, because the people in Snowy Pine Ridge have been wonderful. The whole town has a happy, friendly vibe, especially around the holidays. It’s the most magical time of the year here.”
Noah scrunched up his nose a little, and she remembered how disillusioned he had always been about the holidays. She rolled her eyes at him lightheartedly, feeling a wave of nostalgia wash over her as one of their familiar conversations began to play out in her memory.
“I know, I know,” she said with a chuckle. “I don’t need the big speech.”
He arched a brow at her. “You already know what I’m going to say, do you?”
Mindy nodded. “Likely the same thing you’ve always said, which is that the only thing Christmas is good for is corporate profits. I just happen to disagree with you.”
He chuckled. “You always were more of a dreamer than me.”
There was something in his tone that she couldn’t quite identify, and it made her heart beat harder. They glanced at each other as they walked, the air between them growing charged with unspoken words. Her palms began to sweat a bit despite the cold, and when they finally turned down the street that led to her house, she shook her head, ridding her mind of errant thoughts.
