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"I'll take that little joke to mean I'm right." He pointed to himself. "Comic relief master."
Grace nodded in agreement. "Well, you're not wrong. She always took the moves hard, and yeah, I think it makes sense that I'd become afraid of being so easily broken."
For a long moment, Tommy was silent. Then he reached over and patted her knee, not letting it linger even though Grace inexplicably wished he would. "For what it's worth, I don't think you could ever be someone who's easily broken."
Grace had no idea how to respond to that, becausethank youdidn't seem like nearly enough. They lapsed into another thoughtful silence, the town square appearing outside providing a picture-perfect Christmas scene.
Then Tommy broke the quiet by teasingly remarking, "But hey, that was a big win right there. For me, anyway."
"What was?"
"It only took you a couple weeks to give me something more personal than your favorite colors and foods. Boom. Bet that's a first."
Grace laughed, the tension in the car dissipating. "The fact that I'm telling you now should tell you a lot about how I feel," she said, a soft smile playing on her lips.
Tommy made a low sound of agreement, his eyes twinkling with warmth.
Then he reached over to take her hand, gently kissing the back of it as he continued to drive through the picturesque town.
The simple gesture had an unfamiliar sensation of being cherished settling within her, and as they cruised past festive storefronts and snow-covered trees, Grace realized that her time in Snow Hill was changing her in ways she never expected.
And maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to constantly keep herself from letting someone like Tommy all the way in.
CHAPTER14
Tommy
“Take care,”Tommy called as he stepped out of the cafe, his breath catching his in throat from the blast of frigid air.
He’d just finished up his latest call, where one of the tourists had stolen some decorations right off the wall, then hid them in her shopping bags and sipped her coffee like it was no big thing. Once the barista showed her the footage on the store's security camera with Tommy standing by in case the unassuming decor thief happened to be armed and dangerous, it was only a matter of asking her to leave.
He'd gotten a cup of coffee on the house for his help, though, making it his favorite call of the day.
"Hey, Tommy! How's it goin'?" called out Mr. Evergreen, the tree farm owner, as he walked by with a friendly wave.
Tommy smiled and waved back, grinning as Mrs. C from the ornament shop tried to avoid his gaze. But since her arm was linked through Mr. Evergreen's, he gave her a pointed look.
The deep blush that colored her already rosy cheeks let him know she'd caught it.
Serves her right for not believing him about Mr. E's crush.
And seeing the two of them together had him thinking of Grace, of course, and the strides they'd made the day before during her ride-along. He knew how big of a deal it was for Sofia to open up to him. He hoped there was more where that came from, but truly, he hadn't minded getting to know her in tiny snippets since the day they'd met, whereas he was an open book.
Somewhere deep inside, Tommy had kept the faith, and yesterday... it'd paid off. With the out-of-nowhere, too-hot-for-this-cold-weather connection they had, he was glad he'd been right that the real Grace—the one who had so much more going on than the surface-level stuff she'd let him see so far—was worth the wait.
Tommy's phone buzzed in his hand, pulling him from his thoughts. An unknown number flashed across the screen, but he answered without hesitation, used to getting calls from blocked numbers due to his job.
"This is Tommy."
But then, instead of a human voice, it was the monotonous, robotic one that signaled he was getting a call from the prison in Philly. If it were work related, whoever transferred the inmate to his cell would've stayed on the line to make sure he wanted the call.
This had to be personal.
"Tommy, it's Dane. I need your help," came the voice over the line, distorted by the tinny quality of the prison's phone.
Instantly, Tommy's guard went up. Dane—Sofia's ex-boyfriend—had once been like an older brother to him, but now, he represented a painful reminder of how things could change.
The guy was the epitome of the phrase,Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
