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“Oh, those smell so good,” Roni said as the rich pine scent filled the room.
Brianna followed them in with large baskets overflowing with ribbons and pine cones for decorating the wreaths. “This is such a good idea,” she said, placing the baskets at the end of the table.
“I agree.” Roni picked up a sampling of different-sized and shaped pine cones, along with a can of gold spray paint to carry out back. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before.”
“Sometimes you need a good competition to get your creative juices flowing,” Brianna said, grinning.
Roni laughed. “Maybe you’re right.”
She went out the back door where she had a box set up for painting the pine cones. She quickly sprayed them with the gold spray paint, then set them out to dry with the others she’d sprayed earlier. She walked back in with the ones that were already dry and placed them in a basket on the table.
“Those look great. What a good idea.”
“Thanks! Jenni called earlier. Apparently, Jimmy called and asked her to bring a few dogs by Frankie’s tomorrow night.”
“Really,” Brianna said with widened eyes. “What is he doing?”
“Santa pictures with pets.”
Brianna grinned. “Of course, he is. That’s perfect for him.”
Roni growled low in her throat as Owen and Eric walked back out the door.
“Don’t worry,” Brianna added. “I’m sure he won’t do as well as we will making wreaths.”
Roni arranged the basket of gold pine cones next to the red ribbons and turned toward Brianna. “You better believe it. One thing is for certain. This is a contest I will not lose. I am not making that man dinner.”
Brianna’s eyes widened as she smiled and shook her head. “Yeah, that would be really terrible.”
Roni’s lips twitched. “Stop.”
Brianna laughed. “Stop what?”
“You know what. Just stop. It would be terrible. The less time I have to spend with that man, the better. I can’t trust him to—”
The bells over the door jingled once again as Owen and Eric returned carrying several pre-made wreaths from the Greenley’s Christmas Tree shop.
“To what?” Brianna asked.
To not break my heart all over again.
She stared at Eric for a long minute, and then it all came rushing back. That Christmas Eve night all those years ago. She’d been crying because Jimmy hadn’t come home. She was sure she was never going to see him again. Eric had held her for a long moment, and then he’d kissed her. They both knew it was a mistake the instant it had happened.
He apologized and fled. And he never kissed her again.
That was what Jimmy had seen!
Her cheeks flamed with the injustice of it all. That kiss had destroyed her relationship with Jimmy, and years later when she was interested in starting something with Eric, he wasn’t, and then he fell in love with Melanie.
“Roni?” Brianna asked, looking at her strangely.
“Nothing,” Roni said quickly. “Jimmy promised me steak Diane and I can taste it already. That’s all.”
“Are you guys talking about Jimmy Duarte?” Eric asked. “He called and asked me to deliver a nine-foot tree to Frankie’s. I’m heading over there next.”
“You mean he didn’t go by last night to pick one out?” Brianna asked, looking at Roni with raised eyebrows.
Roni shook her head. “We decided not to.”
