Page 44 of A Gift for the Hopeful Cowboy

“The thing is, I’ve realized I need to develop a thicker skin. Your opinion of me matters. More than that—it means everything to me.”

“Rob—”

“Let me finish.” He swallowed, a small smile tugging at his lips. “I got it in my head you were judging me for dropping out of college. For not having my future all mapped out.”

“I would never judge you for that, Rob,” she blurted.

“Yeah,” he said. “I know.”

She reached up and touched his face. “Good. Because you’ve always been enough. No matter what you think, I’ve always cared about you.”

He stared at her, letting her words wash over him and fill him with fresh waves of confidence. Hiding behind his claim that no commitments was best for them had been fine when he was younger, but now he needed to move forward, as terrifying as it was.

He cleared his throat and glanced away briefly before bringing his eyes back to hers. “You were trying to help. I get that.”

“You do?” There was hope in her voice—so much that it made his heart hurt. He’d done that to her. He’d torn her down when she had only been trying to show him that she cared. It was more apparent now how backwards his way of thinking had been.

His voice lowered and he offered her an apologetic smile of his own. “Like I said, I was too sensitive about the subject. I should have taken a step back and tried to see things from your perspective.”

Pippa laughed. “Look at both of us. I can’t believe we let things get so out of hand.” Her eyes darted away but quickly found their way back to his. “I feel so selfish. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

They were both quiet for a long moment. While the air felt colder, somehow it didn’t affect them the way he thought it should. He could stand beside Pippa, feeling the warmth radiate from her and that smile all night long.

The only bad part about this whole thing was now that they’d apologized, the tension between them had shifted into what it had been when he’d arrived. Where did he stand with her? Did she want him back? Was she willing to accept him the way he was without question?

His thoughts shifted to the engagement ring he’d left back at his place. He’d wrestled over the idea of bringing it but ultimately felt it wasn’t the right time. Pippa might have brought him here to make it clear they weren’t a good match. The risk was too great, and he didn’t want to feel like there was an unspoken pressure to propose. They needed to figure out where to go from here.

Rob cleared his throat and glanced up at the events going on around them. “Would you like to take a walk with me? Maybe we can get to a point where we know what each other wants next… out of all this.”

Her eyes flashed, sparkling with something he couldn’t put his finger on. “I would love that.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “There’s no one I would rather spend Christmas Eve with.”

Rob grinned. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

He tugged her into the crowd, not releasing her hand as they wandered.

Children darted past them wearing red fleece hats with white accents. Other couples leaned into each other as they wandered from storefront to storefront. Booths were set up where there were no storefronts.

It appeared that folks were all converging in the center of it all.

“I take it Santa has come to town?”

Pippa glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “He has, but he won’t be here much longer. He has to get back to work delivering presents all over the world.”

He smiled. “This place is something else. I could totally see you growing up here with all this Christmas magic.”

Her smile healed him, but more than that, the way she leaned into him made everything right in the world. Pippa spoke more softly this time, more calmly, with a reminiscent cadence.

“This place was magical when I was a kid. I don’t think I stopped believing in magic until I was well into my teens.” Her eyes grew wide and she let out a laugh. “That’s embarrassing.”

“I don’t think so.”

She stopped again, peering up at him. “How do you figure?”

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