Page 35 of A Gift for her Festive Firefighter

He was so quiet, so moved, that she audibly heard him swallow as he looked at her again a moment later. He nodded slightly and hesitated. His eyes were wary because he wasn’t comfortable with being given something so precious to her. It felt so good to know that he was afraid to hurt her – even if by mistake.

“This explains why you were so angry the night we met – and I’m glad you told me, but I don’t want to risk anything happening to your car. I appreciate your offering, but…” his voice faded, but the unspoken words hung in the air.

It’s not worth the risk of hurting you…

Holly felt her eyes sting as she saw it in his eyes – and nodded. Her hand reached up, trembling, and caressed his cheek as they stood there together. It took a lot to offer him a piece of her, and the fact that he understood and valued what it meant was everything.

“Then I’ll come with you and wait with Knox in the car,” she countered. She wasn’t going to let him walk a few miles to the office when she was perfectly capable of changing up her day. “I need a break. You need a ride. Knox can play in the grass for a bit. This works for all of us, now doesn’t it?”

“You could come to the closing with me,” he began, his voice infinitely quiet as he touched her cheek tenderly. “In case I get bad news or something changes.”

“Am I your own personal security blanket?” she chuckled, smiling.

“How about the best person I know at my side during a pivotal moment in my life,” he revised, giving her a shy smile. “This is my first home purchase… and maybe someday my girlfriend might move in or something. You never know what could happen.”

Cade’s words hung in the air as her breath caught in her chest. His eyes searched hers, and neither one of them moved for a moment, like two opponents reading the room once again, both afraid to make the first move… except he did.

“I’m not saying ‘now,’” he whispered softly, laying his hand over hers where she touched his jaw. “I’m just saying that I really like what we have going between us, and we might decide to look at things differently someday.”

Holly didn’t know what to say because it was all so much, so fast. She didn’t want to be just a ‘girlfriend’ to move in, but rather wanted the whole thing – the fantasy, the fairytale, and her prince really needed to get going if he was going to sign on the dotted line for his ‘castle.’

“I like it too – and maybe we should talk more when we aren’t in a time crunch,” she replied, trying to steer the conversation. Taking the leash from him, she made kissy noises toward Knox and saw the puppy start wagging his tail. “I’ve got my keys. Let’s head out.”

“You really don’t mind?”

“I don’t. I need the fresh air and a break badly. I’m about ready to kick the fender again and…”

“Step away from the truck,” Cade interrupted and tugged her forward, his eyes dancing with amusement at the unspoken joke between them. Yeah, she could have a temper, and his truck had been the recipient of one of the rare times she’d lost her cool.

“Funny,” she said flatly – and stuck her tongue out playfully at him as they headed toward her vehicle.

Not twenty minutes later, Holly understood why Cade had requested company, and the ‘security blanket’ comment hadn’t been too far off. Buying a house was intimidating! The fancy furniture, desks, pens, and people wearing expensive suits were staggering. She had never felt so underdressed or inferior as she did right now.

“Mr. Pruitt,” the loan officer began, rifling through papers. “I’m afraid the papers are incorrect and will need to be re-done…” Holly looked at him, horrified. Cade’s face was so pale, so nervous, that she immediately reached for his hand, grasping it as Knox slept at her feet.

“I’m afraid I don’t have Mrs. Pruitt on the documents and…”

Cade and Holly looked at each other at that moment, before both turned to the loan officer, exclaiming over one another in a rush.

“We’re not married!”

“Hang on a second!”

“Oh, my apologies,” the man continued, looking relieved, and he got out the folder once more and presented it to Cade. “If you’ll look over these documents, make sure I have your address, social security number, and your name is correct – then we’ll wrap this up shortly in no time.”

Holly sat back and looked at Cade’s profile, watching him as he read the documents, initialing and signing in the highlighted boxes and thinking. While she had protested at the mistake out of sheer nervousness, he had done the same, and she hadn’t expected it to hurt her feelings so much. He looked completely alarmed – but was it the reference to marriage or the fact that the paperwork would need to be redone?

That nagging little voice in her mind was whispering that it was the first and not the latter of the two. Would someone like her really be allowed to imagine that things could be like this, this lovely between them? They were barely at the beginning of a relationship, yet her speedometer was definitely going much faster than his. That could cause problems in the long run for them, and she darn well knew it.

Pressing her lips together to keep her from asking questions or blurting out something, she sat there almost deathly still and lost in her thoughts.

Chapter 13

CADE

“Ughhhh…”

Cade groaned aloud, and it took three attempts to sit up on the mattress where it rested on the floor of his new house. He was so sore, so tired, and so exhausted from moving boxes, running around town to try to get some necessities for the place, and felt like he was imposing on Holly’s time.

---