Page 30 of The Inn at Evergreen Hollow

Maybe not everything had to check off a box on a list.

“Thanks.” Nora stood up, bending to give her mother a kiss on the cheek. “For everything,” she added, as she took her mug to the sink.

She wasn’t sure what the dinner out with Aiden would be like.

But she was excited to find out.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Aiden felt like a nervous schoolboy as he drove up to The Mistletoe Inn, parking his truck in the driveway as he slid out to go knock on the door and pick Nora up for their dinner out. Theirdate, he nearly thought—but what it really was, he reminded himself, was a dinner between old acquaintances to catch up. Thinking of it as a date wouldn’t do anything except get his hopes up for something that he had no concrete reason to think of it as.

The door opened almost as soon as he knocked, and he saw Nora’s mother, Rhonda, standing there.

“Come in!” She stepped back, holding the door open for him. “It’s cold out. Nora should be down soon—Nora!” Rhonda turned toward the stairs, calling her daughter’s name, and Aiden stifled a smile as he knocked the snow off of his boots and stepped into the warm entryway.

The whole thing had a tinge of nostalgia to it—a little like they were getting a high-school do-over, he thought. Like he was coming to pick her up at her parents’ house and take her out.

“I’m coming!” Nora’s voice drifted down from the upper floor, and Aiden felt a small tingle of excitement. Whether the dinner turned out to really be a date or not, this was somethinghe’d wanted for a long time, and the anticipation of seeing her tightened his chest. It felt a little like a dream, if he was being honest.

“Where are the two of you going?” Rhonda asked politely, and Aiden smiled.

“Nora said she got a reservation at Marie’s. I don’t have an occasion to go there often, so I’m looking forward to it.”

“That’s a nice place to catch up.” There was a small, amused twitch at the corners of Rhonda’s mouth that made Aiden think she had some opinions about what kind of dinner it was too. He got the feeling that she was hoping it was a date too.

The sound of heels against the wood floor made Aiden turn, and his jaw nearly dropped. Date or not, Nora had made an effort for their dinner out—she always looked beautiful and put together, but just then he thought that she looked especially stunning. She was wearing a charcoal gray knit sweater dress with a shawl collar, tall black velvet high heeled boots, and she’d added a red lip to her usual light makeup. He noticed she was wearing a pretty gold necklace with a pearl dangling from it, and matching earrings, her hair lightly curled so it swept around her shoulders. It was hard not to stare.

“Hi, Aiden.” Nora smiled, and he felt a similar smile spread across his own face.

“Hey there.” He couldn’t quite think of anything else to say, momentarily frozen in place by just how beautiful he thought she looked—and the only thing that saved him from Nora realizing he’d gone speechless was the sound of the front door opening heavily again.

He recognized Caroline as she walked by, striding past their small group with barely a glance. He didn’t see her often around town, but he remembered her. She had the same vaguely irritated expression on her face that it seemed she always wore, and she was dressed for work in faded jeans, a heavy flannel,and outdoor boots with a Carhartt jacket over it all. She paused as she passed Nora, seemingly taking in her sister’s appearance, and then glanced back.

“Oh. Hey, Aiden. Long time no see.” She pressed her lips together, looking between him and Nora. “What are you up to?”

Rhonda spoke up before either he or Nora had a chance to respond. “They’re headed out on a date.” There was a hint of glee in her voice that confirmed what he’d been thinking at the start—she was thrilled that he and Nora were reconnecting. It gave him a small boost of confidence. He’d reminded himself often since Nora’s invitation not to get his hopes up that it might go somewhere—at the end of the day, Nora was still just visiting. But having family in his corner mattered to him when it came to this sort of thing, and just in case, he was glad that it seemed Rhonda approved.

Caroline smiled, but it looked stiff, not quite meeting her eyes. “Well, have a good time, you two.” She gave her sister another cursory glance, and then swept from the room.

Nora’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly, but her face was otherwise blank. “Well then.” She smiled at Aiden. “Should we go?”

“Have fun!” Rhonda called as they walked out, Aiden holding the door for Nora and walking a bit ahead of her so that he could open the side door to the truck. She gave him a small, almost amused smile, but pulled herself up into the passenger side without a word.

“Very chivalrous of you,” she said once he was inside, starting the engine so the cab could begin to warm up. She still had that small smile on her face, but he could see she was tense. He had a feeling it had something to do with Caroline’s reaction—that it had bothered her. She’d been perfectly relaxed until her sister had walked in.

“How are things between you and Caroline?” he asked carefully, putting the truck in gear. “She still has that look like her shirtsleeves are a little too tight.”

Nora’s sudden laugh came out almost as a snort, and she put a hand over her mouth, stifling the sound. The sound of it, and the sideways look she gave him, made him chuckle too.A good start, he couldn’t help but think—the two of them already making each other laugh.

“Things have been—strained, with us,” she admitted after a moment. “I mean, they have been for a while. Years, really. Mom had that hip replacement right when I was moving to Boston, and Caroline had some pretty clear opinions about it. She thought I should be moving back home and helping with the inn, not heading off to start a career in the big city. I didn’t see why I should give up everything when she clearly was more than happy to be in charge, and I thought I could still be a part of the family from a distance. I had all of these goals and dreams, and coming back to Evergreen Hollow to help run Mistletoe wasn’t part of that. It felt like Caroline thought I wasn’t doing enough to help—that I haven’t been, over the years. I always felt guilty about it.” Nora twisted her hands together in her lap, and Aiden saw her look out of the window at the town passing by. “I don’t think she’d believe that I felt guilty, but I really did. And I feel even more guilty now, since I’m back home and Caroline can give me all of those looks in person.”

He felt a pang of sympathy. It was clear it weighed on her—he could hear it in her voice. And it felt obvious to him that shedidcare—that she always had, even if she’d gone on to Boston instead of coming back home. If she hadn’t cared, she wouldn’t have given all of it a second thought, or felt as guilty as it was clear to him that she did. “Personally,” he said, turning the truck down the main street toward Marie’s, “I think it’s amazing that you stuck to your goals and achieved everything that youplanned to. Plenty of people have dreams and goals, and they just think about them and don’t ever put it into action. You did exactly what you set your mind to, and that’s pretty impressive in my opinion.”

“Thank you.” Nora gave him a small, grateful smile, and he tried not to think about the way it made his heart race.

“We’re here.” He turned the truck into Marie’s parking lot. A warm glow was coming from the large, black-framed windows set in the cream stone building, lighting up the snowdrifts and welcoming them in. Aiden walked around to open Nora’s door for her, getting another of those tiny smiles, and he returned it as they walked to the large black door at the front of the restaurant, flanked by two old-fashioned light fixtures.

He hadn’t been to Marie’s in so long that he’d forgotten what a romantic atmosphere it had. They were led by the hostess into the main dining room, to one of the white-cloth covered tables near the lit fireplace. That fireplace and the candles on the tables and set along the windowsills were the only source of light in the room, giving it a soft glow that felt close and cozy. There was a garland hung on the mantel of the fireplace, with small silver and gold ornaments catching the flickering light, and as he pulled out Nora’s seat for her he couldn’t help thinking that thisdefinitelyfelt like a date.

---