Page 28 of The Inn at Evergreen Hollow

Nora was still looking at him, and he cleared his throat. “No,” Aiden managed quietly. “I did like you.”

A moment of awkward silence stretched between them, and he could feel an unspoken tension hovering in the air. Much like the moment in the event hall, when he’d thought she was going to fall off the ladder and grabbed her, or when she’d walked into his dance studio without knowing he’d be there. But it was even more charged now, with his admission.

He’d gone far enough for today, he decided. Maybe far enough, for good.

“I should get going.” He started to stand up, thinking he’d read his book at home after all. But before he could push his chair back, Nora interrupted him.

“Do you maybe want to go to dinner? With me.” She flushed the tiniest bit, probably realizing how silly the last part sounded. “I want to catch up with you,” she added. “Find out a little more about what you’ve been up to. It would be nice, don’t you think?”

Nice.That was one word for it.

“Besides,” Nora added quickly, as if she were worried he was about to turn her down. “I owe you a meal, I think, after doing you bodily harm in class.”

The teasing lilt was back in her voice. She’d clearly moved on past the charged moment, but he was still there, shocked that this was happening. All these years later. He couldn’t quite believe it.

“Sure,” he managed. “I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow. How’s that sound?”

Nora flashed him a truly stunning grin. “I’ll see you then,” she said, reaching for her coffee and planner, and he nodded, retreating to the door of the coffee shop.

It was just a dinner. Just a little catching up between old acquaintances.

But if that was all, he wondered as he walked to his truck, then why couldn’t he stop his heart from racing?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Nora sank down into the chair by the small kitchen nook table as Rhonda opened the oven, taking a tray of snickerdoodles out. She would have known which cookie it was even if she couldn’t see them—the sudden burst of warm air was filled with the scents of sugar and cinnamon, and she could practically taste the soft, pillowy cookie melting in her mouth already.

She’d come down to the kitchen because that seemed like exactly what she needed—a cookie and maybe some of her mother’s hot cocoa. She hadn’t gotten much more planning done at The Mellow Mug earlier—she’d been too distracted after her run-in with Aiden.

They were going on a date.Not a date. A dinner to catch up.But no matter how she tried to turn it around in her head or look at it differently, itfeltlike a date.

She’d said that back in high school, she’d thought that he might ask her out. He’d reassured her that hehadactually liked her back then. And then she’d asked him to dinner.

It definitely felt like it fit the requirements of a date.

The thought made nerves swirl around in her stomach like snowflakes in a globe. It had beenyearssince she’d been out on a first date. She’d been with Rob for so long that she’dforgotten what it felt like to go out with someone for the first time, even someone who she already knew. She’d even forgotten what it really felt like to go on a date—her and Rob’s nights out, which had been few and far between, had lost the spark of romance over the last few months. They had started to feel more like debriefings, catching each other up on all of the things they hadn’t had time to talk about because they’d both been so overwhelmed with work.

She’d told herself, all the times she was disappointed, that things would calm down. That it was a rough patch, and once the wedding was over and they lived together, date nights would feel special again. Romantic. Less like a conference.

Now, she wasn’t so sure that would have turned out to be the case. And clearly Rob hadn’t been sure either, since he’d broken things off.

She wasn’t sure if it was just the excitement of dinner with Aiden, but she didn’t feel the same pang that she had before when she thought about Rob. It hadn’t hurt so much either, telling Aiden about the broken engagement today. She’d felt more frustration than anything else—frustration that she’d been so busy and preoccupied that she’d missed all the signals that her relationship wasn’t working… and theremusthave been signals. There always were. She just hadn’t had time to pay attention. Her life had been a whirlwind, a rush of work and efficiency and focusing on her career, and she had thought Rob had liked that about her. That they were both so driven.

But maybe it would have been good for them to both slow down a little.

She didn’t mourn the end of the relationship as much as she’d thought, she realized, as she watched her mother scoop cookies onto a plate and pour hot cocoa. If they’d really been right for each other, Rob would have talked to her about his misgivings, instead of letting them build until he unilaterallydecided to dump her. Maybe she’d missed the signs, but he should have told her how he felt.

“How’s the event planning going?” Rhonda carried the plate of cookies and the cocoa to the table, and Nora frowned, remembering her reason for coming down here in the first place. She’d been upstairs trying to work on what she hadn’t managed to get done this morning, but her thoughts had drifted to Aiden, and then to how frustrated she was with Sabrina, and then to wondering if she should be doing this at all. Around and around, until she’d decided that coming downstairs and seeing what was being baked was probably her best choice.

A good choice, Nora decided, when she took a bite of cookie. It was exactly as good as she remembered, soft and buttery, sweet and spiced in exactly the right measure. Paired with the thick, rich cocoa, it was even better. She would miss this when she went home.

But maybe she didn’t have to stay away for quite so long this time.

“Sabrina clearly doesn’t want my help.” Nora took another bite of cookie, letting the cinnamon sugar soothe away the sting of remembering Sabrina’s reaction. “I went to show her some of what I picked out, and she said she didn’t see the point in bothering to share it with her, since I was going to do it all anyway.” Another bite of cookie. The hostility still felt bad, even with the time that had passed since then. She’d done all of this as a gesture of goodwill—peace on earth, and all of that—and Sabrina seemed intent on interpreting it in the worst way possible.

“Just keep doing what you’re doing.” Rhonda sat back, taking a bite of her own cookie as she looked at her daughter. “We’re lucky to have your expertise. If Sabrina doesn’t realize that, it’s on her. And she’ll come around, I’m sure.”

Like Caroline?Nora bit the words back. Her mother didn’t want friction between her daughters, of course—so of course she’d tried to reassure Nora that her sister would come around. But Caroline hadn’t, so far, and Nora didn’t feel confident that Sabrina would either.

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