Page 19 of Just Add Mistletoe

He noticed her hesitation, but then she relinquished it. The weight surprised him. “Wow, it’s heavy.”

She shrugged. “Books.”

“Should have guessed.”

He liked the way the edges of her eyes lifted when she smiled. Once they reached his truck, he opened the passenger door, and she climbed in. Then he set the duffle on the back seat. As he walked around the truck, he wondered why she was so keen on leaving the weekend retreat. With him, no less. Surely one of her friends would have driven her back if necessary. Well, he wasn’t going to pester her about it.

“Thanks for this,” Lori said, when he settled into the driver’s seat. “You’re saving me.”

“From what?” he asked, genuinely curious. He pulled up the text from Bronson with the work order, and plugged in the address of the cabin.

She heaved out a sigh. “From another twenty-four hours of being the odd man—or woman—out. I was trying to not let it bother me, and for the most part it didn’t, but when you showed up—”

“Wait, this has something to do with me?”

“Notyouspecifically,” Lori said with an apologetic smile. “But it was the fact that you’re single too. And I’m the last holdout, apparently, so my friends decided that we should immediately fall in love and live happily ever after.”

“Wow, no pressure there.” Malcom pulled out of the circular driveway. He glanced over at her. She was gazing out the window, biting her lower lip, her shoulders tense. “So you didn’t want to deal with the aftermath when I left the barbecue without proposing?”

She looked over at him and smirked. “Something like that. I guess I didn’t want the weekend to be all about ‘what should we do about Lori’ and ‘how can we get Lori and Malcom to go out on a date?’” She waved a hand. “Who knows what they’ll think of my driving off with you though.”

“You’ll just have to set them straight,” Malcom said as he slowed the truck, then turned onto the main canyon road. “Tellthem you helped me fix a gate, then I took you straight home. No declarations of love and no proposals.”

He knew he was grinning, and it made his heart light when she grinned back.

LORI HAD JUST FINISHED PAINTING one wall in her childhood bedroom in her parents’ old house when her cell rang. She dabbed her hands on a drop cloth and picked up Marci’s call.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Marci said, “but I’m really not feeling well. I thought I could stick it out, but I feel like I’m going to puke any second.”

Lori winced. “Sorry you’re sick. I’ll head over right now. If you need to just leave, lock the door. It won’t be a big deal if the place is locked up for a short time.”

“Thank you,” Marci said in a strained voice. “Sorry again.”

Then she was gone, and Lori turned to survey her latest round of painting. She’d decided to paint all of the walls in the house a mellow taupe color. Everly and Austin had done a walk-through and suggested a few easy updates in order to make the house more appealing to buyers. “Easy” was a relative word. Well, okay, painting was easy in general, but very time consuming if one wanted to do it right.

Lori closed up the paint can, cleaned the roller, then headed out of the house.

By the time she got to the store, Marci was gone—which Lori was grateful for. She sent a quick text.I’m at the store now. Hope you feel better soon.

She unlocked the door, and once inside, straightened a few things. It was the usual two p.m. lull in the store when no none came in. The morning shoppers were long gone, and the lunch rush over with. In about an hour, with school getting out, moreshoppers would come. Teenagers included. Most would browse. If they bought anything, it would be something like a spider ring, or a bag of candy.

With Marci not around, things were quiet save for the music track of Halloween songs and the occasional rumble of construction machinery across the street.

Speaking of construction . . . it had been two weeks since Lori had seen Malcom. Not that she was exactly keeping track. Oh, she’d caught a glimpse of him a time or two—when she was peering out her shop window, or even her apartment window on the second floor. But those had been happenstance sightings. He seemed really busy. Always moving about the job site, talking to people, going in and out of the trailer. She still marveled that he slept there.

A couple times when she’d awakened in the middle of the night to get a drink, she’d glanced out the window to see that there was a light on inside the trailer. Did he never sleep? Or did he sleep with the light on? That thought made her giggle.

Her friends had finally stopped pestering her about the drive home from the cabin. Her story remained the same each time they’d asked, so they’d eventually moved on to other topics.

Lori moved about the store, aimlessly straightening things while she let her mind wander. On the drive home from the cabin, Malcom took only about fifteen minutes to repair the gate. He didn’t have to buy a new latch after all. So she was back at her store in a short time. They hadn’t exchanged numbers or anything, and why should they?

Lori paused by the front window. There was some extra activity going on across the way. People in regular clothes approaching the trailer.

Malcom stepped out the door and lifted a hand in greeting, then descended the few steps. There were two women with a man, and they all stood around talking for a few moments.

Lori stepped back from the window; she really shouldn’t be watching, or spying. But she continued anyway.

One of the women moved closer to Malcom and put her hand on his arm. He smiled at her, but even from this distance, Lori could tell it was strained. The woman was dressed to the nines in a lavender suit, blonde hair waving down her back, three-inch-minimum high heels that were red.

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