Page 72 of Take Me Home for Christmas

“No talk of the future. We’re living in the here and now. Not that it’s any of your business.” He gave her a pointed look. “She got some crazy idea to build me a website as a Christmas present.”

“At least one of you is thinking about your future,” she muttered as she stepped past him. She turned around and walked backward so she was facing him. “Have you at least told her that you love her?”

He ignored her as he zipped around her on his way to the school.

Simone grabbed his arm and pulled him toward a bench in front of the town’s library. “Whoa there, Deputy Dog. You’re not going any farther until you tell me the game plan.”

“The game plan is for you to take the entrance to the parking lot on Water Street while I take the one on Oak.”

She made a growling sound deep in her throat. “I meant the game plan with Elle, wiseass. You love her. She obviously makes you happy because you’ve been wearing a shit-eating grin for days now. And, seeing as you are one of the most important people in my life, I wantyouto be happy.” She put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to do the smart thing and ask her to stay in Chances Inlet?”

Hayden focused his gaze over her shoulder. The library’s front window was painted with an elaborate mural of Santa flying his sleigh, dropping books into the outstretched hands of eager children below. The artwork was courtesy of a local artist who’d set up a gallery in town. In her application for the commission for the window, she told the city council she’d come to Chances Inlet for the sole purpose of finding her passion and sharing it with others. He sucked in a deep breath. Too bad Elle couldn’t find her passion in their hometown.

He looked Simone in the eye. “No. I’m not asking her that.” He started walking again.

“Why the hell not?” she demanded as she raced to catch up with him. “And don’t give me that bullshit about ‘if you love someone, set them free.’”

If it’s meant to be, they’ll come back to you.

Or something like that.

It seemed Hayden was constantly “setting Elle free.” She did always come home. Just never to him specifically.

“That plot point seems to work just fine in your grandmother’s romance books you’re always waxing on and on about,” he said.

“Are you kidding me?” She threw up her hands. “What is your problem? Just tell her.”

Hayden turned on his heel so fast, Simone lurched into him.

“Okay. I tell her. And she agrees to give up her dreams for me. What happens five years from now when she regrets missing out on her big chance because she chose me out of pity? Or guilt?” he yelled. “When she realizes she’s stuck in the town she couldn’t wait to escape from because I’m too effing messed up to live out there in the real world? Where will I be then, huh?”

Simone shook her head. “Where is this coming from?”

He heaved a sigh. “From real life. My real life. And Elle’s. We both had big dreams once. One of us should get to achieve theirs.”

“Oh, Hayden, what ifyouare her big dream?”

Her words hurt to even contemplate. “I told her why I can’t leave. That this is my home. And she knows I love her?—”

“Have you told her that? Actually said those three words? Out loud?”

He’d said those three words to her countless times over the years. So maybe the words meant something different now. But he’d shown her with his body what she meant to him. There was no way she didn’t know.

“I won’t beg her to stay. Call it bullshit if you want, but if she chooses New York over me, I’ll set her free.”

Simone stared at him, wide-eyed and breathing heavy. A car pulled up beside them, and a throat cleared.

“Everything okay, kids?” Sheriff Hollister asked from the front seat of his Bronco.

Hayden found his composure first. “Yessir. We are on our way to direct traffic.”

The sheriff looked between them as if he didn’t believe Hayden. After a strained thirty seconds, he let it drop.

“I’m going to watch the concert,” he said. “Come inside when the parking lot is clear again. There are always lots of baked goods left over.”

He drove off toward the school as Simone hurried around Hayden.

“He had me at baked goods,” she quipped.

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