Page 351 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

“He has us,” Addy said, and they fell in on either side of him, each of them taking one of his arms.

“He’s not going to stay here,” Victoria said as if scandalized.

“And why ever not?” Addy said. “Looks like you’re going to have to burn those wedding dresses and all of yourmonogrammed baby bibs. Either that, or you can take out a personal ad for someone whose last name starts with ‘B.’”

She gaped, wordless, and Prescott gave her another tug toward the door. After ushering her through the opening, he turned back in the doorway, no doubt to make some final pronouncement regarding his ungrateful children, but Lurch slammed the door shut in his face.

“I’m buying you a drink!” Addy said.

Stella grimaced. “Now, don’t you go trying to steal one ofmymen, girly, just because I like the look of yours.”

She gave Finn another of her long, lingering looks, making him edge a little closer to Addy.

Then Jack was turning Maisie around, looking down at her with those deep, dark eyes. Reminding her of the night of Diego and the petting zoo andthem.She hoped that had only been their beginning, and that this wasn’t their end.

But it struck her that his sisters were over there with his brother, and he probably needed to help them work out whatever craziness was still unfolding.

“We have to talk,” he said, squeezing her hand.

“Don’t you need to deal with the fallout?” She gestured to the gathering at the front of the room. Stella was waving around a paintbrush she’d retrieved from her bag, going off about promises being promises while Addy lectured her about consent and Lee teetered some more. “If you’re worried about Stella, I can go with you. But I don’t promise I’ll protect you from getting your face painted.”

“I’m only worried about getting things settled between us. Everything else can wait. I shouldn’t have let the party get in the way in the first place.”

“You know the world is falling apart around us, don’t you?” she asked, gesturing to the rest of the party. People were gawking openly, some taking pictures of Stella and her guys. Ifthis wasn’t on all the local news reports in the morning, it was only Christmas that had saved them.

“The world fell apart this morning, and I’m not doing anything else until we make it right.”

As far as words went, they were perfect. It felt like someone had taken a big dishrag to the cloudy window concealing her future.

“There’s somewhere I need to take you,” she said.

The park wasquiet and cold, its beauty lost to the dark and the winter. But she took Jack by the hand and led him to a wood bench. Christmas lights twinkled from houses in the distance, adding a little holiday sparkle to the view. They sat next to each other, sides pressed together, and he looked at her, waiting.

He probably wanted to know why she’d brought him somewhere outside rather than back to the warmth of her house. Which, fair enough. She was cold, despite having put on her dog-hair-covered coat. (He’d already seen the dress, she figured—might as well avoid freezing). But he hadn’t asked questions in the car. They’d just sat in companionable silence, soaking in each other’s presence.

No one had questioned Jack for leaving the party he’d put on. If anything, everyone had seemed pleased to see them go. She might have made a joke about that, but she wasn’t quite ready to laugh yet. Not until they talked.

“This is where I found Ein,” she said. “I was sitting on this bench, feeling more lost than I ever had. Molly had been getting into a little trouble at school, and I felt like I didn’t have it together enough to take care of myself, let alone her.” She looked down and smiled. “Then I felt something nudging my leg.I almost screamed, thinking it was maybe a bear, but I looked down and saw a filthy, starving, little dog. His skin was raw in patches, and he just looked…he looked like I felt.”

“You found Einstein out here?” Jack asked in surprise. “I thought people bought corgis from breeders.”

“They do,” she said, “but there are plenty of people who buy dogs from fancy breeders and end up with buyer’s remorse. They abandon them like they’re nothing. Ein had a microchip, so I was able to contact his owners. They weren’t even looking for him. I think they were relieved he ran off.”

“That’s why you started the shelter,” he said. “It happened after you found Ein out here.”

He was a good listener. It was one of the things that had endeared him to her from the beginning—the way he really listened to a person, both what they were saying and what they weren’t. “Yes. I saved him, and he saved me. He gave me another purpose. Of course, I had a massive assist from Beatrice, plus my inheritance from my parents. But I knew from the beginning Einstein and I were soul companions, and he was going to change my life. It was what you could call a pivotal moment.”

Something glimmered in his eyes, almost as if a string of twinkle lights had lit up inside him.

“I didn’t think beyond one night when I took you home from Dottie’s party. But it was another pivotal moment, Jack. Just like when Einstein found me.” She smiled up at him, feeling tears in her eyes. “Dottie always told me I needed to find a human soul companion, and I did. I found you.” A tear trickled down her cheek, and he traced it and wiped it away. “But I can tell you that I love you every day, and you might still wonder if I have feelings for River…because he’s my friend and Georgie’s your sister, and they’ll be in our lives. I get that. I just don’t know what to do about it. That’s why I didn’t say anything before I did. I was worried you’d push me away.”

He was silent for a long time after that, and her heart thumped painfully in her chest. She could offer to give up her Bro Club dinners with River and Finn, or to avoid hanging out with River alone, but that was the kind of thing she’d end up resenting Jack for. She didn’t want that for them.

“Did you just say you love me?” he asked, staring into her eyes. He took her hands, and the warmth of his fingers, the familiarity of them, grounded her. His eyes weren’t expressionless, the way they got sometimes when he was overwhelmed. They were wells of raw emotion.

“I guess I did,” she said with some amount of sass, and then she said it again, her tone completely serious this time. “I love you. And Jack, I know what you thought earlier, but you were wrong. River is my friend, and he’ll always be special to me, but I’ve never wanted him the way I want you. He’s not my soul companion.Youare.”

One moment he was looking into her eyes, and then he was pulling her onto his lap, claiming her mouth. His kiss was fierce and insistent, and it touched something deep at her core. When he pulled away, she was panting, no longer chilled by the cool air.

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