Page 30 of Sweet Surprises

She turned and her eyes found Tag.

“I thought it was colder in Vermont than in Pennsylvania,” she said, sounding ashamed. “And I thought it was just drafty up there. I didn’t want to complain and sound like some kind of spoiled brat, especially after I bothered you so many times already with all those questions.”

“It’s fine,” he said, finding his voice. “You didn’t know. I get it. I’m sorry I snapped.”

“I don’t really blame you,” she said. “Look at this place. And the apartment too…”

She trailed off, pressing her lips together like she was trying not to cry in front of the kids.

“You can come live with us, Charlotte,” Chance cried, dashing up to her and wrapping his arms around her waist. “We have a room for visitors and it’s called a guest room and you can live there.”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you, Chance,” she said right away, hugging him back. “But I’m sure I’ll figure something else out.”

Olivia turned to Tag, her eyes flashing as she stared at him pointedly, as if she were telling him tofix this.

“Kids,” Jenny said from the doorway. “Why don’t you come over to my office? It’s nice and dry, and one of our customers dropped off a plate of cookies this afternoon that I might need your help with. Your dad can come get you when he’s done.”

“Thanks, Jenny,” Tag said, feeling grateful to the selfless young woman. “Did any of this wind up in your office?”

“Not a drop,” she said. “I was just walking by and thought I heard something.”

Olivia scowled, but took Chance’s hand and they trailed after Jenny. Tag watched after them until the front door closed, leaving him alone with Charlotte.

He knew what he was about to do, and he knew he absolutely shouldn’t do it. He might have been able to send the pretty young woman away in spite of the pull he felt between them.

But he couldn’t say no to his daughter.

“You’re going to stay with us,” he said firmly, turning back to her.

“Oh, Tag, I couldn’t—” she began.

“It will only be temporary,” he said. “We’ll have this place fixed up in no time.”

She gazed up at him, her hazel eyes wet. The Christmas lights outside made her face glow in the darkness of the shop, and he longed to cup her cheek in his hand, to gather up all that magic that allowed her to stumble into his life and make him feel things he hadn’t in years, and bring his shipwrecked daughter closer to the shore.

His heart felt like it was crashing in his chest.

“Are you sure?” she breathed.

“I can’t let you go back to the city before you turn this place around,” he murmured, lost in her eyes. “You promised.”

Suddenly she was in his arms, sobbing against his chest, her soft, warm body pressed to his.

Tag’s heart was aching and his mind was spinning. But his arms wrapped instinctively around her, and his senses catalogued the way she fit against him, and the delicate, faintly sweet scent of her hair.

“You’re okay,” he murmured, rubbing slowly between her shoulder blades, like he did when his kids were crying. “You’re okay now. I’ve got you.”

As her sobs slowed and she softened in his arms, he felt something that had been coiled tight in his chest begin to loosen, allowing emotions he had held back for so long to trickle through him, leaving him raw and sensitive in their wake.

I’m in over my head here, he thought to himself.What have I done?

It would be one thing to avoid the feelings this woman was awakening in him if all he had to do was stay away from the ice cream shop.

But now that she was going to be living with him…

9

CHARLOTTE

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