Page 11 of Rainbow Kisses

“Still don’t know what you saw in that dick.” With a sigh, Caity pushed off the bed, came over to stand beside me at the closet, and started rifling through my clothes.

“Oh hon, we need to schedule a shopping trip and soon. The team has a competition in Philly in January. You should come with us. We definitely need to update your casual wardrobe with something that isn’t jeans, white shirts, or plaid.”

I stifled a grin. “What do you have against plaid? And you know I can’t. The winter festival is in January, and I have too much to do.”

“I don’t have one damn thing against plaid. If it’s flannel. And on a guy. Oh wait. What’s this?”

Reaching toward the back of the closet, Caity grabbed a shirt I’d pretty much forgotten I’d had. Cream silk, a little lower cut than anything I wore for work, and a splurge I’d made the last time I’d gone shopping with Caity. I hadn’t worn it more than a couple of times since then. Mostly because I didn’t really have an occasion to wear it. It wasn’t something I could wear during the offseason, which meant the summer. And during the season, I wore clothes that kept me warm in the arena, which meant jeans or chinos and t-shirts and sweaters. And flannel.

Okay, maybe I was in a little bit of a rut.

“Wear this.” Caity shoved it at me. “You should want to look good foryourself. Doesn’t matter where you’re going or who you’re going with. When you look good, you feel good.”

“When did you become a life coach? Fine.” I took the shirt out of her hand and flounced away toward the bathroom with an exaggerated huff that made Caity laugh.

“And if you want to look good for Brian,” Caity shouted after me, “there’s no shame in that, either.”

Caity left with a hug,a smack on my ass, and the admonition to have fun. Or had it been a threat? You could never tell with Caity.

I walked out my front door fifteen minutes later to meet Brian at the Tea Room. The pub was only a few minutes from my home by car, and I was, of course, going to be early. I was always early. For everything. Daddy always said if you were on time, you were late, and my brain had metabolized that at a young age.

I took my time weaving through the small development where my house stood. St. David sat in a little valley created by the surrounding hills, covered with old-growth forests. A few farms remained in the valley, the fields brown now. In the summer, corn and soybeans thrived, feed for the dairy farms in the area.

The town came into sight after I crested one last rise. I could just see the outline of the arena on the south side before I started to descend a little. And in the distance, I could barely make out my parents’ home on the other side of town, a huge old mansion that they’d bought more than thirty years ago and renovated at the same time they’d built the arena that housed the hockey team. It sat right at the edge of town, a beautiful old wooden lodge where I’d spent all my life until moving into my own place a few years ago.

I passed a few larger houses along the side of the road before the businesses began. The heart of St. David’s business district was all of about four blocks long, but the buildings could star in their own Hallmark movie, they were so damn cute.

The town had been built more than two hundred years ago, just a little cluster of buildings to support the farmers in the area, but in the fifties, some corporation had built a factory outside of town and St. David had expanded into what it was now.

Most of the businesses along Main Street were closed now, except for the pizza parlor, diner, and the Tea Room, which was where I was meeting Brian. My stomach gave a little flutter before I reminded myself that his niece would be there too. No fluttering allowed.

I found a space in the lot behind the building, zipping my puffy jacket before I got out of the car. The temperature hovered around forty degrees and was supposed to drop to about thirty later tonight. Shivering in the cold, I hustled for the door, headdown against the wind whipping through the valley—and walked straight into someone’s back.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

Low, male laughter reached my ears as a large hand cupped my elbow when I tilted to the right.

“It’s okay, Rainy. No problem.”

Brian stared down at me, his mouth holding a hint of a grin.

I nearly sighed in complete and utter appreciation of his handsomeness. Even the little bump on his nose where it’d been broken, probably more than once, made me want to trace it with my finger in sheer appreciation. Luckily, I noticed the smaller shadow by his side before I did anything ridiculously stupid.

Drawing in a quick breath, I took a step back as I smiled at the girl.

“Hi, you must be Maddy. I’m Rainbow. It’s nice to meet you.”

The young girl looked up at me, her eyebrows arching as she looked between me and her uncle. It took a second, but finally she said, “Hi.”

I couldn’t tell if she was shy or distant or just disinterested, but I planned to cut her some slack considering the circumstances. She’d had to uproot her entire life in the past couple of days. I couldn’t even imagine.

And holy crap, she looked enough like Brian that people might think she was his. From the auburn hair to the hazel eyes to the shape of her face.

“Well, why don’t we get inside before we freeze.” I smiled a little too brightly, trying too hard to be friendly and probably looking like an idiot. “I’m ready to eat.”

Brian had the door open before I’d finished speaking, waving Maddy and me in ahead of him.

“I called ahead and asked Mitzi to save us a table in the back, where it’s quiet.” I waved at the Tea Room’s owner, MitziNaugle, who’d spotted us from across the room and began to weave through the tables on her way to us.

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