Page 43 of Christmas Home

“Nah, I’m going to law school.”

“Cool,” I said and leaned back to watch the show.

“Did you hear that a descendant of the city’s founder is moving to town? Jake was talking about it this morning. They wanted him to come this weekend and do some keys to the city thing, but he’s too busy selling up and stuff.”

I shook my head, only half paying attention. “No, I didn’t know that. The founder’s descendant. That’s a long time ago, huh?”

“Yeah, but his family kept a house here for, like, decades. That’s where Chris and Roth live now. They renovated it.”

It struck me then who Derek was talking about. “You mean Ruther?”

Then I remembered. Rutherford Crawford.Crawford…as in, Crawford City. How had I not put two and two together?

“Yeah, you know him?” Derek looked genuinely surprised.

“Well, yeah, he was here in the summer. Came to the café a lot. Didn’t you meet him?”

Derek shook his head. “No, I was busy with summer school. I was trying to get caught up after taking a semester off.”

“Nice guy, you’ll like him. I didn’t know he was descended from the town’s founder, though.”

“Yeah, Jake also said he’s a nice guy, doing some big project here in town too. His attorney, Justin, said I could hang out with him when they put the legal stuff together. So, it’s all cool.”

“Ahh, yeah, I know Justin too,” I said, but didn’t elaborate on how I came to know the town attorney. “Well, I think I’m going to go check the food and make sure they don’t need me. Catch ya later.”

I wasn’t sure why learning that Ruther was headed back to town was hitting me like this, but I figured I might need to wrap my head around it before he arrived. I silently thanked Derek for letting that cat out of the bag, and after snagging a couple of cookies, I hightailed it back to my apartment to take a break.

I planned to return to the party later, when Roth and Chris were scheduled to perform. That was hush-hush since the town didn’t want a million reporters or rabid fans to show up, but Lance had told me when it was going to happen, so I could make sure I was back by then.

I lay back on my bed after finishing the cookies and stared at the ceiling, enjoying the sounds of the music that drifted into the normally still apartment. Ruther was coming back to town. He was doing the project he and Corey had been working on.

I wondered how long he’d be here and, for a moment, wondered who I could ask. Then I shook the thought out of my head.

First, it was only a matter of time before the gossip got to me anyway. It was Crawford City, after all. Second, I needed to focus on my feelings about that. Figure out what I felt, then process it with my counselor and group. The tiny spark in my heart told me I wanted Ruther more than just as a friend or acquaintance. I needed to find out if that was possible for me before he showed up and I fucked up all the progress I’d managed to make.

I laughed again as Matt playfully picked a fight with Logan over the grape harvest. The class had been more fun than I’d expected. Logan and Matt had such good personalities and were clearly in love, so they seemed to bounce off each other as Logan droned on and on about how to find only the ripest, sweetest grapes to pick.

“Mrs. Cole, you’re sure you can spare me?” I’d asked her before signing up for the harvesting class. “According to Logan, we’ll be harvesting Monday to Wednesday.”

“Baby, we’ve got things covered, and I know you’ve connected with Matt and Logan. Go on and have fun. You’ve earned it.”

I chuckled at her shooing me out of the café. I’d helped her make an extra batch of cinnamon rolls that I could take with me to the class. I’d done that a couple of times when I wanted tobring something to my group sessions, so she’d just smiled when I showed up early this morning and didn’t say a word as I pulled down an extra pan and began helping her knead the dough.

“You know, I could take this over from you,” I said, making her laugh.

“Honey, if you work one more hour, I’ll be paying you overtime. You do enough, just keep on doing what you’re doing,” she’d said. The same thing she said every time I brought up taking on more responsibilities.

She was right. I worked forty hours and often popped down to help when I wasn’t on the clock, but mostly when she wasn’t around to fuss at me. Still, she was very flexible with my schedule whenever I needed, like for my support group sessions. Truth was, I loved the café and spending time there, clocked in or out. I loved everything about this little town.

Mrs. Cole wasn’t wrong about me needing more social time either. Counseling and the group had taught me that I needed to build my circle of support outside the therapy window. I’d been working on that, not that it was too hard with folks around Crawford City being so friendly and welcoming.

That was one of the reasons why I wanted to take the grape harvesting class. “Okay, I’m going to divide you into pairs. Those who’ve done this before, you’ll be in charge of the newbies,” Logan announced.

He walked up to me, then scanned the room for an experienced partner. His gaze landed on a woman I only knew as being engaged to Lia, the winery’s store manager. “Millie, you’ve got Clyde,” he said.

“Have no fear, newbie. I’ll show you the ropes,” Millie said, bumping my shoulder. “If we linger here any longer, Logan will go into another lecture about the sugar content of each grape. We’ll never get any harvesting done.”

“Hey, I heard that,” Logan said.

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