Page 43 of Snowflakes and Sparks

“In my defense, I was seventeen when I wrote that and I only said it because I was embarrassed about crashing your truck.”

“Running away is never the best option, Suzie,” he said.

I nodded. “I know.”

“Good. Now, let’s get you those decorations, shall we?”

He pulled me up and led me through the hallway to his storage room, all the while holding my hand in his. Despite the disaster that had gone down at the store earlier, I couldn’t help but smile.

Chapter Sixteen

It was a little past four a.m. when I crawled into bed. I set my alarm for nine and turned off the light, but sleep didn’t come, no matter how exhausted I was.

That wasn’t a surprise though. This wasn’t just any regular night. It was the night I had kissed Alex. Over and over again, while whisking egg whites, waiting for the cakes to rise, kneading dough into tiny balls and cutting the thick paste into cookies.

I smiled in the dark, the taste of Alex’s kisses still lingering on my lips.

How was I supposed to sleep when my heart was bursting with joy? I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and opened the message app. My fingers hovered over the keyboard.

“I had fun tonight,” I typed. Then I spent seven minutes adding and deleting a kiss emoji, until I decided to send the message without any bells and whistles.

The message got read right away, clueing me in on the fact that he was also far too excited to sleep.

I waited for his reply with the patience of a child waiting for Santa. Three blue dots kept dancing their steady rhythm on my screen, taunting me, driving me crazy. What on earth was he typing? A poem to let me know how much he’d enjoyed our night together?

Then the sound of a new message notification filled the room and I read his reply.

“Me too.”

It wasn’t a poem, yet those two words made me bite my duvet. Alex had a knack for driving me crazy.

I pressed my phone against my chest. Deep down I was afraid of what would happen now and how we would be able to turn this into something stable with thousands of miles between us, but those were worries for later. Right then and there, I wanted to pretend as if nothing stood between us. Savoring the moment had never felt so good.

***

After less than five hours of sleep, I woke up with a warm feeling in my chest, ready to rock the day. The memory of kissing Alex the night before was more than enough to energize me. I wondered if he was thinking of me while he was making breakfast. Or maybe he was still asleep, dreaming about the two of us. I shook my head. There was no time to think about these things. I had to start preparing the book signing and make sure everything was ready for the Winter Walk later that evening.

At lunchtime I headed out to grab something to eat from Dave’s Diner before picking Becca Loveheart up from the inn.

I walked past the inflatable Santa positioned next to the door and almost stopped in my tracks when I saw Alex at the counter. He was talking to a wheelchair-bound Diane, who’d presumably been released from the hospital earlier than expected.

“Hello there.” It was all I managed to say.

Diane arched an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. Alex on the other hand seemed oblivious to Diane’s sparse friendliness towards me and pulled me into a hug.

“Diane made it back in time for the Winter Walk. Isn’t that great?”

“It is,” I said, even though I would have preferred to not have to deal with her meddling and judging. I had enough on my plate already.

“Maybe I’ll see you at the book signing event at Got It Covered this afternoon?” I said. “Becca Loveheart is doing a reading of her latest romance novel.”

Diane scoffed. “I don’t read those cheap kissing books, sorry. I prefer something… more classy. Like Dickens or Jane Austen.”

An awkward silence filled the space between us.

“So how come you haven’t returned to L.A. yet? I thought you were only here temporarily?”

“They still haven’t found anyone to take over the store,” Alex answered. “Isn’t that right, Suzie?”

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