Page 53 of Rebel Without a Claus
The silence between us stretches long and taut.
“I don’t know what I want yet,” I whisper, the truth finally cracking through me.
He nods. “Then take the time to figure it out. Before you give anything up. Before we get in too deep and it’s too late to come back from it.”
My throat tightens. “What if it already is?”
Luke’s gaze lingers on me like he’s memorizing my face. Then, with aching softness, he says, “Then all the more reason to be sure.” He pulls his hand away from my jaw, leaving a chill in the wake of his touch. “I’ll be here at seven with the reindeer tomorrow. That should be plenty of time to set up before the judges get here,” he says, and the finality in his voice splinters something deep inside me. “We’ll get through the contest. You’ll win. And then…”
He trails off.
And then what?
He doesn’t say.
He doesn’t have to.
I can already feel the goodbye building behind his silence.
And with that, he turns and walks out—leaving me standing on the porch of the inn, heart pounding and head spinning, unsure whether I just watched something break… or begin.
And as he gets into his truck, closing the door behind him, I realize the next choice I make might not just decide my future—it might be the one that breaks both of our hearts.
CHAPTER 18
Luke
Snow crunches under my boots as I cross the pasture to the barn. The sky’s still dark and the air whipping around us is the kind of cold that gets in your lungs and reminds you you’re alive. Jack’s truck is already parked out front, his breath fogging the air as he loads a bale of hay. Nicholas is right behind him, loading up fencing supplies from the back of my shed like he owns the place.
“Morning, sunshine,” Jack says with a mock salute. “Sleep at all?”
I grunt in response. Jack smirks, because he knows me too well. Nicholas gives me a look and hands over a thermos of black coffee. “You look like a man who needs this more than we do.”
“Appreciate it,” I mutter, taking a long sip. “And I appreciate the help today. This eight reindeer rental at North Star Lodge is really throwing a wrench in my usual Christmas Eve deliveries.”
“Yeah,” Jack says. “But it’s for a good cause.”
I snort. “The festival is hardly a good cause these days.”
A smirk twitches at the corner of Jack’s mouth. “I meantEve.”
The heat from my sip of coffee burns my throat, grounding me in the here and now. Today’s the final big event of the Christmas Festival. Reindeer deliveries. Santa setups. Lights, cocoa, kids screaming with sticky hands and holiday cheer. Even though I don’t love it, it’s normally, it’s chaos I can handle. This year? Not so much.
Because Eve’s in the middle of it. And I’m still trying to figure out if she’s leaving.
“She say anything yet?” Nicholas asks, throwing a glance at me while he loads the salt blocks onto the trailer.
“Nope.”
Jack wipes his hands on his jeans and they each follow me across the farm into the barn to start prepping the reindeer to be loaded into the trailers. “Maybe she’s waiting for the right time.”
“Or maybe she’s already decided, and she’s just trying to figure out how to say goodbye.” The words taste like ash in my mouth.
Jack and Nicholas exchange a look, the kind that sayshere we go again.
“You know,” Jack starts, “most people would consider winning the town’s gingerbread contest, Caroloke, and a public makeout session beneath a twelve-foot tree some kind of sign that she might be looking to stay. To settle down finally. I’d say you’ve got this in the bag.”
I grunt, but don’t dare to look at either of my best friends. “She’s not a prize to win.”
