Page 34 of Mistletoe & Magic
I shake my head. “I don’t know, but not her. She’s…scary.”
“She’s a powerful woman,” he says and shrugs. “Good at what she does for a living.”
“But not a good wife or mom?” I ask.
He shrugs. “We were only together a few years before she left.”
“I didn’t realize you were a lawyer, too,” I say cautiously.
He looks over at me and gives me a funny look as if he thought I already knew. “I’m not a lawyer anymore.”
“I can’t see it, but I mean, I guess. You seem like you’re where you’re supposed to be at the tree farm.”
His jaw quirks. “Yep. Gave it all up to give Junie a better life in Wisteria Cove.”
“That’s insanely impressive, and I bet you have some amazing stories,” I say, looking at him, trying to picture him in a suit in a courtroom.
Did this truck just get hotter all the sudden?
“Wait…what kind of lawyer were you?” I ask, half teasing, half bracing myself for some wild answer.
“A criminal defense attorney.” He says it flatly, like it’s nothing. Like he didn’t just have a badass career that he gave up for his child.
“Actually crazy that I didn’t know this,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Do you…miss it?”
His jaw tightens, eyes fixed on the snowy road ahead. “No. I wasn’t happy.”
Something in his tone tugs at me. The way he says hewasn’t happy,like it’s a state he can’t seem to find nomatter where he is. My chest aches. “Sometimes you don’t seem very happy here, either,” I say softly, before I can swallow it back.
He doesn’t glance at me. Just keeps his hands steady on the wheel. “I think there’s a lot we don’t know about each other,” he says finally, voice low.
And he’s right. There’s so much unsaid between us, it hums in the air like static. So much I want to know, and so much I want to tell him.
We’ve got a lot to learn. And I’m about to become his best student.
Chapter 10
Remy
Junie giggles and squeezes Lola tighter. “I like her so much, Daddy.”
The dog licks her cheek, and Junie shrieks, delighted. My heart clenches with the reminder that Ivy is temporary, and I just did a crazy thing in bringing her dog here and making my little girl fall for her, too.
When Ivy doesn’t work here anymore, she’ll lose two things now. Ivy and the dog.
But with Ivy, I can’t help but get involved. Especially when some asshat like Derek is screwing her over. It’s just not happening.
By the time we get home and get everything unloaded in our storage area of the barn, Lola sits plastered against Junie on the couch, tail thumping happily, tongue hanging out. I glance over, and my little girl is all dimples and flushed cheeks with excitement, like Christmas morning came early.
I glance over, and Ivy’s not much different. Both of them are so happy to have the dog here. Something feels lighter with Ivy. She seems to have let her guard down some.
And me? I feel like a kind of peace has settled in over us I can’t explain. An easiness that feels…right. Scary, but right.
Ivy smiles and scratches the dog’s ears. “Junie, I think my dog likes you more than me now.”
For a second I just sit there, watching them. My daughter’s smile and Ivy’s soft teasing. Even the dog seems to feel like she belongs here already. Something in my chest eases that I didn’t realize I was still carrying.
“Tomorrow morning,” I tell them. “We’ll go pick out a tree. You can choose.”
