Page 83 of Ten Christmases Without You
He grinned at her, his gaze finding the scrunchie. “I like your hair accessory.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I got it from this great guy.”
“Aguybought that? How did he know you used to love flamingos as a girl?” he teased.
“Hello? I’m here.” Jack waved his hands between them. “Emmy, get yourself some coffee before you start all the flirting.”
She quickly went over to the coffee maker to hide her fiery hot face.
“I’m just kidding,” Jack said. “Charlie was telling me that there’s this spot along the…”
“Snake River, near the Jackson Lake Dam,” Charlie added.
“Yes. He says it stays ice-free due to the tailwater releases, so you can still fly fish.” Jack took a drink from his mug.
“What are tailwater releases?” Emmy asked as she poured herself a mug of coffee.
“It’s just a fancy way of saying the controlled release of water from the bottom of a dam into a river.”
Emmy didn’t know anything about fishing, and Charlie seemed to know so much. He lit up when he talked about it. Was that how she was when she talked about design? Design had been her life for the last year. When she’d last spent time with Charlie, she’d been a different person. And so had he.
“You okay?” Charlie asked.
Emmy sat at the table with her mug. Only then did she realize it was just the two of them. “Where’d Jack go?”
“He said he had to bring wood into the garage so it stays dry. The snow’s supposed to start later today. I tried to help, but he wouldn’t let me.” His eyebrows pulled together. “Really, are you doing all right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You look deep in thought. So deep that you didn’t notice Jack leave.”
“What made you decide to come to Richmond?”
He stared at her. “I told you. I thought you might need some support with all that was going on with your dad.”
“We haven’t seen each other in a year. Why would you do that?”
His jaw clenched. “You want me to come out and say it?”
“Yes.”
“I expected to say this at just the right time and with a little more flair, but a kitchen table works, I guess.”
She waited on edge, trying not to hope.
His chest rose with a breath, his gaze dropping down to the table and then back up to her face. “Because, for the last three years, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I miss you when we don’t talk. I wonder sometimes how crazy you’d think I was if I called you every day. I was trying to give you space. And when you told me about your dad, all I wanted to do was comfort you. I couldn’t sit around, knowing what you were dealing with.”
He stopped talking and looked into her eyes.
“Say something,” he said, “because right now, you just look terrified. That’s not a good sign.”
Emmy tried to straighten out her face, but all she could think about was how cruel fate could be. “I’m terrified because I feel the same way.”
The worry lines on his forehead softened. He put his hand against her cheek, slowly leaned in, and pressed his lips softly to hers. The feeling was more perfect than anything she’d ever felt. No one had ever made her feel as if she were glowing from the inside out. She’d never felt his lips on hers before, and the experience was incredible. They were like two long-lost pieces of the same unit finally put together. But the sting of their reality overpowered the feeling.
She pulled back, drinking him in, but then clearing her mind.
“How are we supposed to make this work?”
