Page 4 of The Mountain Man's Christmas Angel
But I’d always be grateful for meeting her.
Now I needed to make her mine. Officially.
CHAPTER THREE
Jewels
Watching Wyattopen up over the next few days grew me closer towards him. Not only did he come back the next day to volunteer, but he also offered to help the rest of the week.
Every day he showed up with a smile and a positive attitude, his anxiety a distant memory. I wanted to ask him about his past troubles, but I was afraid of him shutting down again. I wasn’t afraid of flirting though and we danced around each other, though I desperately wished he would just kiss me already.
“When do you give the kids their gifts?” Wyatt asked over the lunch, the day before Christmas Eve.
“I’ll pass out one tomorrow evening, and two on Christmas morning. Seems to have worked pretty well in the past.”
“Is it okay if I stopped by?”
“Of course. I would’ve asked, but I figured you had plans with your family.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Sadly, no. My father was going to come from where he lives a few towns away, but a snowstorm stranded him at home. Pretty depressing, I know.”
I reached across the table and covered his hand with my own. Silence lingered between us as I hoped he’d say more, but he remained quiet. “It’s okay. You can always create your own family.”
His head shot up as his eyes connected with mine.
Oh no, did I say something wrong?
“Yeah. You’re right. You can.” He leaned in closer and my heart kicked into overdrive. “Don’t you have a family to spend it with?”
A grin crept across my lips. “Touche. My parents moved to California after my brother and I moved out. I liked the slower, small-town life and didn’t want to go far. My brother headed northeast to Boston, and I stayed around here. Once I took the job at the shelter, it was a done deal. I wasn’t going anywhere. Now the families here have become my family.”
“Are you ever afraid to get attached and then the family leaves?”
I nodded. “It’s happened before. I try to keep a reminder in the back of my head, but it doesn’t always work. I’ll be sad when Marley and her mother Mary leave. But they all eventually do. We’re just a steppingstone in the path to their new life.”
“I can’t believe so many men treat their women, the mother of their children, that way. I could never.”
My heart throbbed in my chest and my ears grew hot, as if I’d set them on fire. “I bet you already make a fine husband to a lucky lady.”
Confusion flickered across his face. “No. Not yet anyway.”
My heart threatened to crack my rib cage wide open. “How is a catch like you not single?”
“Well, you kind of have to leave your cabin if you want to meet someone.”
“Is someone a hermit?”
Wyatt chuckled, the sound low and deep in his throat. “Something like that.”
I sensed he didn’t want to talk more about it and as I was about to open my mouth and ask him about his favorite Christmas movie, a stampede of kids ran by the kitchen, cheers and screams mixed together.
Wyatt looked at the kids as if they grew two heads overnight, but then he laughed before turning back to me. “Where are they all excited to go?”
“It was a half day at school today and the last day before Christmas vacation. Naturally, the children get a tad riled up.”
“A tad?” Wyatt teased. “That was a herd of elephants.”
“Lots of energy to burn in those little bodies. Sometimes I wish I could borrow some.”
