Page 51 of One Golden Ring
She’s not wrong.
“I know what this is, Darcy,” I lean in to murmur in her ear. “I won’t get the wrong idea.”
But the light vanilla scent of her hair teases my senses and I have to turn away before I do something stupid that tells her I’m lying to us both.
I pay for our purchases and put the change in the donation jar.
We drive back up the mountain in relative silence, the radio playing Christmas music that’s not bright enough to lighten my dark mood.
But somehow as we get back to the cabin and start unloading our purchases I begin to feel a little bit better.
The air up here is cold and sweet, and just carrying the tree in and starting a fire in the stove gets my blood pumping. And Darcy looks so happy as she unpacks all the lights and ornaments. Her good vibes must be contagious.
“It’s great that we could get everything we needed in one trip,” she tells me as she removes a set of the big colorful bulbs I always think of as an old-fashioned style, even though these are the newer LED type. “We can definitely get it all decorated tonight and really surprise her.”
“We sure can,” I agree as I set the tree in the stand.
She moves to tighten the bolts before I can even askfor her help and in no time we’ve got the tree all set up with its barren spot facing the wall.
“Oh, that’s so pretty,” Darcy says, standing back to look at it.
“So pretty,” I agree, but I’m not looking at the tree—I have eyes only for Darcy.
Stop that,I try to tell myself, knowing it’s way too late.
“I’m going to get some more wood,” I tell her gruffly, hoping that getting outside and away from her to swing the ax will clear my head.
And for a while the exertion and the crystalline air make for a perfect distraction.
But then I glance up and see my girl gazing at me from the window like she did the last time and something wild in me takes over. I want to make her smile, so I raise the ax over my head like some kind of barbarian and without really thinking about it I lift my head and let out a long howl at the moon.
When I look to her again she presses her nose to the window and I get my wish as a smile lights up her face.
She doesn’t say a word about my silliness when I come back in and put another log on the fire but I can tell by the mischief dancing in her beautiful brown eyes that she’s thinking about it.
What are you doing to me, Darcy Keller?
We’re winding the lights around the tree when her phone starts buzzing.
She looks concerned.
“It’s okay,” I tell her. “You’ve got the autoresponders on, right?”
“I don’t think it’s work,” she explains. “I forgot to callmy sister back. She called earlier when I was with Michael. She noticed the engagement ring in the milkshake photo.”
For some reason, that strikes me as funny, but I don’t dare crack a smile because she looks so worried about it.
“Go talk to her,” I say, waving her off. “I’ll keep going with the lights.”
She smiles and runs to grab her phone.
“Mandy?” she says as she pulls it to her ear.
I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m a little disappointed when she heads into the room she shares with J.B. and closes the door behind her.
She’s allowed to have a personal life,I remind myself.She’s my employee, not my fiancée.
I keep stringing lights, but decorating the tree just isn’t as fun without her.
