Page 27 of Wounded Christmas Wolf
“Just until Christmas,” Jace promised softly.
But until this thing with Stalker Rob was resolved, he didn’t plan to be away from her for a minute.
HOLLY
Holly wouldn’t have minded moretime to pull herself together, but about ten minutes after she started peeling and cutting up potatoes in the kitchen, Jace came in from the living room, without his coat and wearing one of the sets of house shoes that were kept just inside the door for the parts of the year when boots were too snowy or muddy to wear inside.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“Make a salad, maybe? There’s a lettuce in the fridge. It just needs to be chopped up and have some tomatoes added.”
Jace took out the salad supplies and hesitated. She saw that he was still wearing his gloves.
“You can take those off if you like. I promise I won’t stare. Or I could find you something else to do so you can keep them on?”
Jace shook his head, although it seemed to be more general negation than an actualno. “It’s not anything you’re thinking. It’s—weird.”
“I’ve seen a lot of weird.”
“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He set down the items and pulled off his gloves, first one, then the other. Holly tried not to stare too closely, but she couldn’t help peeking out of the corner of her eye.
Jace was staring at his own right hand. He turned it over to look at the back.
It looked perfectly normal to Holly. Just a regular guy’s hand. A nice hand, with strong, capable fingers, and a soft dusting of dark hair across the back.
“It’s ...” Jace stopped staring and looked up quickly at Holly. “Fine.”
“Okay, good.” She smiled supportively. Maybe he had some kind of psychological disorder about his hands? Whatever it was, it wasn’t any of her business. “There’s a bowl in that cabinet you can use for the salad. And I have biscuits rising, I just need to put them in the oven. If I oven-bake these potatoes, they’ll be done about the same time.”
Jace shrugged a little, finally quit staring at his hands, and got out the bowl.
He was as swift and capable with making the salad as everything else. After the salad was fixed and Holly had left the rest of dinner to cook, she beckoned Jace to help her clear off the mess on the dining room table.
“Leave the miniature village in place for now,” she said, noticing Jace stop to look at it. “We’ll have to move it somewhere else if my sisters visit, but there’s plenty of room for just you, me, and Dad.” She gazed at the pile of paperwork and books that had gradually taken over the rest of the table, then began sorting things into stacks. “Once we get this cleaned up. Here, these are all cookbooks, and they go on that shelf. Doesn’t matter in what order.”
“How many sisters did you say you have?” Jace asked as he briskly transferred the cookbooks as requested. “Four?”
It was interesting to find out he’d been paying attention that closely. And this was a nice, safe topic of conversation.Much better than thinking about stupid Rob. Much safer than dwelling on the way his arm had felt around her on the porch, and the electric sense of his presence, tingling through her as they moved around the dining room and kitchen in the awkward dance of two people who didn’t know each other very well preparing a meal together.
“Yes, four. I’m the second oldest. My big sister is Carol, a nurse. Then there’s Noelle, Ivy, and Merry.”
Jace seemed to hesitate before speaking. “Your names are all—well—mostly?—”
“They’re all Christmas themed,” Holly said. “Yeah. You’re not wrong. Merry isn’t like, you know, Mary Tyler Moore. It’s Merry as in Merry Christmas.”
“Her middle name is Christmas?” Jace said in horror.
“No. No, that would have been worse. Her middle name is Louise.”
“What’s yours?” Jace asked with a sideways tug of his mouth.
“My middle name? It’s Faye, after my grandmother. Holly Faye Porter.”
“That sounds like a celebrity, like you should be crooning Christmas songs or something.”
It actually sort of did. “Maybe that’ll be my new career. Holiday crooner.” Holidays. Holiday music. “You know what? We could do with some Christmas carols in here.”
