Page 56 of The Holiday Dilemma

“You can’t possibly know that. You haven’t tried it out yet.” She shrugged.

“No, you’re right, but that is when I went back to your letter. To the part about how you felt about me.”

Her cheeks turned a darker hue of pink and she averted her gaze. “About that. I should have written that,” she muttered.

“Why not?”

“I dunno. I don’t think—”

I help up my hand, stopping her. “Brooke, I realized that I felt the same way. The time I spent over Christmas, alone, made me realize that I don’t want to be alone anymore. You never left my mind. I thought about calling you, asking you to come with me. We’d open a new Crispy Biscuit in LA. Then I realized that if you agreed and we’d gone to LA, there would be no room for you in my life. I’d be working all the time, and that’s not how I envision us. I didn’t want that.”

“You didn’t?”

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t. I still don’t. So I told them that they’d need to find a new chef.”

She buried her face into her hands, sobs racking her body.

“I’m sorry about your mom,” I said, my voice quiet as I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around her. “I wish I could have been there for you, with you as you went through all that.”

When the deep, heavy sobs finally stopped, she whispered, “You were. You just didn’t realize it.”

She looked up at me with tears staining her cheeks. I placed my finger under her chin and met her lips. I pulled her tight against me as she wrapped her arms around my neck. As our lips parted and she held me tight, I glanced up just in time to see Melinda and Cici watching us from the door. I winked in their direction as they slowly backed out, leaving us. I took that opportunity to kiss Brooke once more, slower this time.

“You want to stay?” she whispered as our lips parted.

“If you’ll have me,” I whispered back.

“I’ll have you.” She said, meeting my lips.

Brooke

April

We’d checked Tristan out of the Willow Valley Inn the afternoon I’d returned and brought his things back to my place. Then we’d called the movers and had them bring everything out to Willow Valley instead. It didn’t take us long to get his things moved into my small house, then we donated whatever we didn’t need to the less fortunate.

The Crispy Biscuit was busier than it ever had been. Tristan and I worked side-by-side every morning. He’d even taken the time to create some new cookies and baked goods and had added a new breakfast option to our menu.

“Good morning,” I murmured as I lay in his arms.

“Morning,” he replied, kissing my forehead as he squeezed me closer. “How was last night?”

“Amazing,” I whispered.

“Amazing? I don’t know if I’d go that far,” he said, stretching.

“What? You didn’t think it was amazing?”

Tristan looked at me with a teasing smile.

“I wanna do it again. Do you think we could do that again?” I giggled.

He chuckled. “Sure. There is nothing more I’d rather do with you than stay up all night creating some new type of scone.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m sure there isn’t.”

He rolled onto his side, his arm under my head, and looked down into my eyes, his fingers tracing circles around my navel. I pushed his hand away as I giggled. He bent down and met my lips, kissing me deeply.

“We’ve got to get going.”

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