Page 27 of The Mistletoe Switch

She smiles almost shyly. "Right. My mother had goals in life that required money. I don't have those goals. I don't need that kind of money. All I need is a man who won't abandon me and our children when things get hard. I need a man I've already gone through the tough stuff with so I know we can last."

"You want children?" I can see it. Not Cherry with a baby in her arms, but Cherry racing through snow with kids, having a snowball fight, joining them in their games and causing trouble with them. I'd bet money she wouldn't be a disciplinarian, but she'd love her kids fiercely.

"I want it all." She spreads her arms wide. "A husband and kids. A family that eats dinner together every night and has our own holiday traditions. I want to wake up every day knowing the people I love will be with me at the end of the day."

"That's not what you had growing up?" She's said enough to give me the idea that's true, but I want to hear the whole story.

She plops back down on the bed next to me. "Maybe for a little while? My older sister, Genevieve, was like a second mother to me and she always made sure we celebrated holidays and birthdays together. Until she left for college, she was always there when I needed her. She taught me what family is."

"Your mother didn't?"

She moves farther onto the bed and faces me, pulling her legs under her criss cross applesauce. I shift to face her, bringing one leg up onto the bed with me, but keeping one foot on the floor. This is all starting, suddenly, to feel too intimate and cozy.

"Mom wasn't horrible." Cherry picks at the bedspread while she talks. "When I had her full attention, she was kind of wonderful. She taught me how to shop and about fashion and make-up. She taught me to look out for myself and to have a plan, because her biggest mistakes in life came from not having a plan."

"And when you didn't have her full attention?"

The sad look she shoots me makes a spot in my chest ache and I have the strongest urge to promise never to let anyone hurt her ever again. "Even when I didn't have her full attention, she was taking care of me in her own way. She was keeping her husband happy or looking for a new one, because she never wanted me to experience the poverty she grew up in."

I can't begin to imagine what Cherry's life was like and I want to. I want to understand everything that made her who she is. "What about your father?"

I see the shutdown before she speaks. The emotion leaches out of her blue eyes, before she flashes a forced smile. "What about you? Do you want kids?"

It's not something I think about often, but the truth rolls right off my tongue. "I do." And, as hard as I've been working to expand my candy's reach out of Yuletide, there's only one place I can picture raising them. "I'd want them to grow up here, like I did. My two best friends from childhood are still my best friends and I want my kids to know them and my family."

"That sounds really nice," Cherry says wistfully. "Family is so important. What are your friends like?"

I roll my eyes. "Irritating at the moment. My best friends, Liam and Murphy, are dating and have just decided to live together. They're headed for disaster."

"Maybe they won't break up." Cherry's gaze is intense, like she's trying to see through me.

"They will. They're all wrong for each other."

"Ah." She smirks, like she's figured something out.

"What does that mean?"

"You're in love with Murphy."

I stare at her, utterly flabbergasted. "I am not in love with Murphy. She's like a sister to me."

Cherry smiles. "Okay."

"Stop doing that."

She looks genuinely confused. "Doing what?"

"Pretending to agree with me when you think you know I'm full of shit. I'm not full of shit. I don't have a thing for my best friend."

She pats my hand. "It's Liam you're in love with, then?"

"I'm not in love with either of them, damn it. I'm just not an idiot wearing lust-colored glasses who thinks they have any shot of working out."

"Don't get agitated," she says calmly. "Clearly, I've overstepped. We don't have to talk about your friends anymore."

"I don't care if we talk—"

"It's one of my favorite tropes."

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