Page 60 of Home for the Holidays

They stopped in front of Central Park Plaza. “This is it. My favorite event. You ready?”

Iris nodded. “Never been more ready in my life.”

“Let’s go see some trees.” And Heidi whisked her away into the plaza, where there were at least fifty trees all waiting to be lit.

The plaza was bustling with people. There were a couple of food trucks and an apple cider station. Heidi said she needed a cup, and Iris did not argue. When they finally had their piping hot cider, Heidi pulled out the small flask she’d made sure to smuggle in her coat pocket and emptied it into both of their cups. “Bourbon,” she whispered. “It’ll keep us warm.”

Iris laughed. “I like the way you think.”

Heidi made her way over to an area toward the back of the plaza. She kept seeing people she knew, so she stopped and said her hellos and Merry Christmases. Waving at almost every person they passed was exhausting, but sometimes, small-town living really was exhausting. She explained who each one person was, as if Iris was taking notes. She knew most of it was probably going in one ear and out the other.

“You’re like the mayor,” Iris commented.

Heidi snorted. “I’d have to be a Republican to be the mayor.”

“That’s so funny that you say that. Zac swore up and down that you were so conservative that you probably voted Republican.”

Heidi gasped. “I wouldnever.”

“I swear, that guy has some unresolved issues.” Iris sipped her cider. “I think you two need to have a serious talk.”

“I know.” Heidi sighed before she sipped from her own cup. The bourbon was a fantastic touch. “He’s so easy to talk to but also so very hard to talk to… does that make sense?’

“Perfect sense. We became such fast friends. Sometimes I forget that I haven’t known him forever, but then others? It’s like he’s a total stranger.”

“I understand that completely.” She looked down at the ice- and salt-covered sidewalk before composing herself. “He overshares things I couldn’t care less about, and then in the next breath, he completely clams up about things I care about. It’s so strange. I certainly didn’t raise him to be like that.”

“How did you raise him?”

“Sadly?” She looked at Iris, regret seeping from her pores. “I was way too strict with him. He was my baby, the oops who stole my heart, and by then, I was so worried that Stanley and I weren’t going to make it that I clung to Zac like a lifeline. I’m not surprised he thought I was conservative. He’d pass out if he knew I had been in a throuple with another woman.”

Iris laughed. “Can I please be there when you tell him?”

“Absolutely not,” Heidi said, playfully nudging her as they leaned against the hip-high brick wall surrounding the plaza. “All I’ve ever wanted for him is to be happy. Obviously, when he was a kid, I wanted him to be straight and happy. Stanley and I both did. Neither of us wanted him to turn out like Stanley had. Or me, I guess—y’know, struggling, forcing ourselves to stay when we so badly wanted to escape. But now? Now all I want is to see him smile and know that his smile reaches his eyesall the time. I worry that when he finds out about us, that…” Heidi paused and breathed in as she looked at Iris, her anxiety probably on full display. “I don’t want to leave another person because of a man in my life. That probably sounds selfish.”

“I don’t want to leave you either.” Iris reached up and moved a few strands of Heidi’s hair away from her face, and the entire world seemed to slow. All Heidi could see wasthis. Iris and her and gentle touches and soft words and longing stares. For the rest of her life.Fuck…

The snow was falling harder, covering both of their coats and knitted caps. The cloud cover from the storm was making it look a lot darker than it actually was for three in the afternoon. A buzz had filled the air when a crackle and the feedback of a microphone sounded over the speakers. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” started playing, and a man with a deep radio voice welcomed everyone to the fifteenth annual Parade of Lights. People cheered and started to pull away from the trees, toward the outer ring of the park.

“Get ready,” Heidi whispered as she tried to pull her gaze from Iris and focus on the trees. But she couldn’t. Iris in her cap, her hair down, covered with snow, gripping her cider like a lifeline was just as gorgeous and glowing as the trees would be.

And then, without warning, the entire plaza lit up, the Christmas trees surrounding them, lights of all colors twinkling, and Iris’s pure enjoyment was on full display. Their eyes locked, and for the first time in forever Heidi felt like maybe, just maybe, she could have more than a marriage to her bakery. More than devotion to her family. She could have this. She could have Iris.

She was falling for Iris Abbott.

And the idea of stopping was becoming harder and harder to entertain.

* * *

“So you’re obviously feeling better?I was worried about you,” Zac said to Iris, rushing up to her in front of the fireplace back at the house. The rest of the family was busy putting away the sledding gear and Zac, of course, had gotten out of it. He was always the one who got out of helping.

Heidi watched the entire exchange between Iris and him with pursed lips, hoping he couldn’t see she was fighting a smile. They’d gotten back home about ten minutes before the family. She was thrilled they were still alone, but also worried sick because everything in her body wanted to sink further and further into whatever was happening between her and Iris. To make matters worse—or maybe better—the embarrassment she had thought for sure she’d feel about telling Iris what happened in Paris had never shown up.

Iris nodded. “Your mom took me to get soup from the café.”

“And then did you watch the tree lighting?” Zac’s question was aimed at Heidi now as he plopped down next to her on the floor in front of the fireplace.

She glanced at Iris, eyebrow arched, and allowed her smile to be seen. “We did, yes. Iris said she was feeling a little better, so I made her. You know how I am with Christmas trees.”

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