Page 50 of A Cozy Christmas Escape

Clark shook his head. “No, he’s harmless. Just don’t take it personally if the next time you see him, he’s a bit crotchety. He’s like that sometimes and tends to not like many people. So if he’s grouchy—just know that everyone else loves you.”

She laughed, shaking her head at this new piece of information. There was something about the old man that she thought seemed familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Valerie turned back to her spaghetti and dug back in, returning her attention to Clark as he began filling her in on the latest antics of Derek and Lacy’s daughter, Piper.

Before long, all thoughts of Rudolph Hutchins and his strange familiarity were driven entirely out of her mind.

* * *

Clark grinned at Valerie from the doorway of the Hilton house the following day, watching with interest as she made her way over the snow-covered driveway toward him. The moment she was within arm’s reach he swooped her into a hug, brushing a brief, enthusiastic kiss to her lips.

“I can’t believe it’s today,” she gushed excitedly, prompting him to chuckle.

“I know,” he said, watching as she pranced around the main floor, taking it all in. “Derek and Matthew wanted to be here for it. But Derek has a sled tour and Matthew has a house showing. So it’s us!”

“I’m kind of glad,” she said softly. “Don’t get me wrong, the guys are great. But I want a moment to say goodbye to the house.”

He chuckled. “Say goodbye to the house?”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, grinning from ear to ear. “I learned a lot here!”

“True, you looked like a half-drowned kitten when you showed up here the first day, and now look at you.”

“Hey!” she yelled, giving him a joking punch to the arm as she smiled up at him.

Clark didn’t say it, but he was happy they had the house to themselves for a moment too. Especially as he pulled her to him and kissed her again. Thoughts of his conversation with Derek pushed themselves into his brain, of how his friends had told him that while supporting Valerie was great, it might also be worth it to let her know how he felt.

And as he looked down into her beautiful, open face, he couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“I need you to know something,” he said in a soft, almost reverent tone. “I need you to know that I support whatever decision you make when it comes to staying or going. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll suck to say goodbye to you. But if that’s what you choose, I’ll support you. But if you stay, I’d support that too. And if you did… I’d be open to more if you were.”

The words fell into the space between them, Valerie’s eyes dancing as she studied his face.

“I don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you,” he continued, adamant that she knew he would never want to force her hand. “But I just wanted you to know that if you stayed, you wouldn’t be alone.”

She opened her mouth, taking a breath as she began to respond. But the moment the very first syllable started to leave her lips, the door was thrown wide open, and the Hilton children began pouring in.

Stephanie was whooping loudly, running around the bottom floor with her hands over her head as her brother and sister filed in hesitantly. Matthew was behind them, grinning as he found Clark and Valerie in the house.

“I thought you had an open house,” Valerie said as the man approached, smiling at him, and Clark couldn’t help but notice her expression was stilted. The warmth of the smile not entirely reaching her eyes.

“I was able to have someone take over for me. I wanted to be here for this, and then I ran into them on the way over,” Matthew explained, beaming around at everyone in the house.

The noise carried on as Margaret and Jeff, her husband, walked through the place, everyone murmuring happily as they took it all in. Clark felt proud of the work that he, Valerie, and everyone else had done here. Especially as the Hiltons gushed about how much they loved their new home.

But no matter how hard he tried, Clark couldn’t shake the nagging worry in the back of his mind over what Valerie had been about to say.

CHAPTERNINETEEN

“No, no, no,” Mindy said on repeat as she shifted the cardboard box back and forth in her hands.

She’d placed an order for adorable, champagne flutes that she was going to use for the individual trifles. And they’d been delivered earlier that afternoon. She’d placed them in her office, telling herself that she’d get them out and clean them after the bakery closed for the day. Of course, once she’d opened the box, she realized that almost every single flute that she ordered had been either chipped or completely shattered.

Immediately she pulled out her phone, dialing Landon’s number as she started to pace. He answered on the second ring, and the noise of the background let her know that he had something else going on.

“Hey, babe,” he said as the call fully connected, sounding as aloof as always. “What’s going on?”

“Landon, it’s awful!” she admonished, feeling pinpricks of tears at the corners of her eyes. She felt silly for wanting to cry over something like this, but she’d had a vision of how everything would be for the showcase, and it felt like that vision wasn’t going to happen now. “All of my champagne flutes that I ordered for the showcase are broken. I ordered them just for this because I wanted them to be a non-standard size, and now even if they mail me replacements they won’t be here in time. And..”

“Are you upset because some glasses are broken?” he asked, interrupting her in the middle of her sentence. His tone wasn’t unkind, necessarily. But it also wasn’t as attentive as Mindy would have hoped.

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