Page 51 of The Christmas Reunion

Noah nodded, stepping into the house and bending down to start petting Gus. She disappeared toward the back of the house, where Noah knew her bedroom was located, and he could hear her humming to herself as she finished up getting ready.

“Oh, Gus,” Noah muttered, keeping his voice low as he stroked the pup’s soft white fur. “What are we going to do?”

Gus just sat back on his haunches, panting excitedly as he soaked up all the attention that Noah was willing to give him. The dog blinked up at him, his dark eyes patient, and Noah sighed, not sure if the pup’s attentiveness was making him feel better or worse.

The sound of heels clicking against the hardwood floor grabbed Noah’s attention, and his eyes darted up, catching sight of Mindy walking toward him. She had put shoes on, bringing her height up a couple of inches and making the fabric of the gown swish beautifully around her feet as she walked.

“You won’t be able to make fun of me for my suit this time,” he said with a grin, and Mindy rolled her eyes.

“Try me,” she joked as she closed the distance between them.

He stooped down, brushing a quick kiss across her cheek, and she leaned into it, sighing a bit as she did so.

“How are you going to walk in the snow in those?” Noah asked dubiously, glancing down at the heels she was wearing.

“Simple,” Mindy answered with a quick shrug, stepping away from him and pulling her coat down from one of the hooks in the entryway. “I’m not.” She pointed to a pair of boots by the door. “I’m going to slip those on and then just put my heels on when we get to the house.”

“Why do you have them on now then?” he asked.

“So you could see me in them.”

She grinned at him, and Noah chuckled. She was being more playful than usual, and he liked it quite a lot. But there was also something off about her, as if she were covering up some hidden emotion. He watched as she shrugged into her long, red wool coat and buttoned herself up. The red of her coat and the green of her gown combined to turn her into a radiant Christmas symbol.

But although she looked truly stunning, her shoulders seemed tight with tension, and each time she smiled at him, he hadn’t missed the fact that the expression hadn’t fully reached her eyes. Noah wondered for a moment if he should ask if she was all right, but in the end, he decided not to.

He knew they were both thinking and feeling a lot right now. Knew that they both had more than enough on their mind. And the last thing either of them needed was for him to pressure her to talk about something she wasn’t ready to discuss.

She’ll talk to me when she’s ready,he told himself as Mindy finished with her coat and turned to look at him.

“All set?” she asked as she put on her boots, and he nodded.

He placed his hand on the small of her back as they walked out the door, making sure she wouldn’t slip on any ice. He reached down and plucked the shoes she was carrying from her grip, holding them for her so she could hoist up the hem of her dress so it wouldn’t trail in the snow.

“Is the Christmas party this fancy every year?” Noah asked as he stepped forward to open the car door for her.

“No.” Mindy shook her head. “Usually, it’s pretty casual. And, honestly, Valerie and Clark didn’t have a dress code for the wedding. So some people will likely still be dressed pretty casually. It’ll be a very mixed bag.”

“Isn’t that the best kind?” he asked, taking his turn to waggle his eyebrows at her, and she laughed as he shut the door.

Once Noah was in the car, he gave her the shoes he’d been carrying for her, then backed out of the driveway. They chatted comfortably on their way to St. Nick’s Place, telling each other all about what they’d gotten into earlier that day and discussing how excited they were for the night’s events.

It felt like no time at all had passed when they reached the turnoff from the larger road to the long, pine tree lined drive that led to the house. As they approached, he noticed that there were already a plethora of cars parked near the mansion. Even though they were technically arriving a little bit early, it seemed like most of the invitees had been just as excited as they were to get the show on the road.

The house looked as beautiful as it had the night before. But now that he could see the people passing in front of the illuminated windows and hear the sounds of their laughter and the Christmas music floating through the air, he couldn’t deny that things seemed even more magical than they had just twenty-four hours ago.

He and Mindy walked up to the house side by side, him holding out his arm so she could use it to steady herself on the front step as she kicked off her boots and switched over to her heels.

“I’ll just stash them in the coat closet,” she said with a grin and a shrug. “No one will notice.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

Noah mimed locking his lips and she bumped her hip against his as they walked through the front door.

The moment they stepped past the threshold, the jolly atmosphere rushed up to greet them. The music and the laughter that they’d been able to hear from outside was all around them now that they were within the same four walls, and Noah found himself bursting with excitement for everything that was about to unfold.

They took off their coats, hanging them in one of the massive closets just off the entryway, and Mindy dropped her boots inside. Noah noticed that there was a small pile of boots on the floor, some of them still containing traces of snow, and he realized that Mindy hadn’t been the only one with that idea.

“Mindy! Noah!”

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