“It’s perfect.”
We didn’t have any decorations other than the lights we’d picked up at Haven’s Bay Grocery, and the tree glittered prettily in the window. Matilda had sniffed at the tree curiously for a few minutes, but otherwise, she let it be.
Sasha looked up at me, biting her lip. “What are we going to tell your family?” In addition to my younger sister and brother, Dallas was coming up with his wife and toddler son.
“About what?” I countered even though I knew exactly what she was asking.
Her lips pressed in a line. “Us. I think we should just not say—”
I cut her off because I’d already thought about this. “We’re not going to pretend nothing’s happening. We both live in Boston, and I want to see you when we go back.”
“You do?” she squeaked.
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
Sasha looked very uncertain, a twitch of worry forming between her brows as she chewed on her pretty pink bottom lip. Fuck me, her lips were made for kissing, and I wanted to kiss her. Badly.
She swallowed. “I guess I thought it was just a fling,” she said slowly.
Somehow, that annoyed me. “You’re not a fling to me. I hope you want to see me when we’re back in Boston.”
“You know I have a daughter, right? I’m not all that glamorous to date,” she said flatly.
“I’m not either. I work a lot, and it can be high stress. I want a chance to see where this goes. I’d love to meet Quinn when you’re ready.”
Chapter 11
Sasha
“What?” Thea asked, her eyes wide as she stared at me.
“I know, it’s crazy, but I… well, I really like him.”
Thea’s eyes widened as a smile stretched slowly across her face. “Oh my God, this is perfect.”
“It is?”
She gave me a long look. “Yes. You are an incredible mother, and that absolutely should be your first priority, but you also deserve a little romance. So does Noah.”
Later that evening, we opened presents under the Christmas tree and toasted the holiday with yummy hot cider. Noah’s arm rested across my shoulders as we sat in front of the fire and laughed with his family. In a funny way, this was the closest thing to family I’d ever had growing up. And I almost needed to pinch myself to realize Noah really wanted a chance with me.
Epilogue
Noah
CHRISTMAS EVE - ONE YEAR LATER
I reflexively checked my coat pocket. For perhaps the fiftieth time in the past hour, I confirmed it was still there.
“Do you have it?” Quinn whispered, loud enough that the very whisper itself echoed in the foyer.
I cast a warning look, albeit a bemused one, at Sasha’s daughter. “Yes, I have it.”
“I’ll be right there!” Sasha’s voice carried to us from the hallway upstairs.
Quinn tapped the toe of her chunky black leather boot on the floor. “You know,” she said as her eyes arced around the foyer and down the hallway, “you need to step it up on furnishing this place.”
I chuckled, arching a brow as I looked back at her. “You don’t say?”
Quinn, who looked so much like Sasha it was startling sometimes, nodded as she pushed her glasses up her nose. “Yes. You don’t have anything other than a coatrack in here. You need like a table and maybe a rug or something. This could be a room itself. I’m just grateful you got a bed for the guestroom.”
I grinned. “You know, we don’t live here,” I pointed out.
Since last Christmas, Sasha and I had actually come up here for a few weekends. Suffice it to say, we didn’t use that time to furnish the house. We had other things to do. Sasha had pointed out that dating a single mother wasn’t glamorous, which turned out to be true, but dating anyone who had a life wasn’t glamorous. Occasional weekend getaways gave us a little freedom. Quinn was an awesome kid, the best, as far as I was concerned.
“How about we go to that furniture store the next town over? Pretty sure they’ll be closed for Christmas Day, but they’ll probably be open the day after.”
Quinn’s eyes lit up. “Perfect.”
A flash of trepidation stole through me. Quinn liked things bright, and I didn’t know if my siblings, who technically had a say since we jointly owned the house, would have an opinion on that. I dismissed the concern quickly. They’d all welcomed Quinn into our family, and honestly, most of us could only make it to this house periodically.
At the sound of footsteps, I glanced up to see Sasha descending the stairs, and my breath seized in my lungs for a moment. She always looked gorgeous, but tonight my anticipation had me on edge, and everything felt sharper, including how beautiful she was. Her hair was down, which was rare. My girl was a practical girl, and I loved that about her, but it was nice to see her hair loose on occasion.
She wore fitted jeans with low heeled leather boots paired with a cream silk blouse and a bright silk scarf. Her lips were shiny, and I wanted to kiss that lip gloss right off.
I knew any PDA would lead to Quinn snorting. So I made do with sliding my arm around Sasha’s waist when she stopped beside us. “Are we ready?” she asked.
“We’ve been ready,” Quinn said with a sly grin.
Sasha didn’t even bother reacting to Quinn’s comment. She was a master at not engaging. All things considered, Quinn only occasionally got too much attitude.
Sasha turned and snagged her coat off the coatrack by the door. As we walked out into the crisp winter air on Christmas Eve, Quinn commented, “Noah’s going to let me start furnishing this place.”
Sasha’s eyes widened when she glanced at me while we descended the front steps.
“We do need some more furniture. We’ll see what we can find,” I said easily.
We drove into downtown Haven’s Bay. Our small hometown was spruced up for the holidays. There were wreaths mounted on the streetlights and holiday lights glittering on the big tree in the town green beside Main Street. Most of the homes had lights strung along the rooftops.
I smiled to myself, recalling our Christmas tree shopping venture just the night before. We’d let Quinn pick, and she decided we needed to take the most forlorn-looking tree. “To make it feel good,” she’d said.
A few minutes later, we sat in the parking lot at Emile’s. “Now,” Sasha said as she looked over her shoulder at Quinn. “We’ll be back before nine o’clock. You’d better be here.”
Quinn let out a put upon sigh. “Of course, I’ll be ready. You know the people who own this place. I’m sure they’ll text you if I leave.”
We were dropping her off at a small holiday gathering organized by the town’s theater group. Quinn had gotten involved with her high school theater program in Boston and made a few friends through a regional traveling theater program. One of those friends actually happened to be from Haven’s Bay.
“I know,” Sasha said, her lips pressing in a line. “We’ll go have dinner and be back later. Have fun.”