He didn’t laugh, but his voice did soften. “Like a friend?” he guessed.
She nodded. “Then everyone in town was so kind. I’ve never had that, and I’ve always wanted it.”
“So, what you’re saying is you’ve made your decisions based on emotion.” He paused, weighed that and when she nodded, he added, “Is this life one you will love?”
“I will totally love it,” she said, looking him right in the eye. “I already do.”
“This just keeps getting better and better.” Genuinely happy, he pressed her for more details. “What do you have in mind?”
Gabby could barely contain her excitement. “I want a shop on Main Street.”
“What kind of shop?”
“Selling handmade soaps and lotions and bath crystals and exotic teas and whatever else I come across that I love.”
“That’s an interesting line of products.”
“I know they’re disparate, but I think I can make it work. I will only carry things I love. Life’s little indulgences. Nothing too expensive but those little touches that make us feel pampered and nurtured and loved.”
“All the things you didn’t feel, growing up.”
“Yes.” She answered honestly. “I’m going to call it Gabby’s Treasures.”
He studied her face. “You’re really excited about this.”
“I am. Christmas Cove is a perfect market for what I have in mind, and I can do online sales, too. It’ll be awesome. Some of the locals expressed interest in carrying my products—if I had to build online before opening a store on Main Street. But thanks to you and the troops, I can launch the Main Street store right away. Even Pastor Ruther says it can work.”
“Pastor Ruther?” That seemed to surprise Plumber.
She nodded. “On the rare occasion, he needs a get-out-of-the-doghouse gift for Mrs. Ruther.”
Plumber laughed. “I hadn’t thought of that angle. I can see it,” Plumber added. “He’s a bit of a cynic now and then.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“Pretty much.” Plumber drank, then set his glass back down on the coffee table. “Considering the dog-house angle, I predict Gabby’s Treasures will be a huge success.”
“Do you really think so?”
“You love it, Gabby. You’ll make it work.”
“I will.” She studied his face. “You’re loving this.”
“Honestly, yeah. I am.”
“Why?”
“It makes you happy.”
“And that pleases you?”
“It does.” He let out a little grunt. “You have no idea how much time I’ve invested in the past five years wondering what it would take for you to be happy.”
Her heart lurched. “Why?” He constantly surprised her.
“Because you should be happy. It makes me happy to see you happy. To think of you being content and happy.” He stood up. “In fact, I have a surprise for you that’s going to make you even happier.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible. I’m bursting at the seams already.”
“Oh, it will.” His eyes lit with a beautiful little twinkle. “I’ll bet on it.”
She tilted her head. “What’s the bet?”
He thought half a beat, then suggested, “A kiss?”
As if that would be a hardship. Women would stand in line. “You’re on.”
He walked over to the door. Was he leaving? No, he stopped and retrieved something from the narrow table near the door, atop of a stack of books. A wrapped package with a big red bow. How had she missed seeing that?
Walking back over, he passed her the box. “For you.”
A gift. On top of everything else, he’d gotten her a gift? “Should I open it now?” Part of her wanted to rip into the package, but another part of her, that part that had spent so many Christmases alone, wanted to wait for Christmas morning.
“Absolutely now.”
That settled it. “Okay.” Carefully, she removed the ribbon, her hand shaking. Green tissue paper inside. She couldn’t imagine what lay beneath it. Whatever it was, it had some weight to it. Easing a fingertip between the sheets, she folded the paper back . . . “Oh, Plumber.” She couldn’t believe her eyes. Tears surged up from deep inside and clogged her throat. “My Grandmother’s book of soap recipes?” She fingered through the pages of soaps and the sections for lotions and oils, all of which Gabby had dreamed about, imagined making, and noting the little tick marks beside the ones she had made—and seen in her mind’s eye, her and her grandmother there in her kitchen, reading the same recipes, measuring the same ingredients, shaping the same soaps with her hands that Gabby shaped with her own. She’d never met her grandmother, but she had come to know her through this book, through their shared passion for creating soaps with care and love. Gabby swallowed hard, blinked rapidly, but the tears leaked anyway and slid down her cheeks. “I thought I’d never see these again.” She sniffed and looked up at him.
The look on his face grew tender. “It meant the most to you.”
It did. “How did you get it?”
“A minor case of breaking and entering. You really should not leave a key in one of those rocks at the foot of the stairs to your front door, Gabby. Everyone knows about those rocks, and it was the only one around.”
“But the alarm?”
“A little bypass on the system. I reset it when I left.”
She sniffed again, swiped at her tears with her napkin. “You are definitely a man of many talents.” She stood and hugged him hard, then stepped back. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome.” He lifted his arms. “You look pretty happy.”
“Oh, I am.”
He smiled. “Then I believe that means I won the bet.”
She set the box aside, stood and walked into his waiting arms. “And that means I owe you a kiss.”
“A real one, not a peck. Your neighbor’s dog threatened to come across the fence at me.”
“Bruiser is not a friendly pup.”
“He’s not a pup. He’s a Great Dane nearly the size of a small horse, and he could rip my head off.”
“Probably could.” She kissed him deeply, then pulled back and kissed him again, losing herself in sensation.
“Two kisses. For that, I’d risk Bruiser again. Anything else you want from there?”
“Afraid not,” she said softly. “Everything I want is right here.”
The look in his eyes warmed. “I knew it’d be like this between us.”
Gabby let him see the truth in her own eyes. “I hoped it would be.”
“I’m glad to know that.” He hugged her to him. A long second later, he pulled away. “Really glad.” He cupped her face in his hands. “On that high note, I need to go.”
“Okay.” Her disappointment must have showed.
“I have to be on Main Street at 9:30 in the morning.”
“Ah, so you’ve been recruited, too.” The smile in her heart touched her eyes.
“Every year,” he confessed. “I help Pastor Ruther set up the podium for the blessing of the fleet.” Plumber stepped away and retrieved his jacket from the chair at the breakfast bar. “What time do you have to be there?”