“Right,” Logan chimed in. “Which means we’re basically at her beck and call creating it.” He complained, but he wore a wide grin on his face. Logan had recently married Faith, Hope’s twin sister, and was just as head over heels in love with her as Levi was with his wife. Jeremy had no doubt that both men would do whatever they could for the women they loved and the wedding business they were all part of.
Ever After Ranch had been solely run by Hope, but Faith returned to town the previous spring to take over when Hope got sick. Right around the same time, Levi had returned to Glacier Falls and it didn’t take long for him and Hope to remember how much they’d loved each other when they were kids. So when they decided to get married and go traveling before starting a family, that left Faith alone to run the business. Thankfully, Logan stepped up to help Faith out. It was clear to everyone else in town that he’d been in love with Faith since…forever. And sure enough, it only took a few months for them both to realize it once and for all.
Not that Jeremy begrudged any of them their happiness. They were all great people—his best friends, really—and they all deserved to be happy. But he’d be the first to admit that sometimes it wore on him that everyone around him seemed to be finding their happily ever after while he…what?
Jeremy shook off the mood that threatened to descend over him and climbed up to the top of the ladder one last time to string up the last of the lights.
Twenty minutes later, they were warming up in the house with mugs of steaming coffee thawing their hands.
“I really appreciate it, Jeremy.” Faith set a plate of baked goods in front of him and reflexively he looked to Logan, who laughed.
“They’re from Sweetie Pies,” Logan said with a laugh, earning him a smack to the arm. “Stephanie keeps us stocked in baking. I swear I’ve gained at least ten pounds.”
Stephanie was the twin’s half-sister, a pretty recent discovery that had changed the dynamics of the Turner family. “You think you’ve gained weight,” Stephanie said as she walked into the kitchen. She rubbed her flat stomach and groaned. “But I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s just so good and after being on every no carb, low carb, no sugar, no dairy, no wheat diet out there for as long as I could remember, well…” She shrugged.
“It’s a good thing you don’t have a role to prep for or anything,” Faith said. “Or maybe it isn’t good. Seriously, we could all use a little less baking around here.”
“No roles coming up?” Jeremy had never known a celebrity before, and Stephanie Starz was the very definition of celebrity. In fact, she’d recently been named one of the hottest movie stars in the world.
“Not yet.” Stephanie grabbed a scone and sat at the table. “I’m taking time off but still looking at a few scripts. If something really awesome comes up…” She tore off a piece of the baked good. “But I’ve been thinking I might want to do something else, too. Maybe a…never mind. It’s dumb.”
“It’s not dumb,” Levi said. “It’s a great idea.” He turned to Jeremy. “She’s talking about opening a little retreat center.”
“Not so much a center,” Steph interrupted. “Maybe just some cabins.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s still very much in the idea stage. I was talking to Nick about—”
“Nick, huh?” Faith wiggled her eyebrow. “How is Nick?”
Jeremy had to laugh at the family. They reminded him of the soap operas his mom used to watch when he was a kid, only with less angst. Mostly the family seemed to get along pretty well, but it wasn’t unusual for at least one of them to have some kind of drama going on.
“Nothing is going on between Nick and me.” She spoke with such authority that no one questioned her. “We’re only friends. I haven’t even really spoken to him since he left town with the baby.”
The baby.
It was hard to forget that particular dramatic turn of events. In September, at Faith and Logan’s wedding celebration, a stranger had shown up out of the blue with a baby, claiming it was Nick’s responsibility. He’d been pretty much MIA since then, dealing with the details of exactly what it meant to have a baby thrust into his life.
Jeremy still didn’t know the details about what had happened; as far as he knew, nobody did. Nick had been in the city pretty much since then, and if anyone knew what was going on, they weren’t saying.
And he didn’t ask. Soon the conversation shifted to Christmas, and the festivities they were planning, including the orphan dinner on Christmas Eve that the fire department put on every year.
“You’ll all be there?” he asked unnecessarily.
“You know we will.” Faith smiled. “I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t been in years. Is your family going to be there?”
Jeremy shook his head. “Not this year. Mom and Dad went to visit my sister, Charlotte. She’s been living on the East Coast. So I’m on my own.”
But maybe not. The conversation swirled around him, but Jeremy was only half listening as he let his thoughts drift to the one person he’d really like to be celebrating the holidays with. Ever since Bella had mentioned she’d be staying for Christmas, he couldn’t help himself from making a bit of a Christmas wish for himself.
One he certainly hoped would come true.
Bella put the brochures for the assisted living homes on the kitchen table in front of her grandfather and pasted the biggest smile she could on her face.
“This one looks nice, don’t you think?” She tapped a finger at the glossy picture of a home in the city, close to her parents’ condo downtown. “It has a pool.”
“A pool?” Papa looked at her as if she were the one who’d lost her mind. “Do you think I care about a pool?”
“You might.” She knew she was grasping at straws. “It could be a lot of fun to take one of those classes with the music and belts where you kind of run in the water.”
Her grandfather eyed her suspiciously. “You think that sounds fun?”
She couldn’t help it. Bella laughed. “No,” she admitted. “It doesn’t.”
She dropped her head in her hands and massaged her temple. She’d convinced her parents to let her talk to Papa about moving. She thought he might take the news better from her, but so far, despite her best attempts, he was not buying into the idea.
“Bella. This is my home. I don’t want to move to the city.”
“But, Papa. You can’t stay here.” She looked up. “It’s not safe. Jeremy said the fire department practically has your house on autopilot.”
“Fine.”
Bella looked up cautiously. There was no way she’d just spent over thirty minutes trying to convince her grandfather to move and now, just like that, he’d agreed. She knew better. Bella narrowed her eyes and tilted her head. “What do you mean, fine?”
“Fine. I’ll move.” He took a sip of his tea. “But not to the city.”
Ah.
She knew it was too easy.
“But, Papa, that’s where we all live.”
“No.” He put his mug down. “That’s where you all live. I live here. And I will not have my family’s poor life choices affect my life.”