“And if I put up a sprig of mistletoe?”
“You’re doing fine without it,” she said, right before she leaned forward to kiss him again.
CHAPTER SIX
From [email protected]: Sounds to me like you’re having quite the adventure at Hollymeade, Jo. Rachel and I are shivering through your emails, and they make me sorry we didn’t try harder to stay in touch all these years. I’m in the mood for an adventure, too, but I think I’ll take mine without all that snow. I’m practicing my appliqué stitches, by the way, in preparation for my border. Aunt Glo would have encouraging words to say, I’m sure. And she would also have reminded you to slow down and have a wonderful Christmas. So even though I’m the youngest cousin, I’ll do it for her.
JO WASN’T SURE how Christmas Eve had arrived so quickly. Ten days had passed since the potluck, and she and Brody had spent large chunks of each one together. While now she was working an hour each morning, she was still officially taking vacation time. She’d become skilled at cutting off her boss’s telephone rants by citing in boring detail the reasons why her presence wasn’t required until the New Year.
Sophie was even more of a challenge, but surprisingly her spirit guide agreed with Jo. Ocelot Lee had issued a decree that demanding attention from her daughter was not a step forward for Sophie’s personal growth. Sophie needed more time with him. Jo just hoped her stepfather was watching how much money was flowing to the medium who channeled ol’ Ocelot.
The moments with Brody were by far the best. She woke up every morning anxious to see him again. For a quiet little town in the frozen north, they had found plenty to do, especially after she bought a down jacket.
She was learning to cross-country ski, and for the first time since her childhood, she had strapped on ice skates and, with Brody’s help, taken her first tentative glides along the frozen lakeshore. They’d Christmas shopped together at the Trading Post, baked Christmas cookies for his friends, and added a couple of snow people to his collection so that now they had a fleet of carolers on his lawn.
Twice more they had unsuccessfully searched the Grants’ attic for the box with Eric’s baby things. Since searching was the perfect excuse to see Brody earlier in the day, Jo managed that guilty little secret just fine.
Brody had taken his time getting a new Christmas tree, but the tree they had hauled into his house yesterday was a real beauty, cut from a hillside destined for vineyard expansion. As it turned out there were ornaments in the attic from his childhood, and he had promised to bring them down tonight. Jo was making a gourmet dinner, and afterward, they would decorate together.
Tomorrow morning she would join him at his house to open presents. Join him, that is, if she actually left tonight.
So far she and Brody had, as she had requested, just enjoyed each other’s company. While they never talked about the past, they did talk about everything else. They had similar views on politics, and while he was more inclined to be a churchgoer than she was, their views on religion were similar, too. Their reading tastes were different—his tended toward thrillers, she was a fan of biographies—but they loved some of the same television shows. He was surprised she avoided trendy nightclubs, and she was surprised he never watched football but couldn’t be pried away from the set when the World Series was in play.
Through all this, he had rarely touched her. He always kissed her good-night. That was a given, and she could tell he was reluctant to let her go afterward. She was reluctant to go, so she understood. But somehow they had taken the time to build trust, to push aside the powerful physical attraction between them and reforge the bond they had severed a decade before.
She was so glad they had waited. Weren’t they mature? But now she was ready to toss maturity out the window.
She dressed carefully for the night’s adventure. She hadn’t brought X-rated lingerie, but she was fairly certain that lingerie of any kind wasn’t going to be much of an issue. She washed her hair, shaved her legs, took a little extra care with her makeup and pulled out the new green sweater she had found at the Trading Post. By the time she left, she was satisfied. She had even pinned a twinkling Christmas wreath to the sweater, to make Brody smile. Luckily it had an off switch, because this was no night to give the man a headache.
She packed the ingredients for dinner and took them out to the car, then she packed a few toiletries and a change of underwear in a bag, too, and hid it under the front seat.
Just in case...
Snow was falling, a pillowy snow that was spreading softly over older drifts like icing on a cake. As she drove toward his house she thought about Olivia’s wedding quilt. As hoped, she had found several helpful books upstairs. After looking carefully at every pattern, she had settled on a Friendship Star block, a four-pointed star that would, in partner with its neighbors, dance across her border. It was, as star blocks went, simple enough for her to stitch by hand, although the first two had varied wildly, and neither of them had been the exact size she needed.
The third, though, had been perfect, her stitches even and small enough to suit her. She had decided to use the royal blue background of the center block as the background for each block. Then the stars themselves could be a variety of different fabrics, and that was where she planned to incorporate some of the bride and groom’s childhoods. She had also decided on smallish stars, so that none would stand out and take away from the perfect center block. That meant she had to sew even more of them to stretch around the quilt. In the past week she had made enough for two sides, and she was pleased at the way they had turned out.
Still, she hoped that quilt-making would be on hold tonight.
On the snow-sprinkled walk up to the house she smiled at the wreath on the front door. She had bought it on sale yesterday in the grocery store parking lot, a steal, since most people already had their decorations completed. Brody had hung it immediately. As she raised her hand to knock she noticed something new had been added. Little flags that looked like they had been made from Post-it notes and toothpicks were tucked in between the pinecones and plastic sprays of cranberries adorning the wreath.
She pulled one out and read the message out loud. “The weather outside is frightful.” She frowned, and pulled out another. “If you’ve no place to go.” Now she smiled as she looked at the rest. He had carefully penned, then pinned, all the words to the familiar Christmas song, “Let It Snow.” Even out of order, she recognized them.
“All the night long we’ll be warm.”
Oh, it was going to be a good night, she was sure of it.
Let it snow and snow some more!
By the time Brody answered the door, she was almost dancing with delight.
“It’s so Christmassy!” she said, throwing her arms around him. “I love the wreath.”
He kissed her soundly, until she was breathless. Then he stepped back. “I would have bought one and put it up weeks ago if I’d known the results.”
“I have lots to bring in. Want to help?”
They finally got all the food into the house, despite pelting each other with snowballs.
She set the last of the bags on the counter and took a deep breath of cinnamon-scented air. “Something smells fabulous.”
“I’m
