Chapter 33
Thirty-Three
DECLAN
Last Day & New Beginnings
“You know, I think this might be the best Christmas festival Everdale Falls has ever had,” Holly mused.
“Definitely the best one I’ve ever been part of,” I agreed, watching her with the kind of fond admiration that probably made me look like a complete sap. “Though I may be biased, since this is the first one where I got to kiss the head coordinator.”
“Only the first one?” Holly said with mock concern. “Are you planning to make a habit of kissing festival coordinators?”
“Just this one,” I said, stealing a quick kiss despite the fact that we were in full view of approximately half the town. “For the rest of my life, if she’ll have me.”
The words came out more seriously than I’d intended, and Holly looked up at me with the kind of expression that suggested she was hearing a promise rather than just romantic banter.
“For the rest of your life?” she asked softly.
“If you’ll have me,” I repeated, knowing that I meant it completely. “Holly, I know we’ve only been together officially for a few hours, but…”
“But you’re already thinking about forever,” Holly finished.
“I’ve been thinking about forever since you made me help you hang Christmas lights,” I admitted. “I just wasn’t brave enough to admit it until yesterday.”
Before Holly could respond to my inadvertent declaration of permanent romantic intentions, Bernie appeared with his camera and the kind of enthusiastic expression that suggested he’d overheard our entire conversation.
“Perfect!” he said cheerfully, raising his camera. “Can you two look at each other like you’re madly in love? This is going on the front page of next week’s edition.”
“We are madly in love,” Holly pointed out with amusement.
“Even better,” Bernie said, snapping several photos. “Natural chemistry is always the best. Much more authentic than those posed engagement photos people usually do.”
Engagement photos. The words hung in the air like a suggestion, and I found myself wondering if it was too soon to start thinking about proposals and wedding planning and all the traditional romantic milestones that suddenly felt not just possible but inevitable.
“Bernie,” Holly said with affection, “maybe save the engagement speculation for after we’ve been together longer than twenty-four hours?”
“Fine, fine,” Bernie said with disappointment. “But when you do get engaged, I get exclusive photo rights. The Gazette needs good romantic content.”
As Bernie wandered off to photograph the cookie decorating station, I turned back to Holly, who was watching me with the kind of expression that suggested she was also thinking about engagement timelines and wondering if it was possible to fall this hard this fast.
“So,” she said carefully, “forever, huh?”
“Too fast?” I asked, suddenly worried that I was overwhelming her with the intensity of my feelings.
“Not fast enough,” Holly said with a smile that made my chest tighten with happiness. “I’ve been thinking about forever, too. I just thought I was being ridiculous.”
“We’re both being ridiculous,” I said, pulling her closer despite the fact that we were supposed to be coordinating festival activities instead of having life-altering romantic conversations. “But I’m okay with ridiculous if you are.”
“I’m very okay with ridiculous,” Holly agreed, and then she was kissing me again, right there in the middle of the town square while families with small children and elderly couples and teenagers on Christmas break wandered around us.
We probably would have continued being ridiculous indefinitely, but the sound of a car engine that was clearly struggling with Vermont winter roads interrupted our romantic moment.
I looked up to see a sleek black sports car creeping through the town square, its low-profile tires spinning ineffectively on the snow-covered pavement while the driver apparently tried to figure out how to navigate a small town that hadn’t been designed with luxury vehicles in mind.
“That’s not a Vermont car,” Holly observed, watching the sedan’s slow progress and trying not to laugh.
“Definitely not,” I agreed, though something about the vehicle was triggering a sense of dread that I couldn’t quite explain. “Looks like someone took a wrong turn on their way to... somewhere with better roads.”
The Porsche finally managed to park—or at least come to a complete stop—near the town hall, and I watched with growing apprehension as the driver’s door opened to reveal a figure in an expensive wool coat that was definitely not designed for actual winter weather.
Richard. My former boss, standing in the middle of Everdale Falls’ Christmas festival wearing a thousand-dollar coat and leather dress shoes that were already collecting snow, looking around the town square like he’d accidentally landed on an alien planet.
“Oh, shit,” I said under my breath.
“What?” Holly asked, following my gaze to where Richard was carefully picking his way across the snow-covered pavement with the kind of cautious steps that suggested he was genuinely concerned about his footwear survival rather than falling on his ass.
“That’s Richard,” I said, feeling my stomach drop somewhere into the vicinity of my boots. “My boss. Former boss. The one I was supposed to call yesterday with my decision about coming back to New York.”
Holly went very still beside me, and I could practically feel her mental shift from happy to wary.
“What’s he doing here?” she asked, though her tone suggested she already suspected the answer wasn’t going to be good.
“Probably trying to convince me to change my mind about quitting,” I said, watching Richard continue his precarious journey toward the festival area. “He’s not used to taking no for an answer.”
Richard had finally reached the edge of the town square and was looking around with the kind of bewilderment that suggested he’d never seen a small-town Christmas festival and wasn’t entirely sure what to do with the experience.
His coat was already dusted with snow, his perfectly styled hair was beginning to wilt in the winter air, and his leather shoes were making soft squelching sounds with each step.
“His socks must be soaked already,” Holly muttered, making me snort out a laugh.
“Declan!” he called out when he spotted me, waving with relief. “There you are. We need to talk.”
The conversations around us began to quiet as people noticed the outsider in their midst, and I was suddenly aware that whatever Richard was planning to say was going to have an audience of approximately half the town.
“Richard,” I said, moving toward him with Holly beside me, “what are you doing here?”
“Saving your career,” Richard said with smug satisfaction, apparently unaware that his dramatic rescue mission was being observed by dozens of curious townspeople.
“When you didn’t call yesterday, I knew you were having some kind of crisis of confidence.
Perfectly normal for someone facing a big promotion opportunity. ”
Crisis of confidence. The way he said it made it clear that he’d completely misinterpreted my silence as indecision rather than a definitive choice.
“It’s not a crisis of confidence,” I said carefully, trying to figure out how to handle this conversation without causing a scene in front of the entire festival. “I made my decision. I’m staying in Vermont.”
“Vermont,” Richard repeated, looking around the town square like this was the first time he’d ever heard of it. “Declan, this is... quaint. But you can’t seriously be considering giving up partnership track at one of Manhattan’s most prestigious firms to live in... this.”
This. The dismissive way he said it, encompassing the festival, the town, the people who were now openly staring at our conversation, made something angry flare in my chest.
“This is my home,” I said firmly. “These are my people. And this—” I gestured to Holly, who was standing beside me with tension flowing off her in waves “—is the woman I love.”
“The woman you love,” Richard said with the kind of patronizing tone usually reserved for children who’d announced their intention to become astronauts. “Declan, you’ve been here a few weeks. You’re having a vacation romance. That’s not a reason to destroy your career.”
I felt Holly stiffen beside me, and I knew that Richard’s casual dismissal of our relationship was about to become a much bigger problem than his career intervention.
“It’s not a vacation romance,” I said, my voice getting harder. “And even if it was, that would be my choice to make.”
“Your choice,” Richard said with impatience, apparently oblivious to the fact that we now had an audience of at least twenty people who were pretending to be engaged in festival activities while listening to every word.
“Declan, you’re not thinking clearly. You’ve been away from the city too long.
You’ve forgotten what you’re walking away from. ”
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” I said, stepping closer to Holly in a gesture that I hoped conveyed protection and solidarity. “I know exactly what I’m walking away from, and I know exactly what I’m choosing instead.”
“A small-town legal practice?” Richard said with obvious disdain. “Helping farmers with property disputes and writing wills for elderly couples? Declan, you’re meant for bigger things than this.”
The phrase that had motivated me for years suddenly sounded empty and pretentious, especially when delivered by someone who was standing in the middle of a community Christmas festival wearing inappropriate shoes and looking at my neighbors like they were quaint local wildlife.
“In case it wasn’t obvious from my lack of bothering to inform you, I’m not coming back.
You have no right to come here and act like a total and complete fucking asshole.
You are in the wrong place, Richard. No one here cares about you or your money or your success.
All they see is a motherfucking dickhead insulting them. ”