Chapter 2 Gracie #2
Gracie cradled the mug. “So, what’s on your mind? Olivia said you wanted to talk about something. Is it about…combining our businesses?” They’d talked about that idea a few times, both of them feeling the sting of having a competing bakery across the street from one another.
Their “brands” were quite different, but they’d been toying with the idea of combining her decadent desserts and his healthy options to improve both bottom lines.
“Sort of,” he said, the words sounding oddly cryptic.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about it, Marshall, and I do believe there’s a way we could save rental money and offer Park City the best of Craving Clean and Sugarfall.”
He eyed her, amusement flickering in his expression. “You do, huh?”
“I do,” she said, trying to interpret the way he asked the question. “Don’t you? Or have you changed your mind about some kind of merger?”
“Some kind,” he said.
She took a sip, waited, then asked, “What are you, um, thinking? Looking for a new place completely or just taking over the space next to mine or even folding Craving Clean into Sugarfall? Selling each other’s products? I can—”
“I’m not thinking about any of those logistics, Gracie.”
She lowered the cup. “So you did change your mind.”
“I did not,” he assured her. “But I’m thinking about…a different kind of…combined effort.” He sighed and laughed softly. “I don’t want to get all wrapped up in semantics and lose the point of what’s on my mind.”
Studying him, she frowned, definitely lost. “What’s on your mind?”
“You.”
The single, simple syllable hit hard. “Oh,” she breathed her response. “That’s…unexpected.”
“Is it?” he asked, leaning closer. “You kissed me goodbye after the wedding like it was very…expected.”
She felt her signature blush rise to the surface. “It was an unexpectedly nice kiss,” she whispered, letting the play on words cover the fact that much more of this banter and there would be another unexpectedly nice kiss.
He exhaled again, pressing his hands on the counter as though he had to steady himself for the conversation.
“Marshall? Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “I hope it will be after…this.”
A shiver danced up her spine at the way he said it. “After what?”
“Well, Olivia is leaving,” he started.
“And Benny’s sad about that,” she said. “I’m sure you are, too.”
“I am, but…it really frees me up. And that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh?”
He turned to face her, reaching for her to do the same. “Not about work, but about…life. Our lives. Together. As a couple.”
More shivers exploded on her arms. “A couple?” Her heart did a little dance. “That sounds…nice.”
“But there are some things you should know about me,” he said softly. “So, if I can be brutally honest and you don’t go running out into the snow like your hair’s on fire…”
And then the dancing stopped and her heart fell. What was he about to confess? She took a deep breath and looked right at him, ready for anything. Almost anything.
“I won’t run,” she assured him. “And I appreciate honesty.”
“Good, ’cause I’m coming at you with a boatload of it.”
She swallowed, and waited.
“I don’t date…” he began.
Okay, well, that wasn’t good.
“Casually,” he finished, emphasizing the word. “I never have, to be real with you. It’s something my mother sort of pounded into me.”
She thought of some of the endearing stories he’d told her about his hardworking, Jesus-loving mother, Germaine.
“My mom taught me not to…I think the word she liked to use was ‘window-shop’ with women,” he told her.
Window-shop?
He took her hand in his. “‘What’s the use,’ Mom would say. ‘Don’t pluck things off the shelf and try them on for fun, Marshall.’” He used a slightly higher-pitched voice and a playful accent to imitate her.
But Gracie didn’t laugh because…what exactly was he saying?
“So I don’t,” he finished. “I don’t date around or look for the next relationship or play the field—unless it’s a gridiron and the QB just handed me the ball.
” He grinned. “Once I see what I want, I…make it mine or I don’t.
” One heartbeat, then two passed while he held her gaze.
“Can you tell where I’m going with this? ”
She could hope, but she wasn’t sure. “Maybe. Keep going.”
“Okay, well, when I look at you, I see…a future.”
She just stared at him, her pulse racing so hard she could barely hear him as he made his sweet speech, making her sock-covered toes curl around the footrest of the bar stool.
“Too much? Too soon?” he asked, squeezing her hand. “I just have to be honest.”
“No, no, it’s fine.” She almost laughed at the understatement. Fine? It was…glorious.
“And, assuming—hoping, actually—that you feel the same way,” he continued, “I’d like to spend the next few weeks right next to you.”
“I’d…like that,” she managed to say.
“I mean, I know you have Benny and a family and a business,” he added.
“And things are busy this time of year. But I’d like to quite intentionally take time for us.
I want to go out to dinner, and spend some full days together, put up my tree together, and take long rides into the mountains, and just sink into this relationship and see if I’m… right.”
“Right?” she echoed, still stuck imagining the canvas of romance he’d just painted for her.
“Gracie, I think this—us, we—have something special.” His thumb brushed her knuckles, steady and sure when she felt anything but. “I don’t want to rush you or scare you, but I don’t want to take two years of dating to get where I really hope we’re going.”
Her chest squeezed as she let out a soft laugh. “Well, it’s not that rushed, considering I’ve had a crush on you the size of a mountain since the day we met a year ago.”
A slow smile lit his whole face. “You have? Me, too! Like…I feel like I’ve been climbing Mount Crushmore.”
She threw her head back and laughed at that, relief and joy surging through her. “Really? I had no idea!”
“Are you kidding? Did you notice how we always seemed to bump into each other on the street in front of our shops…by chance?”
“Not by chance?” she guessed.
“I watch the front door of Sugarfall like the proverbial hawk and the minute I see you step out, I need air. Well, I need…Gracie. I didn’t think you’d be interested, since I was competing for your business. Then we made that gingerbread house, and then the night of the ice skating…”
“You weren’t sure you could trust me,” she reminded him.
“A big fat excuse for how hard and fast I was falling.”
“Aw, Marshall.” She blinked, a little embarrassed that the words made her tear up.
“Then after the wedding, when we kissed…” He inched closer. “I really hoped I had a shot.”
A shot? Was he crazy? “And you couldn’t tell by how much I stammer and blush and try to look anywhere but at you because…” She bit her lip. “Never mind.”
He leaned in and kissed her. “Not never mind. This is what I want to talk about. You, me, our kids, our lives, our hopes and dreams and past and…future.” Another kiss.
“Because I think there can be one, Gracie, and I’m just warning you.
I was famous for how fast I was on the football field.
Speed made my career. And when it comes to love, I plan to be the same way. ”
Did he say love?
Taking a deep breath, she put a hand on his arm, taking hold of a mighty shoulder she ached to lean on for…for a long, long time.
“Then my answer is yes, Marshall. Let’s spend all the time we can together and see where it takes us.”
He answered with another kiss, longer this time, the connection warm and sweet. She let herself sink deeply into the delicious moment, stunned by how much she wanted love and a future and a man who was honest, kind, and present.
She’d done such a good job at denial that—
The doorbell rang, pulling them apart.
“That’s ,” he said, standing with a regretful smile. “Olivia put in an overnight order for a Christmas present for her mom, since she totally forgot. Do not move, Gracie McBride. I’ll be right back.”
“Go save the holiday. I’ll just be here…floating.”
With one more light kiss, he disappeared down the hall.
She stayed where she was, touching her lips, basking in that dizzy, sweet glow. He felt that way about her? He wanted to spend the holiday together talking about…the future?
This just officially became the very best Christmas ever in all her thirty-six years of life on Earth. Nothing could compare to what he’d just laid out for the next few weeks.
Through the window, Benny and Olivia flung snowballs with wild precision, their laughter ringing clear. The dogs were done, though, shivering on the top stair.
Gracie stood to let them in, not surprised her legs were like jelly when she tried to walk.
“Merry Christmas, darling!” The woman’s voice rang out from the front of the house, rich and unmistakably confident.
“Bianca? What are you doing here?”
What? Bianca was here—now? Well, at least he didn’t have to drive to the airport. And Gracie got to meet her, which was probably a good thing.
“Change of plans!” the woman announced, bright as the sun outside. “I’m spending the holiday here with you. Like a family. Can you get those bags from the Uber driver, Marsh? So much better for Olivia, don’t you think?”
Gracie froze in the mudroom, her hand on the knob to the patio door.
Silence stretched, then Marshall’s low, uneasy murmur. “No, no,” he said. “That’s not a good idea, Bianca…”
Oh, boy. They needed to talk—alone. Gracie grabbed her jacket from the hook and stuffed her feet into her boots in one lightning move, ready to vanish into the backyard and let him handle it privately.
But as she opened the door at the back of the mudroom, Newt came bounding in, followed by Kat, both dogs panting, covered in snow.
“Whoa, whoa, hold on there, kids,” she called, snagging their collars, knowing they’d go for the stranger who’d just blown in to wreck the dreamiest Christmas Gracie could imagine.
“Where’s my little Olivia?” the woman called, voice and heels getting louder and closer.