Chapter 20 #2
Behind them came a second, smaller sleigh pulled by Dasher and Maple, with Brice at the reins. His presence was a surprise, but Jade barely registered it. Her entire focus was on the man driving the lead sleigh.
Leo wasn’t in his usual work jacket and worn jeans.
He was wearing a heavy, dark wool coat that made his shoulders look even broader, and he moved with a quiet, focused gravity that commanded the space around him.
His face was set, his jaw tight with determination, but his eyes—his eyes were fixed on one point in the entire, crowded square.
They were fixed on her.
The world seemed to go into slow motion.
He guided the reindeer toward her, the sleigh gliding smoothly over the packed snow, the bells their only soundtrack.
He didn’t look at the mayor. He didn’t look at the gaping onlookers.
He drove straight through the heart of the town’s biggest celebration as if it were just an obstacle between him and her.
He stopped the sleigh just a few feet from her table. The sudden silence in their little pocket of the world was absolute. Everyone was holding their breath.
Jade couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was hammering against her ribs, a frantic, terrified, hopeful drumbeat.
He secured the reins and stepped down from the sleigh, walking the last few steps until he was standing right in front of her, the folding table the only thing between them.
The scent of cold air, pine, and him filled her senses.
He looked down at her, and the cold, angry facade he had worn in their last encounter was gone.
In its place was a raw, aching vulnerability that mirrored her own.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low and rough, meant only for her. The sound vibrated right through her, shaking loose all the ice and despair. “I was a coward. And a jerk.”
She opened her mouth to say something—she had no idea what—but no words came out.
“I should never have let you think you were in this alone,” he continued, his gaze intense, unwavering. He was confessing, not explaining. “I should have been here from the beginning.”
A single hot tear she hadn’t even realized was forming escaped and slid down her cheek. That was it. That was all she had needed to hear. It wasn’t a solution to her problems. It wasn’t a business plan. But it was everything.
“One!” the mayor roared from the stage.
At that exact instant, the world erupted. The massive Christmas tree in the center of the square exploded in a blinding, brilliant cascade of light—thousands of white, red, and gold bulbs illuminating the falling snow, the astonished faces of the crowd, and the tears on Jade’s cheeks.
A collective gasp was followed by a massive, joyful cheer.
But Jade barely heard it.
Because in the same instant the tree lit up, Leo reached across the table, his hands framing her face, his thumbs gently wiping away her tears. He leaned in, closing the last bit of distance between them. And he kissed her.
It wasn’t a tentative, questioning kiss like the one they had almost shared in the sleigh.
This was a kiss of absolute certainty. It was a declaration.
It was staking a claim. It was warm and firm and tasted faintly of peppermint and apologies and the impossible, breathtaking promise of coming home.
Her hands came up to grip the front of his coat, holding on as if her life depended on it. The flimsy folding table between them might as well have been a universe away. The crowd, the cocoa, the failing festival—it all faded into a blurry, brilliant backdrop.
The town’s cheer, which had started for the tree, seamlessly shifted its focus. It swelled and grew, becoming a roar of approval, punctuated by whistles and laughter. They weren’t cheering for a tree anymore. They were cheering for them.
Jade finally broke the kiss, gasping for air, her forehead resting against his. She was laughing and crying at the same time, a messy, glorious, beautiful disaster. The lights of the tree danced in his eyes, and she saw her own reflection there, no longer a failure, no longer alone.
“You’re an idiot,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.
“I know,” he whispered back, a slow, genuine smile spreading across his face—the one she’d only seen a handful of times, the one that made her heart do a stupid, clumsy backflip. “But I’m your idiot.”
“Are you?” she asked, needing to hear it, needing to know this was real. “Because I’m not going anywhere, Leo. This is it for me. This is home. I’m staying and I’m fighting for the bakery.”
Something fierce and protective flashed in his eyes.
“Then we fight together. I can help with the repairs—I know what I’m doing with electrical and plumbing.
And if you need money for materials, contractors, whatever—I can get a loan.
The farm’s equity is good.” He paused, his expression darkening slightly.
“But Monday’s meeting... I don’t know what I can do about that.
Cecily’s really gunning for you, and the violations are real.
Even if we fix everything, she’s not going to make it easy. ”
Jade felt a small, determined smile curve her lips.
“Leave that to me,” she said, meeting his gaze with renewed confidence. “I might have an idea.”
Leo studied her face for a moment, then grinned—that rare, genuine smile that made her heart flip. “I believe you do.” He leaned in to kiss her again, softer this time, a promise sealed under the light of a thousand Christmas bulbs.
From somewhere in the crowd, she heard Ida’s voice: “Well, it’s about time!” followed by Ruth’s gentle laughter.
Leo wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, his solid presence an anchor in the swirling joy. Then he turned to the crowd, his voice carrying across the square.
“Now it’s time to really get these sleigh rides going!” he called out, gesturing toward both sleighs. “Who’s ready for some Christmas magic?”
The response was immediate and overwhelming. Children squealed with excitement, parents laughed and hurried toward the sleighs, and a general stampede began toward both the rides and Jade’s cocoa booth. People who had been milling around uncertainly suddenly had direction and purpose.
“Hot cocoa and fresh cookies at all three stations!” Jade called out, finding her voice and her business instincts at the same time. “Follow the sleigh routes!”
Brice was already helping families into the smaller sleigh, getting the rides started while Leo and Jade had their moment. The festival that had been limping along suddenly burst into full, glorious life.
The scent of pine and cinnamon mingled in the air.
The sound of the crowd was a happy, excited roar.
The lights of the tree cast everything in a warm, festive glow.
She was standing in the middle of what had been a disaster that had, in the space of a heartbeat, become exactly what she’d dreamed it could be.
She wasn’t just a baker in a failing bakery. She wasn’t the girl who had run away.
She was home. She was finally, completely, terrifyingly home.
And for the first time since returning to Frost Pine Ridge, she believed everything might actually be okay.