Chapter 7
Haylee
“Not again,” Haylee groaned as she flipped over the charred pancake.
She’d been practicing making reindeer pancakes for Christmas morning for over an hour. Which was really simply making circle shapes she could stack in the shape of a reindeer face that would later be accented with blueberry eyes, a strawberry nose, and bacon antlers.
But she was terrible at making pancakes. Always had been. Her shapes were always off, they never cooked right, and so far this morning, she’d burned every single one.
Good thing this was practice, or Melly would be so disappointed. It was her only Christmas tradition request.
Allie sat at the edge of the kitchen, where linoleum met carpet, head tilted in expectation.
“You really want my screw-up?” Haylee asked skeptically, tearing off a chunk and offering it up.
The pup sniffed the blackened piece and flinched back.
Haylee let out a pathetic laugh.
“This is all Logan’s fault,” she muttered. The man her daughter still wasn’t convinced wasn’t a pirate had meshed so well, not just with their group, but with Melly. She lost count of the number of times she and Jamie looked at one another as though they were living in an alternate reality.
After Melly’s initial suspicion waned, she and Logan acted as though they were old friends.
How a six-year-old could be part of an old friends pairing was a mystery she could solve another day.
Haylee thought Logan would hang out with them during their time at the reindeer petting zoo then politely dismiss himself when they finished.
She never expected him to truly be engaged in this meeting.
But Captain Logan Riley accepted every eager invitation—most from Melly—to spend the entire carnival with them.
What was more, he seemed genuinely excited to do it.
For a couple of hours, it was just the three of them because Jamie convinced Charlotte to check out the indoor vendors when she started getting cold. Last Haylee heard, Jamie recruited the older woman to their next book club meeting before Christmas—for a book Haylee had barely started reading.
It was so easy to picture Logan as a dad.
His easy-going nature put Melly at ease, something that never happened quickly with strangers.
Typically, she ignored them. But with Logan, she fawned over him.
If her hundreds of questions annoyed him as they meandered through the carnival, he never let on.
The man wasn’t just patient with her daughter, he was present.
Haylee dropped the charred pancake in the trash and prepared to start another batch of pancake batter—she would get this right before Christmas morning. With Melly spending the night with Laurel’s family, this was a prime practice opportunity. She couldn’t afford to let it go to waste.
Except, her box of pancake mix was empty.
“Of course it is.”
Allie, having retreated to the couch, lifted her head and looked back at her through the pass-through wall that gave the dinky two-bedroom apartment an open-concept feel.
“I have to run to the store,” she told the dog, glancing at the clock on the stove. “I’ll be quick. Laurel’s dropping Melly off in a couple of hours.”
Allie perked at the mention of her favorite human. The two were a bonded pair. Allie got excited when Haylee returned home, but if Melly was with her, Allie practically lost her mind with excitement. Haylee might feel insulted if it wasn’t so endearingly sweet.
“Soon, baby. She’ll be back soon.”
She planted a kiss on Allie’s head after slipping on her coat, tossed the pup a treat, and headed out the door.
Rushing out the front door of the building, she nearly took out another resident in the process.
“Sorry!” she apologized, holding the door open for Mrs. Thorton several seconds after the woman crossed the threshold with her shopping bag hugged against her chest. She wasn’t the chattiest neighbor, and today, Haylee was grateful.
She was on a mission.
Two steps from the door, Haylee heard a sharp bark and froze.
Near the dog park, Jasper bounced up and down on his leash as he and Logan walked along the fence, headed this way, two coffee cups balanced precariously in his gloved hands. The pup was likely confused why they weren’t going inside the park.
Logan wore the new coat he’d procured at Evan’s Outfitters. While he looked good in the thick navy blue coat she knew to be insulated with a soft gray fabric—she inventoried the coat section just last week—and was likely warmer in it, she preferred him in the brown leather jacket.
He turned his head in her direction, and panic shot through her. She flung herself around the back of the building to hide. She was not ready to face the handsome soldier today. Maybe not ever again.
If it weren’t enough for him to be ridiculously attractive on his own merit, the way he’d been with Melly was scrambling her brain.
It made him so irresistible that she didn’t trust herself around him.
Hiding until she finally summoned the courage to read Dylan’s letter was the only logical option if she hoped to survive this Christmas with her heart intact.
If she wasn’t careful, she could so easily fall for Logan without even trying.
A heavy snort startled her around the corner.
She squeaked in surprise.
The giant bull moose stood undeterred a few feet away, staring back at her.
As though he had nothing better to do than simply look at her.
It was easier to forget how massive he was when her back was to him.
Now that they were face to face, she felt tiny in comparison.
Like a bug he could easily squash with one of his massive hooves.
“Ed, this is not a great time,” she hissed through gritted teeth. “And I thought we talked about this.”
Hadn’t the moose heard the barking? Surely, that should be enough to annoy him into fleeing.
She scanned him for the common warning signs of aggression that had been drilled into her since kindergarten—ones Melly could recite from memory because she was so incredibly smart for her age—but Ed wasn’t showcasing any of them.
He just stood there, unbothered.
“Is this some kind of alternate reality? Are you like the Ghost of Chrismoose Past or something?”
Ed tilted his head, much like Allie had when she offered her the charred bite of pancake. Well, before the pup had a chance to actually sniff it. But with Ed and his enormous rack, it was so much funnier. As though if he tilted too far, those heavy antlers might tip him over.
Haylee started to giggle.
And once she started, she couldn’t stop.
Ed snorted, possibly offended, and swung his muscled frame away from her. He stalked away in the opposite direction, headed for the tree line.
“I’m sorry, Ed,” Haylee called after him, forgetting she was supposed to be hiding.
Until Logan appeared around the corner, Jasper at his heel.
“That’s Ed?” Logan asked, excitement painted all over his bright expression.
Haylee squeaked again, her cheeks instantly heating. She could blame the cold, if it came to that.
“That’s him, right?”
“The one and only.”
“You were just . . . talking to him?” Logan looked at her strangely, as though piecing together this unusual scene.
“Ed is a strange sort of moose. But he’s still a moose.
Like, he could flatten you—like all the pancakes I burned.
” She added the last part in a murmur under her breath, focusing on Jasper and his red booties.
One was sagging, so she knelt to tighten it.
Jasper offered up his paw, probably in hopes that she’d liberate him from his torture devices.
“Have you seen a moose before?” Haylee asked, looking up at Logan only long enough to regret snagging her gaze on his caramel chocolate eyes.
“Not until Alaska.”
“Wait. Have you been to Alaska before?” she asked, rubbing Jasper behind the ears before standing.
“Once,” he admitted, his attention focused on the moose trotting into the woods. “I heard he’s a matchmaker. Ed. Is that true?”
“If you believe in the legend, I guess.”
“You don’t?”
She shrugged, refusing to answer that question. It was hard to argue with the theory, however silly, when all four of her siblings had their own Ed stories. Ones they claimed helped them realize that love was right in front of them.
“You must really like coffee,” Haylee teased, hoping to divert the conversation from Ed.
Two sightings in one week.
If Jamie or her sisters caught wind of that detail, she’d never hear the end of it.
Oh, who was she kidding? They fawned over Logan almost as much as Melly at the carnival.
It didn’t matter that this whole situation was completely innocent. Or that Logan would be stationed over a hundred miles away after Christmas. Her sisters’ behavior at the carnival last night proved they were convinced it was fate. The Ed encounters would only cement their belief.
“I brought you one,” Logan said, offering a to-go cup from Black Bear Coffee to her. “It’s hot chocolate, actually. I hope you like peppermint?”
“How did you know that?” she asked, her fingers nearly slipping on the cup in shock. She refused to drink hot cocoa without peppermint.
“Good guess, I suppose.”
Logan held the cup steady until she had a firm grip, their gloved fingers brushing. A zing of electricity at the contact shot through her, much like it had yesterday when he returned her fallen stocking hat, or the night he held her tight against him.
Not once, on any of the failed dates she attended these past few months, had she experienced any sort of reaction at all. But with Logan, the slightest contact was enough to send her pulse into hysterics.
She glanced in the direction Ed fled, wondering if it was possible.
Was this . . . her chance at love?
“I don’t want to overstep,” Logan said. “But have you thought about telling Dylan’s parents about Melly?”
Any butterflies that were dumb enough to take flight in her belly dropped at his blunt question. Of course this wasn’t about her falling in love. It was about Dylan.
“I know I should,” she said after a slow sip of her peppermint-flavored hot chocolate.
“I’ll go with you.”
“What?” She looked at him, surprised. “Why?”
“I know them,” he said, taking a sip of his cocoa. “I think it’ll help.”
“Oh.” Silly Haylee, believing for a second that he might offer to come along to support her through a difficult conversation. She doubted Dylan’s parents would be thrilled at the news. She’d be lucky if they didn’t slam the door in her face. Or worse, threaten to sue for custody of Melly.
“What’s wrong?” Logan asked.
“I want to tell my own parents first.”
“You haven’t?”
“No.”
“But last night at the carnival—”
“My sisters and Jamie know, but it was an accident.” At least that’s what she was calling the outburst created from the pressure of Logan showing up at the family store unannounced and tricking her into a lunch Laurel tried to convince everyone was a date.
“Do you think you’ll tell them soon?” he pressed gently, but she didn’t miss the urgency. Right. He was leaving soon. So, the longer she took to tell her parents about Melly’s father, the longer he’d be tethered to Sunset Ridge. To her.
“I’m actually headed over there right now.”
“I don’t want you to feel pressured—”
“We have family dinner tonight, so I better tell them before Melly does.”
She expected her daughter would rave about her new pirate friend during dinner, so the sooner she cleared the air about everything, the better.
Self-taught pancake lessons would have to wait.
“I’ve never had a family dinner night,” he mused.
“It’s chaos,” she said, her tension dissipating a sliver. “Imagine eleven adults, three children, a teenager, and half a dozen dogs in one house. You can’t even hear yourself think.”
“That sounds amazing.” It was the way he said it, as though it might be the most wonderful experience in the world, that got her.
“Where’s your mom and dad, if you don’t my asking?”
“Mom passed right after I graduated from West Point.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.”
“Was she . . . sick?” She shouldn’t press. She should start her icebox of a car and head over to Mom and Dad’s to rip off the Band-Aid that would likely feel like yanking off a piece of worn duct tape. And yet, her feet seemed rooted in place.
“Cancer,” Logan confirmed. “But I didn’t know.”
“Oh, Logan.” She reached for his free hand and squeezed.
He squeezed back and held on.
“She hid it from me,” he said, his focus on the tree line again, though Ed had been gone for a while now. Jasper sat obediently at his side, quiet but watching. As though he could sit there all day and just observe. “She thought if I knew, I’d drop out of West Point to take care of her.”
“You would have.” Haylee didn’t have to ask that one.
“Without a second thought.” He dropped his gaze to their joined hands, making her intimately aware that he hadn’t pulled away. Neither had she. “Mom was the best. She sacrificed everything for me. And in the end, she refused to let me do the same.”
“You were mad?”
“Oh, yeah.” He cleared his throat. “But that’s just part of the grief process, right?”
“I don’t know if it’s that simple,” she said.
“Life’s too short to waste too much time being angry.” He pulled his hand free. “We better let you get to your parents’ place before it gets too late. C’mon, Jasper. Let’s go to the park.”
Jasper popped onto all fours so fast a layer of snow dust lifted around him.
“Logan?” Haylee called after him.
“Yeah?”
“Do you . . . want to come with me tonight?” What in the world was she doing?
This was beyond a terrible idea. What would her parents and her overprotective brothers think about Logan’s presence?
She should backpedal immediately. Instead, she leaned all the way in.
“If you’re brave enough to endure an Evans family dinner, that is. ”
One corner of Logan’s mouth lifted. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”