Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
NOELLE
The bell above the diner door jingles for the hundredth time, and I paste on another smile that feels about as natural as tinsel in July.
“Hi, welcome to Jolly’s! We’re out of Christmas Dinner Melts until tomorrow, but we’ve got the Candy Cane Club and the all-new Jingle Jam…”
The customers keep coming, smiling, taking photos of their food, and I pretend that everything is wonderful. Like I didn’t wake up tangled in Gabriel Frost’s sheets yesterday and leave before he could say a word.
I move on autopilot, taking orders, wiping counters, refilling mugs. Anything to stop my brain from replaying the way his hand brushed my hair back, or the way his voice went low when he said my name.
When the rush slows as the daylight fades, Avery bursts through the door, her red pom-pom hat crooked, cheeks flushed. She drops onto a stool at the counter like a woman on a mission.
“Okay,” she says, pointing a mittened finger at me. “You’ve been spacing out since I got my coffee. Spill it, Jolly.”
“There’s nothing to spill.”
She gives me a look. “You’ve got an expression like stale turkey and you’re hiding something from me. And you look like you’re about to cry.”
I sigh. “Fine. I stayed at Gabriel’s yesterday.”
Her jaw drops. “You what?”
I groan. “Please don’t make this weird.”
“Oh, I am absolutely making this weird. Was it good? Wait… of course it was good.”
I can’t help smiling, even though it hurts. “It was… perfect.”
“So why do you look like someone burned down your gingerbread house?”
I hesitate. “He didn’t ask me to stay.”
Avery blinks. “Stay?”
“I told him I got the Harvest & Hearth job. He said it was great and that I should take it. Not that I should stay here. He obviously wants me to go.”
She tilts her head. “You sure that means what you think it means?”
“What else could it mean?”
She stirs her coffee slowly. “Maybe he thought that’s what you wanted.”
Her words hit me like a snowball to the chest.
“Well, why didn’t he say that? Maybe it’s better like this. If he didn’t want me to stay, I couldn’t handle hearing it.”
“Maybe you left before he had a chance to say anything,” she says softly. “I know what you’re like, Noelle. When in doubt, you bail. Do you remember the time we had a fight and you ran into that snowdrift by mistake, trying to get away from me?”
When Avery finally leaves, the diner is too quiet. The snow outside drifts past the windows in slow, lazy flakes. I wipe down the counter again. There’s an empty space on my wrist where my watch usually sits. I must have taken it off and forgotten to put it back on.
Reaching into my pocket, there’s nothing there. My heart sinks.
“Crap.”
Did I leave it at Gabriel's? I imagine him finding it. Maybe he’ll tuck it in a drawer and forget it, just as he’ll forget me.
I rest my hands on the counter, close my eyes, and whisper to the empty diner, “Please, Gabriel. Don’t let this be the end.”
A soft knock makes me jump.
When I turn toward the front window, Gabriel’s standing outside in the falling snow. One gloved hand rests against the windowpane.
For a second, neither of us moves. The snowflakes drift between us, glowing in the streetlight. Then I walk over and press my palm to the glass, right over his.
His lips curve into that slow, melting smile that undoes me completely.