Chapter 8
Gracie had never expected tonight to feel this…right.
The original plan had been a sweet, grown-up sort of evening when she and Marshall would decorate his tree together while sipping wine, listening to classic Christmas carols, maybe sharing a kiss under a string of lights. A holi-date, as he’d so cleverly named it.
But plans changed, and Gracie was not mad about that.
Bianca had suddenly announced she had a mysterious errand in town and couldn’t take Olivia, which probably meant she was Christmas shopping. Olivia had jumped on the opportunity to stay with her dad instead of alone at the Snowberry Lodge cabin.
When Marshall relayed that to Gracie, apologizing that it changed the vibe of their holi-date, she suggested that she bring Benny and they make a pizza night of decorating the tree. Of course, everyone was happy.
To be honest, the idea of the four of them decorating that tree together made her just as warm inside as the thought of being alone with Marshall.
Maybe even a little more because it felt so natural and the kids were utterly hilarious in their approach to tree decorating. With Benny and Olivia, ornament placement was somehow a science, an art, and a challenge—and those two never backed down from any of those things.
So here she was, standing in Marshall Hampton’s living room with the fire crackling, a beautiful evergreen standing near the window, and two kids giddy with sugar-fueled excitement—Marshall had caved on the cookies she brought.
Newt lay sprawled dramatically beneath the lowest branches, apparently confident that everyone needed his furry moral support. Kat sat primly beside him, tail wrapped around her paws like a Victorian governess ready to supervise the children’s behavior.
The whole evening, from arrival through pizza to the opening of the ornament boxes, Gracie could feel her massive crush slowly take baby steps toward something far more significant.
“Tinsel?” Benny pulled out a bag of wavy silver threads. “This is so retro.”
“That was my mother’s, as many of the ornaments are,” Marshall told him. “We put the tinsel on one strand at a time at the end or you’ll hear the wrath of Germaine in your sleep tonight.”
Olivia snorted. “Wrath? She’d smother you with hugs and kisses.”
Benny put the tinsel down, either not willing to risk that or not interested in something that took that long. Then he snapped open another box of ornaments.
“Do we have a plan?” he asked.
“A plan?” Gracie blinked.
“A decorating plan,” Benny explained. “Color coordination, size and scale, quality in front, junky school art in the back.”
“Hey, I like the school art,” Marshall said.
“Of course we have a plan,” Olivia replied, sounding a little put out that he’d even ask. “Alternate colors, don’t put the same too close to each other, put the best ones in the front, and I will hang the tinsel one at a time because my Grammy G showed me how.”
“Perfect,” Benny said, clearly happy with that plan. “Should we draw a diagram to follow?”
“Oh, Benny!” Olivia exclaimed. “Even I don’t need a diagram for this.”
“Just don’t drop an ornament, Benny,” Gracie reminded him.
Marshall came up beside Gracie, leaning close enough to whisper, “They’re not all heirlooms, I promise.
And anyone who has a plan does not break an ornament.
” He brushed her hand with his. Just a tiny touch.
Just enough to make her stomach do a quick flip.
“You want an adult beverage while there are still a few hours before you have to drive home?”
She didn’t need anything to make her any more lightheaded than the man in front of her. “I’m good with my apple cider, but thank you.”
Marshall’s eyes softened. “Then let me try it this way…there’s a kitchen emergency.”
She frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“Too many kids and dogs,” he murmured, tugging her gently, “so I need you alone for a moment.”
Laughing at how completely unsubtle he was, she slipped away with him to the kitchen, which was warm and lit by the under-cabinet glow. On the island were the remnants of their empty pizza box and scattered paper plates that had been abandoned for the fun of tree decorating.
As soon as they were alone, Marshall pulled Gracie close and kissed her.
“Oh…” She whispered against his lips. “That wasn’t in…the plan.”
“Yes it was.” He chuckled and kissed her again. “Then my plans for alone time morphed into a family night.”
Drawing back, she searched his face. “I don’t actually mind it—”
“I love it,” he said. “But I didn’t want to forget that tonight was supposed to be a date.”
“Rain check?”
“As many as you want.” Once again, he leaned down and kissed her, this time not rushed at all but full of affection and connection.
When he lifted his head, she sighed into him.
He brushed his thumb along her cheek. “You know, I thought tonight would be the two of us with wine but…” He glanced toward the muffled sounds of giggling from the living room, “somehow this is just as perfect. Maybe more.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It really is. Those two are so easy and fun. And smart.”
“The kids are good, too,” he cracked, making her laugh. As her smile faded, he slid a warm hand under her hair, holding her head in his large palm. “I just had to bring you back here to tell you something.”
She lifted her brows, waiting and wondering. Also melting into his arms.
“I’m crazy about you,” he whispered. “I really think this could be something lasting and real.”
Her breath caught. “Marshall…”
He kissed her lightly. “Not pushing. Just telling you the truth.”
She rested her forehead against his. “I like the truth.”
Before she could say anything else, Olivia shouted from the other room:
“Dad! Benny’s trying to hang the glitter snowflake upside down!”
“Not upside down!” Benny yelled. “Artistic!”
Marshall groaned. “We should go rescue the tree.”
“Probably.”
They stepped back into the living room to see headlights pulling into the driveway.
“You expecting someone?” Gracie asked, but even as she said the words, she had a bad feeling about who this could be.
He just shook his head and walked to the door, leaving her in the living room with the kids, waiting for—
“Bianca.”
Waiting for that.
A second later, Bianca swept into the living room in a whirl of cold air, high heels, the scent of expensive perfume, and enough attitude to freeze the fireplace.
“Oh…you’re all here,” she said, her dark eyes sweeping over Benny and Gracie. “Well, good, you can be my witnesses, since you’re so connected to that lodge.”
“Connected?” Gracie scoffed. “My mother and aunt run it and I’ll no doubt inherit it someday. Is something wrong?”
Bianca’s eyes shuttered as she seemed to consider how to respond. “Under the circumstances, I should tell you this alone, Marsh.”
“You can tell me here,” he said calmly, clearly well versed in Bianca’s dramatics. “Anything.”
“I need to be alone with you,” she practically whined.
Just then, Gracie noticed the car lights leaving, which meant Bianca had come by Uber and wasn’t going anywhere. Dang it. The warm bubble of their night popped so fast Gracie almost felt the temperature drop.
Newt barked once, then trotted over to sniff the newcomer’s boots suspiciously. Kat, sensing drama, leapt onto the back of the sofa like she needed the high ground.
Marshall froze, eyebrows lifting with curiosity. “Bianca? What’s going on?”
Bianca pressed a shaking hand to her chest. “There was—there was a thing in my cabin.”
“What kind of thing?” Olivia asked.
Bianca shuddered dramatically. “A spider. A monstrous spider. Practically prehistoric. The thing was the size of a dinner plate, I swear on my life.”
Benny’s mouth twitched. Gracie shot her son a look that said: not one word.
Her genius son was surely thinking what she, born and raised in Utah, already knew.
Wolf spiders—a creature that barely broke a few inches and could never be described as the size of a dinner plate—would be deeply burrowed underground in December.
Not even the heat of a fire could coax them out of their warm winter holes.
“It was directly over my bed!” she exclaimed when no one seemed to be upset enough to suit her.
“Did you call my mother?” Gracie asked. “MJ is on-site in the lodge and she’d have come kill it for you.”
“I asked for help,” she continued, sounding purposely vague, “and no one came! I could’ve died, because that thing had to be poisonous. Now I’m shaking all over and I just… I can’t go back. I need to stay here tonight.”
Marshall blinked. “Here?”
“Where else would I stay?” She glanced at the tree and the kids. “I didn’t know this was a family tree decorating night.”
When four unsmiling faces looked at her, she threw off her coat. “Well, I know how this goes,” she announced. “The silver hairy stuff goes one at a time, right? Your mother was the original control freak who wouldn’t let us toss the tinsel.”
She looked from one to another, no doubt seeing Olivia’s dismay, Marshall’s disgust, Benny’s curiosity, and Gracie’s ache for this woman to leave as quickly and unexpectedly as she’d arrived.
“Don’t get comfortable.” Marshall crossed his arms. “You cannot stay here.”
“Well, I can’t stay there with a spider the size of that tree spinning a web over my head. He could fall in my mouth!”
Benny snorted, earning a vile look from Bianca.
“Benny,” Gracie whispered, gesturing to him. “Maybe we should give them some privacy.”
“Not necessary,” Marshall said, putting a very possessive arm around her. “We don’t need privacy and we sure don’t need help. Call the Uber back, Bianca. You’re not staying here.”
Bianca’s expression sharpened. “Marshall. Please.”
He didn’t budge.
And Gracie, watching him stand his ground—with kindness, not anger—felt something unfurl warm and proud inside her.
Bianca’s face pinched as she realized she wasn’t winning. “Fine. Then you’re coming with me, Olivia. Let’s go.” She whipped her coat off the sofa and pulled it back on. “We’ll wait outside in the cold for our car.”