Chapter 8 #2
“Bianca.”
“Mom!”
She fished for her phone, somewhere in the bowels of a designer bag. “Get your things, honey. We need to leave. Now.”
Olivia looked torn, wide-eyed, and so uncomfortable.
“What?” Bianca snapped, loud enough that both dogs sat up, alert. “This is my holiday with you. You’re in my custody and shouldn’t even be here. I’m taking you home and I don’t want an argument. And you”—she pointed at Marshall—“can’t stop me.”
“Not legally,” he said. “But is this really what you want to do?”
“No,” she shot back. “I want to sleep here, safe and spider-free.”
Gracie expected him to cave, but Marshall stood his ground, shaking his head.
“Mom, I don’t want to go! Dad, please don’t make me. This is fun.”
Marshall let out a noisy sigh. “Sweetheart, it’s okay. We’ll finish the tree tomorrow. You go with your mom.”
Olivia grunted, obviously not getting what she wanted.
Then Benny straightened up, puffing out his chest. “I’ll come, too.”
Gracie blinked. “You will?”
“Yeah. I’m, like, the best spider-finder in Utah. I can totally clear the cabin and maybe Olivia can come back after.”
“I think it’ll be too late, honey,” Gracie said.
“Well, that’s fine,” Benny replied. “I can kill a spider with my eyes closed.”
Gracie’s heart softened at her son’s earnest bravery and willingness to leave with Olivia. “Sweetie, that’s really kind of you.”
Bianca glared, then looked at her phone. “Well, the Uber can’t be here for forty minutes, so—”
“So I’ll drive you and the kids back to the Lodge,” Gracie offered automatically.
“No,” Marshall said immediately, pulling out his own phone. “You’re staying. And on my app? The ride can be here in…four minutes. Probably the guy who just left.”
Bianca’s shoulders dropped, defeated. “Fine. Do I have time to use the bathroom or is that off-limits, too?”
“Help yourself,” he said, tapping his screen.
“Don’t order the ride,” Gracie said when Bianca stepped away. He looked up with a question in his eyes, but she shook her head. “I’ll drive everyone home.”
“No!” Olivia said. “I really wanted to finish the tree with you.”
“We will,” Gracie promised. “Tomorrow.”
“But I like tonight.” Olivia’s voice dropped so Bianca couldn’t hear. “Us being together. Like a…team.”
Gracie’s throat thickened. “Me, too.”
“Please, Dad. Tell her to take the Uber back and we can stay.”
He shook his head, looking as sad as his daughter. “She has legal rights and I can’t insist she leave you here.”
“Then I have to sleep in the room with the spider?”
Benny choked. “There are no spiders in the winter in Utah. I mean, it would be rare.”
“So she’s making it up,” Olivia said, and it wasn’t question.
“If she is, you’re fine,” Benny said. “If she isn’t, I will find it and take it outside to a nice burrow hole where it belongs at this time of year.”
Gracie’s heart folded in half as she leaned over and kissed her son on the head. “Proud of you, Benny.”
Marshall reached out to him, too. “You’re a good man, Ben. I like someone who has sense in a crisis.”
“I have sense!” Olivia exclaimed with a pout.
“And so do I,” Gracie said. “I don’t want them in an Uber. Let me drive us all home.”
Marshall huffed a frustrated breath. “Okay, Gracie. But can you come in the kitchen with me for a moment?”
Once again, they walked back to the privacy of his chef’s kitchen, but this time it didn’t feel romantic and secret. Just…sad.
Marshall rubbed the back of his neck and finally looked at her with that same soft, private smile.
“Well,” he murmured, “that happened.”
Gracie laughed. “It certainly did.”
“She’s a drama queen who wants something from me,” he said. “That’s a bad combination.”
“What do you think she wants?”
“A second chance.” He held up a hand at Gracie’s wide-eyed reaction. “Don’t worry, that isn’t happening. But I don’t like to antagonize her because I worry about her influence on Olivia.”
“I get that,” Gracie said. “And it makes me happy that Benny’s father is out of the picture and wants to stay that way.”
“I thought Bianca was, too, but something changed.” He stepped closer. “Sorry the night blew up like this.”
“No apologies necessary. We’ll finish the tree tomorrow or whenever we can. Lots of Christmas ahead.”
He closed the distance, reaching out to her. “True. Silver lining.” He folded her in an embrace, drawing her into his chest, closing every inch of space between them. “But this felt like…a glimpse.”
Her breath caught. “A glimpse?”
He took her face gently in his hands. “Of what could be.” He kissed her softly, tenderly, like he’d been thinking about it for a while and really had to get it right.
As for Gracie, she now knew the actual meaning of the word swoon. With a little dizziness thrown in.
While her eyes were closed, he kissed her deeper, this time slow and certain, his hands threading into her hair.
When they finally broke apart, foreheads touching, breath mingling, she whispered, “I like that glimpse. I like it a lot.”
“Good,” he said.
“I’m ready!” Bianca announced, her boot heels knocking on the floor as she approached the kitchen.
Gracie started to jerk out of his arms, but Marshall held her tight, as if he refused to hide their relationship.
Bianca stood in the doorway and sliced Gracie with a withering glare. “It’s snowing. Does that bakery van handle the snow?”
“You better hope so,” Gracie quipped, sliding out of Marshall’s arms and catching the flicker of amusement in his eyes.
A few minutes later, the bakery van rolled away. In the back with the dogs, Benny and Olivia sat quietly, both looking a bit disappointed.
Bianca took out her phone and never looked up or spoke to them.
So Gracie put on some cheesy Christmas music and tried not to sing, smile, or share the fact that she was, indeed, falling head over heels for Marshall Hampton.