14 #2
Jake smiled. “She’s a good one,” he said thoughtfully, then his eyes jumped to Drew’s. “Good for you, I mean. Has she told you why we broke up way back when?” he asked.
Drew’s brow pulled together, and he felt a frown tug at the corners of his mouth. He cracked open the soda in his hand and raised it to his lips before answering. “No, she hasn’t.”
Jake huffed out a laugh and shook his head in a reminiscent sort of way. “Because I saw her notebooks. All of them.”
Drew paused, unsure what his cousin meant.
Jake raised his eyebrow, his mouth quirking up on one side. “Mrs. Andrew Tanner,” he said slowly. “Inside every cover, over and over again.”
Drew didn’t answer, instead basking in the memory of Savannah saying she’d wanted him first. “Why didn’t you tell me then?” he asked at last.
Jake shrugged, looking out across the room to where the girls were still huddled together. “Would you have believed me?”
Drew considered this for a long moment. “Probably not,” he admitted gruffly.
“Well, there you go, then,” Jake replied. Then he grinned and nudged his cousin in the ribs. “Don’t run from it, man. I’m telling you, the M-word is worth it.”
“Is that better?” Drew asked from his place near the top of his extension ladder. He glanced beneath his raised arm toward where Savannah stood on the ground below, tilting her head from side to side.
“A little farther left,” she instructed, and Drew bit back the groan that threatened to escape his lips. It wasn’t that he was irritated, exactly, it was just that hanging Christmas lights hadn’t been on the list of things he’d intended to do two days after Thanksgiving.
Or on any day after Thanksgiving.
Yet here he was.
He adjusted the strand of twinkling icicles and looked down at her again.
“Yes, perfect!” she cried. “So just straighten out the rest of them, and then this part will be done.”
Drew let out a relieved rush of air and made sure all the hooks he could reach were securely fastened to the gutter above his porch. Then he carefully backed down the ladder.
Savannah snaked her arms around his waist the moment his boots were back on solid ground.
“I can’t wait for it to get dark!” she whispered, already breathless with excitement.
She’d been that way since she’d shown up at his house that morning with three crates of decorations in the back of her car.
Apparently, she only had room for so much Christmas in her own apartment and had decided to share the rest with him.
“Now we need to get you a tree!” she exclaimed.
Drew lifted his right arm and brought it down around her shoulders. “A whole tree?” he asked. “It’s just me and Ryker here, you know.”
“Oh, I know, but how can you enjoy Christmas without a tree? I even have one on my bathroom counter!”
He shook his head fondly. He could only imagine the amount of festive cheer that had taken over her living room—and apparently every other room. “You know it’s not even December yet, right?” he countered.
She waved a hand dismissively. “Who cares? If you wait until December, then you only have three weeks to enjoy everything.”
“And that’s not long enough?”
She shot him a look that answered his question loud and clear before releasing him and making her way back up his porch steps. “Don’t question the Christmas, Andrew! Just open your heart and let it in,” she called back.
Drew chuckled and glanced down at his watch.
It was almost four o’clock in the afternoon, and he still needed to run by the farmers’ co-op before dark.
He reached into his jacket pocket for his truck keys and pulled them out with a jingle.
“Hey, I’m running into town. You want to come? ” he asked loudly.
Savannah had just shut his front door, but she cracked it open again, clearly trying to keep the heat from escaping. “Nah, I’m gonna stay here and decide where to put the rest of this garland.”
He rolled his eyes toward the slate-gray sky.
He’d be amazed if she could find an empty inch of space inside; it already looked like Santa’s workshop.
“Suit yourself!” he shouted. Then he trudged toward his truck and climbed into the cab.
If any of his cousins stopped by while he was gone, they wouldn’t recognize the place.
But it feels like home, a small voice chimed in, and Drew felt his breath catch somewhere in his throat. He paused, his hand on the key where he’d already inserted it into the ignition, but then he shook the feeling off. Sometimes it was better not to look too deeply at thoughts like that.
A while later, his errand finished, Drew took a last-minute detour through Willow Creek.
The city here was larger and busier than neighboring Cypress Valley, where Drew spent most of his time, and he wasn’t as familiar with the downtown area, but Savannah’s special obsession with all things Christmas nagged at the back of his mind.
He’d always been a last-minute sort of shopper, but she deserved better than that.
He wanted to do Christmas right this year—which was why he found himself wandering down Second Street after dark, his hands deep inside his jacket pockets and his shoulders hunched against the wind.
Everything seemed to be open later than usual for the holiday shopping weekend, and he passed brightly lit clothing stores displaying mannequins in sequined dresses, paused briefly in front of an antique store window with a collection of flower-covered teapots, and was all set to walk right past a jewelry store when something caught his attention.
The display showed a dizzying array of winking diamonds and polished watches, but off to one side, there was a necklace in a pinkish sort of gold that didn’t match the others.
The chain was thin and delicate, like what he’d seen Savannah wear before, and the pendant at the bottom was the outline of a heart with a tiny gold pawprint dangling inside.
Something told him she would love it.
He pursed his lips. Jewelry said a lot of things, not all of which he was quite ready to say. But then again, necklaces weren’t rings . . . right?
Heart-shaped necklaces might as well be, said a voice.
Don’t run from it, said another. That one sounded a lot like Jake.
Drew squinted through the glass at a tiny paper card beside the necklace stand, still considering despite a deep-seated impulse to turn and run.
The price tag gave him pause. He wasn’t made of money by any means, but he had been working on the farm since he was thirteen, and he lived alone, so normal expenses were pretty low. He could afford it.
But is it worth it?
He imagined a paper-wrapped box and the light on Savannah’s face when she opened it. He thought of all the other times he’d managed to make her happy in one way or another and the endless warmth that seemed to course through him when he did. And then he took a deep breath.
And went inside.