CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Blue
We’re about five miles from the house before Garrick speaks. “Are you going to ask me what happened?”
“Your parents were trying to set you up with Avery. Obviously, she’s much more suitable than I am and, best of all, she lives in Sugar Valley. It was the last straw, and you couldn’t stay another moment there among the hypocrites.”
His brows rise. “Hypocrites?”
“They’re retiring from the business and going off to travel and live their best lives, but they’re trying to dictate your life and pull you back into the business.”
His mouth, which has been a hard angry line since we left, tips up the tiniest bit. “And are you going to tell me I should be more understanding of their behavior and appreciate the amazing family I have?”
I feel like an idiot. “I spoke without fully understanding your situation yesterday. I was wrong.”
He chuckles, and the tension eases out of the truck. Even Barry lets out a sigh of relief from the back.
“Never thought I’d hear you admit that,” Garrick says.
“Since we’re talking again, why is Barry in the back? Didn’t you say she gets carsick in the back?”
Garrick glances over at me. “Um, yeah. I lied.”
Ugh, I should have known. Can’t believe I fell for that one. “Just to be clear, your dog doesn’t get carsick.”
“Nope.”
“And you told me she does and made me sit in the back when I was doing a huge favor for you, because….”
“She was in the seat first. She was comfortable. I couldn’t ask her to move.”
“Yeah, I’m not buying that.”
He huffs. “Fine. It was one last prank before our truce became official. I’m sorry.”
I laugh. “That was stupid.”
He glances over at me, his annoyed face set in stone. “What?”
“You heard me. Risking me telling you to stuff it if I figured out your prank was really stupid. Would it have been worth it?”
It’s clear he doesn’t like being called stupid. He glares at me, only breaking the eye contact to glance at the road as needed. “You didn’t figure it out, so I’d say it was a brilliant plan.”
His answer surprises me so much I snort in disbelief. “Sure it was.”
His jaw works as he stares at the road ahead. “I didn’t want you sitting too close to me because I wanted you too much.”
I can’t have heard that right. I go still. “What?”
He clears his throat. “The night before we left, I had dreams about you, Blue. Really sexy, really intense dreams. Dreams I’ve been having for more than a week if I’m being honest. I didn’t want you sitting right next to me, because I was afraid I’d do something really stupid like tell you when you’re in a room I can’t see anyone else or that I’ve been hard constantly since you moved to town. Even when I hated you, I still wanted you.”
It takes me several long moments to absorb his words and, once I do, not to climb on him and kiss the hell out of him. “Did I live up to the dream?”
He laces his fingers through mine. “Baby, you surpassed it. Exponentially.”
Silence returns to the truck as he leaves the town of Sugar Valley behind. The sun has set, and it’s now fully dark. The road is quiet and empty, Garrick’s headlights the only light around. It’s eerie and beautiful, with the beam of his headlights reflecting off the snowy roadsides.
And I can’t stop replaying his words in my mind. I’m certain I’ll be playing them on repeat for the rest of my life.
“Should we talk about the possibility of you being pregnant?” he asks.
“No!” I shout, stunned he would bring that up. “Don’t even say that word. You might jinx us.”
He chuckles like this is some damn joke. I guess it is for him. He can walk away no harm, no foul. It’s not so easy for me. “Guess you don’t want kids.”
“We’re talking about this? Seriously?”
“Why not?” he asks. “I’m curious.”
I sigh. “I will only talk about this in the abstract. We are not making plans or discussing the possibility of me actually being you know what right now.”
“I accept those terms.”
“Good.”
The only sound in the car is the pop music playing softly on the radio. I’m not opening the conversation back up if he’s not going to.
“So, do you want to have kids?”
Ugh, guess I’m not getting out of it that easily. “I haven’t really thought about it. I don’t believe in love or marriage or monogamy and I don’t really want to have kids without a partner I can trust will stick around for the long haul.”
“You don’t believe in love,” he says, his tone all disbelief.
“I’ve never seen it. I’ve never seen one happily married couple stick together for more than ten years without ending up hating each other. I don’t want that and I certainly don’t want to bring kids into the world if that’s the best I can offer them.”
“I’ve seen it,” he says. “It’s real.”
“Are you talking about your terrible parents?”
He sighs. “They aren’t terrible parents. They just can’t see that I’ve changed and they believe what they want is also what’s best for me. They’re misguided. But they love each other. They’ve been partners in business and in life for decades, and I still see the love in their eyes when they look at each other.”
Shit. As much as I want to argue with him, I saw it too. And not just in their eyes, but in the way his mother noticed when his father was in pain and made him sit, and the way his mother’s glass was never empty, because his father kept it filled. They were aware of each other and caring for each other constantly. “The one exception to the rule, I guess.”
“My aunt and uncle are the same. And my cousin Janelle and her wife. And my best friend from high school and his husband. I can give you ten relationships that are happy and monogamous.”
“Or they just seem that way from the outside.”
“Maybe. I still say love exists and a good, happy relationship is possible.”
“Is that what you want?” I ask. “A good, happy relationship and a passel of kids?”
He laughs. “What’s a passel of kids?”
I can’t help laughing along. “I have no idea. Isn’t that a word you use out here in Colorad-ah?” I pronounce it the way locals do.
“Not one I’ve ever heard.” He pulls down a narrow gravel driveway. It’s too dark out for me to have any idea where we are.
“Are you taking me into the woods to kill me now that my fake girlfriend job is done?”
“I’m taking you to my house so we can open all those presents you took from my sister.”
Honestly, I hate how happy this makes me. I’m not ready to say goodbye to him and that’s so, so dangerous. “You didn’t think to ask if I want to go to your house.”
“I’ll take you home after we open presents, if that’s what you want.”
His driveway is long and dark, but then he drives around a curve and there’s a small log cabin lit with so many Christmas lights the interior of the truck cab is entirely lit up and bright as day.
“Wow. Like Christmas much?”
He laughs. “You think I’d move to the jolliest town on earth if I didn’t love Christmas?”
“I just assumed it was far enough away from your family but still close enough you could run back to them in an emergency.”
“I’m going to assume you meant emergency with them and not take that personally.” He opens his door and gets out.
“You can take it however you want to take it.” I hop out of the car and start toward the house.
I’m halfway across the snow-covered yard when something smacks me in the back. I’m only wearing a light sweater over my dress, since we left in such a hurry, so I feel the hit full force.
I spin to see Garrick in the truck headlights, bent over and packing another snowball.
He’s up and raising his arm before I can make my own snowball. I shriek and race for the house. His snowball lands with a thunk in the snow next to me.
The snow is ice cold against my bare hands, but I ignore the pain as I scoop up snow and pat it into a ball. I stand and spot Garrick on the other side of his truck. I run that way, my feet in heels sinking into the snow.
As soon as I have him in sight, I raise my arm and aim.
Barry appears from seemingly nowhere and leaps on me with a joyful bark, knocking me backwards into the snow.
I sink down into the cold, fluffy stuff while Barry licks my face and whines like she’s fully aware that she’s miscalculated and done something bad.
“Blue. Shit. Are you okay?”
“I’m drowning in snow and dog fur,” I whimper. My whole body is cold and I can’t get purchase on anything to push myself up and out of the snow. When I try to sit up, Barry pushes me back down.
“Get off her, Barry.”
Suddenly, Barry is gone, and Garrick is pulling me out of the snow. “I was just kidding,” I say, my voice sounding weird, probably because my face is frozen. “I don’t think you would have run to your parents at the first sign of trouble here.”
“You said emergency before,” he says. “First sign of trouble sounds worse.”
But he wraps me up in his warm arms, so he can say whatever he wants. I don’t care.
And as soon as his warmth seeps into me, I start shivering.
“Come on, let’s get you inside.” He picks me up and cradles me in his arms. Any other time, I’d be complaining, but my teeth are chattering too much to speak at the moment.
Plus, he’s really warm and my feet are thrilled to be out of the snow.
“I didn’t think you’d try to throw a snowball back,” he says. “I was just messing around. I thought you’d run for the porch and hide.”
“Don’t. Know. Me.” I manage to say around my shivers.
“I should have known better. You’re right.”
He unlocks his front door and carries me inside. “We need to get you out of these wet clothes.”
I barely have a chance to look around his place as he carries me through it. All I know for sure is that there are Christmas lights and decorations everywhere. I thought Peach’s fiancé Nick had too many Christmas decorations. Garrick is worse.
Garrick sets me on a king size bed in a large bedroom at the back of the small house. He moves to a dresser, pulls out some clothes and sets them on the bed next to me. “Want help getting changed?”
I’m way too cold to be thinking about sex, but it still flashes in my mind for a second.
I banish the thought. That’s how I ended up having to take the morning-after pill earlier today.
I will not think of sex with Garrick. We had our one and done and that’s enough.
“I can handle it,” I say.
He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “Sorry about the snowball and my dog. I’ll get the gifts from the truck.”
As soon as he leaves, I pull the wet clothes from my shivering body and quickly dress in the sweatpants, socks, t-shirt, and sweatshirt he left for me. It’s all huge on me, but I don’t care. It’s warm and cozy.
Dressed, I pad out to the living room where Garrick already has all the presents laid out under a tree that takes up most of the room. It’s got white lights and all the ornaments are color coordinated, white and red and green.
“Wow,” I say. “You have some style.”
He smiles at me from where he’s squatting next to the fireplace, setting logs and kindling in place. “Feeling better?”
“Definitely warmer. Thank you.”
“It’s my fault you got cold in the first place.”
He strikes a match and I sink onto the couch next to the fireplace, watching as the kindling blazes up and the flames lick at the larger logs.
“You relax,” he says. “I’ll make you hot chocolate to help you warm up.”
My stomach growls and Garrick laughs. “And I’ll place an order for Thai food.”
“Sounds good.” I’m mesmerized by the flames in the fireplace and, in spite of the cold and my hunger, I’m feeling incredibly sleepy.
My eyes are only half open when he gets back. “Want a nap before we open presents?”
I wrap my hands around the warm mug he hands me and yawn. “Pretending to be your girlfriend is exhausting.” I’ve never been anyone’s girlfriend for real, never been taken to meet the parents. If this is what it’s like to be a girlfriend, I don’t want the job.
“It’s been a really long day.” He sits on the couch next to me and sips from his own mug of hot chocolate. “Want a nap?”
“No. The hot chocolate is helping. Let’s open presents until the food gets here.”
He laughs. “Food isn’t delivered out here, Blue. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
I yawn, not at all bothered by him laughing at me. “I work late most nights and one of my staff gets the food or I stop somewhere on the way home.”
“Well, now you know. If you place an order, someone will always have to go out and pick it up around here. I’ll run out and get it in about ten minutes. We have time to open one or two presents.”
I set my hot chocolate on the coffee table and hold out my hands, palms up. “Give me.”
He grabs a large package that looks professionally wrapped in ecru paper and tied up with a silver bow. “This is from my parents.”
“The wrapping is pretty.”
“They don’t do it themselves.”
I rip open the package, because I don’t believe in saving wrapping paper. Inside is a large coffee-table book with the words Sugar Valley and a bird's-eye view of the town on the cover.
Next to me, Garrick chuckles. “So typical.”
I open the book and flip through the pages. Inside are gorgeous professional photos of Sugar Valley with brief descriptions of each photo. “I feel like they’re trying to tell me something with this book.”
Garrick snorts. “You think?”
“I’m going to take it as a compliment.” I close the book and set it next to me on the couch. “They at least like me enough to use a beautiful book to convince me to move there in case Avery doesn’t work out.”
“Except they bought the book before they met you.”
I toss a ball of wrapping paper at him and miss by a mile. “You aren’t very nice, Garrick Evergreen.”
He laughs. “At least I’m honest.”
I can’t help but smile. “Open yours from them.”
He grabs a box wrapped in the same paper and ribbon as mine and opens it. Inside is a small leather box and inside that is what looks to be a very expensive pair of cuff links in the shape of tiny skis.
“They aren’t subtle, are they?” I ask.
“Not subtle, and they don’t know me at all. I never wear a suit to work and, even if I did, cuff links would be completely out of place.”
“It’s the thought that counts?”
He stands, not looking at me. “There was no thought in this. I’m going to run out and get the food. You stay here and relax.”
“Can I open presents while I wait?”
He looks down at me with narrowed eyes and twitching lips. “You were one of those kids who peeked at her presents before Christmas, weren’t you?”
“Every year.”
“Don’t touch the presents or I’ll drop you in another snowdrift.”
“Wow. You really do take Christmas seriously.”
“If you can’t take the holidays seriously, what will you take seriously?”
With those boggling last words, he heads out the door.
As soon as he’s gone, Barry jumps up onto the couch and snuggles against me. I pet her fluffy head and she lets out a sigh of contentment. “You aren’t supposed to be up here, are you?”
Barry looks at me with sorrowful eyes.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”