by Liz Isaacson
“You’re insane,” Ames said.
“And then you can go back to North Carolina engaged,” Cy continued, because he’d seen Ames and Sophia together, and it was obvious they loved one another. “And maybe that’ll be easier to do than just being her boyfriend-on-pause.”
Ames shook his head. “I have a plan, Cy. It’s going to work.” He looked at Patsy, who simply kept sweeping up the hair. Cy sensed something there, but he didn’t ask his wife.
He did later, once they’d gone to bed, and she said, “Just trust him, Cy. And pray. In fact, let’s pray right now that they’ll be able to work everything out.” She took his hand and drew in a deep breath. She said nothing out loud, and Cy kept his prayer silent too.
His was easy: Please, please, please help Ames. Please, please, please….
Christmas Day came, and with it, so did all of Cy’s brothers. His parents had been in a conundrum, because Grams was too weak to travel. Cy honestly hadn’t thought she’d live until Christmas. In the end, his father stayed in Ivory Peaks with his mother, and Cy’s mother had come to Coral Canyon with Gray’s family.
He noticed that Ames never got too far from him, and that only drove annoyance through him over and over again.
Finally, Sophia walked in dressed in a black winter coat, a pair of jeans, and furry boots that went all the way to her knees.
She wasn’t Cy’s type, but she had Ames written all over her. She shrugged out of her coat and gave it to Patsy, who hugged her tightly for a long time. Patsy tossed the coat into the office they shared, and the two women faced the dining room table, where Ames sat right next to Cy.
“This is so stupid,” he said. Without a word, Ames stood up and made a beeline for Patsy and Sophia. He kept his back to Cy and said a few things, and then to Cy’s great surprise, he and Patsy went into the living room together and sat down next to Elise.
In that moment, Cy’s mind cleared. Ames had just told Sophia how to tell them apart, and Cy had been brooding and glaring—exactly what bad boy Ames usually did.
He got up too, because he was done with this charade, but before he could take two steps, Sophia stepped in front of him. “Hey,” she said, clearly nervous. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Alone?”
“No,” he said, because he couldn’t do this to her. She deserved the truth, and the truth was, he wasn’t Ames.
Sophia nodded at him and said, “Yes, I can. Come with me.” She put her hand in his and towed him through the kitchen and down the hall toward the bedrooms. Cy really needed to get out of this situation, and fast. He couldn’t believe this woman who stood six inches shorter than him and weighed at least a hundred pounds less could command him so easily.
In the hall, she dropped his hand and faced him. He opened his mouth, but she said, “I know you’re Cy,” and folded her arms. “Listen, I need your help with Ames.”
“My help?” he asked, so confused.
“Yes,” she said.
“How did you know I was Cy?” he asked. “We look exactly the same, and he went off with Patsy.”
“The same way Patsy knows when it’s you and not Ames,” Sophia said. “I just know, because I know Ames.”
That made no sense to Cy, but he let it go. “What do you need help with?”
“Pushing play,” she said, a smile on her face.
The day had just gotten a whole lot better, and Cy only had one question: “Is there anything I can do to make him feel really stupid? Because he made me cut my hair and I’ve been mad at him for a month.” He looked at Sophia. “I know he loves you, Sophia. I know that. He’s just really bad at showing it.”
“I know,” she said.
“I was so mad when I found out he hadn’t even asked you about Christmas.”
“I know.”
“I’ve been telling him for weeks to make it right.”
“I know, Cy,” she said. “It’s fine. I’m fine. He has his issues, but the reason he’s been acting like this is my fault. And I’m going to fix it. I just need you to….”
Cy listened to her plan, and boy was it better than anything Ames had come up with. Of course, Cy didn’t know the extent of Ames’s full plan. But what he did know was that yes, Ames was going to feel really stupid…and then really grateful…and then really happy.
“I’m in,” Cy said. “You need him in front of the sliding glass door? I can make that happen.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sophia looked at Cy, and while she knew he wasn’t Ames, he sure did look like him. “You go now, and then I’ll come out.”
“Okay.” Cy didn’t wait for further instructions. He ducked out of the hallway where they’d been standing, and a raucous round of laughing came from the living area. She had full faith in Patsy and Cy, and her best friend’s text from ten minutes had made her laugh.
We’re going to show him, Patsy had said. She’d spent a long time on the phone with Sophia while she worked in the heated office in the shed. She’s promised that she hadn’t told Cy anything, and while Sophia had had her doubts, Patsy had delivered.
Cy would too, and Sophia took a big breath and stepped out into the main area of the the house.
She’d been here before, because it was the dead of winter, and while Patsy worked full-time, she had a lot more time off when there was snow on the ground. Sophia had astronomically more free time since Marcy and Wyatt had returned to Three Rivers, and she’d spent some lunch hours with Patsy in this kitchen.
Those had tapered with the decline of her relationship with Ames, because Sophia didn’t want to explain anything to her. It was really hard to explain what she didn’t understand, besides.
But she’d gotten the inside scoop from two Hammond brothers now, and she wasn’t going to stand idly by while Ames disappeared to North Carolina. Colton had said that Ames would be in town for the holidays, and Cy had confirmed the itinerary and that Ames was pretty miserable.
Not only that, but Patsy had texted a very vague, He has plans, Sophia, and those four words had really buoyed her hopes.
Part of her wanted to wait and see what his plans were, and the other part couldn’t wait to tell him that she’d just worked her last day at Whiskey Mountain Lodge—at least until next July.
A dog barked, and she jerked toward the Akita, who she’d literally never heard make a sound. Ames stood in front of him, a huge grin on his face. “See? He speaks.”
Her heart warmed at the sight of him working with his dogs. He loved them so much. His gaze lifted from the canine, and it landed right on her, as if drawn by a magnet.
He wore the same look on his face when he met her eyes that he did when he watched the dog.
“Go on,” Ames said to Norman. Titch.”
That made more than one dog perk up, and the next thing she knew, all four of his dogs lined up in front of him.
To her surprise, Flo wasn’t in the front. The retired police dog had led the pack at Ames’s house, but now, the most beautiful German shepherd hunkered down only a couple of inches from the tips of Ames’s cowboy boots. Rosco waited for Ames’s next command, her giant tongue lagging out of her mouth.
Florence had taken up a spot on the shepherd’s left flank, with Norman on the right and Cocoa in the back. She wasn’t really a service dog, and Ames wasn’t training her to be one. She’d obviously learned some things though, because Ames held out a single hand to control all four dogs, and none of them moved a muscle.
“Find,” he said next, and the dogs leapt into action, even Cocoa.
Rosco gave a bark from deep in her throat, and she started trotting toward Sophia. Her nose worked and Colton said something. So did Wes.
Sophia stood very still while she watched Ames’s animals come straight toward her.
Rosco barked again, this time louder and sat down right in front of Sophia.
Norman came right up to her and nosed her thigh, then barked, looked over his shoulder to Ames, and sat.
Cocoa just sat, but Florence c
ircled her once, and then twice, her eyes keen and bright. She barked, barked, barked, and that got Rosco going too.
Florence finally sat down beside Rosco, and they looked up and her and barked.
“They’re so loud,” someone said, and they were. But Sophia loved them with her whole heart.
Their master approached and he stepped between Norman and Cocoa and behind Flo and Rosco.
“Quiet,” he said, and the dogs stopped barking.
She lifted her eyes to his, everything inside her storming. The breath she drew in shook in her lungs, but she steadily blew it out.
“Present,” he said, almost like he was commanding a group of soldiers about to present the American flag.
Rosco barked, and Ames said, “Quietly.”
Rosco whined, but she didn’t bark again. She turned toward Ames, and he pointed to Patsy.
Rosco clicked her way over to the blonde, and she bent down and handed the dog something.
Rosco returned to Sophia, something in her mouth. Sophia looked around, noticing that everyone in the family had simply settled in for the show. Most of them wore some level of smile on their face, even Cy, who had looked like a hurricane when Sophia had walked in.
Rosco invaded her personal space and put her nose right against the side of Sophia’s leg, which brought her attention back to the dog.
A collective gasp went up, and Sophia glanced up to find that Ames had dropped to both knees in the middle of his pack of dogs. “Sophia,” he said. “I can teach these dogs to do pretty much whatever I want. They listen to me, and they love me when I’m grouchy, and they’re willing to work hard for me.”
He took a deep breath. “I love them with everything I have, and I’m still the most miserable man in the world. Because I don’t have you.”
Sophia blinked, because this wasn’t how today was supposed to go. She was the one with a surprise for him, not the other way around.
“I love you more than these dogs. I love you more than the training program in North Carolina. I think I’ve proven that I’m a terrible boyfriend when I can’t see you every day. I might be terrible anyway, but you seemed to put up with me over the summer. I’m hoping—I’m begging—that you can forgive me and find some sort of Christmas spirit to let me try one more time to show you that I’ll do better. I’ll be better. I’ll—”
“Stop talking now,” Colton said, and several people twittered.
Annoyance crossed Ames’s face, and his eyes switched to someone beyond Sophia, coming quickly back to hers.
“Drop it, Rosco,” he said.
The dog, who had not so much as moved an inch during his speech, dropped whatever she’d been holding in her mouth.
Sophia bent to pick it up, giving Rosco a friendly pat on the head. She didn’t know this dog very well, but she was hoping to.
Her fingers met the hard case of a box, and when she lifted it, she found it to be black, and small, and exactly the kind that held diamonds.
She sucked in a breath and looked at Ames. “Ames,” she said.
“”Will you marry me?” he asked. “I’ll quit the program. I don’t care. I just want to be with you.”
“No,” Sophia said, shaking her head. A murmur moved through the crowd, and she realized what she’d said. “I mean, no, this isn’t supposed to go like this.” She surveyed the people gathered in the living and dining rooms. “He wasn’t supposed to—I mean—I have a surprise you were supposed to open at dinnertime.”
“It’s past dinnertime,” Gray said dryly, and Elise threw him a dirty look.
“Cy?” she asked, and Ames’s twin brother stepped out from behind Colton and Annie.
“We’re good, Sophia,” he said.
“Let’s eat then.”
“The man is down on both knees,” Wes said. “And I know he can’t get up, or he would’ve by now.”
“I can get up,” Ames said, but he had to take Wes’s hand to do it. He looked at Sophia, his eyes dark and hooded now. “No?”
Her heartbeat thrashed in her chest. She cracked open the box and looked at the diamond, and it was huge. Sparkling and merry, and exactly what she’d dreamed about receiving from Ames.
“It’s not a no,” Colton said. “Look.”
“Colt,” Cy said, his voice full of scolding. “That’s not yours.”
“I want to eat in this century,” Colton said. He walked toward Sophia and Ames. “This was under your place at the table.” He handed Ames the envelope, and Sophia had nowhere to hide.
She reminded herself she didn’t want to hide. If she’d wanted to approach Ames in private, she could have. No, she’d wanted his family here, because she wanted them to be her family too.
“Is this diamond ring my Christmas present?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, ripping open the flap on the envelope. He lifted his gaze to hers. “Is this mine?”
“Yes.” The gift suddenly wasn’t enough, and Sophia almost lunged forward and ripped it from his hands. She thought his canines might attack if she did, though, so she held very still while he pulled out the papers she’d printed and put inside.
Ames frowned as he read, his expression changing every second. His eyes widened, and he held up the paper. “Is this real?”
“One hundred percent,” she said, raising her chin.
“What is it?” Gray practically growled.
Sophia stepped next to Ames and faced most of the Hammond family. “I quit my job at Whiskey Mountain Lodge, and I’ve rented a house in North Carolina. See, I love him, too, and I hate being apart from him, and I want to be with you.” She turned toward him at the end, the shock on his face almost sending her into a fit of giggles.
“I was going to apologize to—”
“Don’t you dare,” he said. “You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“He’s right,” Colton said, clapping his hand on Ames’s shoulder. “And he’s already apologized, and there’s a very important question on the table.”
“Yeah,” Wes said, stepping next to Ames as well. “Ames has always been a little slower than the rest of us.”
“Will you marry him?” Gray asked, joining the Hammond brothers.
“You’d make him the happiest man in the world, even if he only smiles for five seconds before complaining about the consistency of the gravy.” Cy grinned at Sophia, and she looked at the five of them standing there.
She looked down at the ring and back at Ames. “Yes.”
Everyone except Ames burst into cheers and applause, and Rosco and Flo joined their barks to the noise.
Sophia smiled, and Ames did too. It lasted longer than five seconds though, and then he took her into his arms and kissed her.
This reunion was much more the type she’d envisioned in her fantasies, and while it hadn’t gone exactly the way she’d thought it would, the outcome was far more than she could’ve hoped for.
She kissed him back—her fiancé—while his brothers catcalled, and when the cheering started to fade, Ames pulled away.
“I love you,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
“I am too.”
“No,’ he said. “Don’t apologize to me. I’m the one who’s messed up almost from the moment I met you. But I’m not going to do that again, okay? I’m not.” He set his jaw and shook his head.
“We’re going to pray,” Cy said loudly, and Ames tucked her into his side as they faced the dining room table. Sophia basked in the warm family feeling the Hammonds brought with them, and she realized that it wasn’t Whiskey Mountain Lodge that had healed her heart and provided a safe place for her. It was the people she’d chosen to surround herself with.
She could have this feeling anywhere—if she was with Ames.
The prayer ended, and Sophia turned quickly to Ames. “Can we talk in private for two minutes, do you think?”
He glanced at the surge of people lining up along the island in the kitchen. “I think we have five at least.”
“The master
bedroom is just down the hall,” Patsy said with a smile. “Don’t hurry back.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ames pulled away from kissing Sophia, because he was pretty sure she hadn’t asked him to do only that when she’d asked him to “talk.”
“I can’t believe you quit your job,” he whispered.
“I can’t believe you showed up with a diamond ring—and trained the dogs to stage the proposal.”
He grinned at her, warmth moving through him. “We worked on that for a long time.”
“I bet you did. Rosco didn’t move a muscle for the whole speech.” She giggled, and Ames sure had missed the sound of it.
“Did you really rent that house?” he asked. For some reason, he couldn’t believe it.
“Yes,” she said. “Tell me you didn’t quit your program.”
“I may have an email drafted,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if you’d say yes or no.”
“And yet, you asked me in front of everyone.”
“They’re all mad at me,” he said. “Especially Cy and my mother.”
“Why?”
Ames shrugged and stepped away from her. He had a hard time thinking with her so close. “They think I’ve been fighting against myself, and well, they’re not wrong. My mother has been lecturing me for weeks to stop fighting against what’s right, and let God direct me.”
Sophia said nothing, and Ames turned back to her. “Soph, it’s you. Every road leads back to you, and I really am really sorry for acting like such an idiot.”
“You just don’t know how to pause,” she said.
“Not even a little bit,” he said. “I guess I’m a little obsessive. What’s in front of me, I focus on. And it’s way too hard to do the dog programs and maintain a relationship with you all the way across the country.”
“Well, according to my research,” Sophia said. “I’ll be a seven-minute drive from your house.”
Ames loved the smile on her face. He loved the sound of her voice. He loved her forgiving heart. “Is that right?”
“That’s right.” She tiptoed her fingertips up the front of his shirt. “Now, come on, let’s go eat Christmas dinner with your family.”