Jay put an arm around Leela’s shoulders—almost like he’d been bidden to do so. A wash of warmth filled Leela’s every cell.
“Thanks for letting me be here, Jay,” she whispered.
Jay slid closer, his breath sharing her own, and he looked at the picture of their moms. “It’s good to see my mom looking so happy.” He ran his finger lightly over the words on the page, just like Leela had. “Really good.”
Without thinking, Leela tipped her head onto Jay’s shoulder. It was a perfect fit. The air around them tingled like Christmas morning’s goodness, and she reveled in the feeling that both Mom and love were not far away.
Leela closed her eyes and just breathed it all in. Jay let her. It was as if he felt what she was feeling.
Jay’s fingers slid closer to hers on the photo album page, and his pinky entwined with hers, making little lights twinkle inside her mind, and making everything else tingle.
He pressed his other hand flat against the cellophane covering the photo and the diary page. “I didn’t expect to find this in an attic.”
“This connection to your family?” she asked, a little breathless.
“Or to you.”
Sugar rushed through her veins, and she hadn’t even tasted the gingersnaps this morning.
Did he really have to move to Reedsville? Just when she was getting to know him? There was more to explore—especially this history between their moms. Wasn’t there? He saw it too, right?
Jay
Leela’s stomach growled, breaking the spell that had settled over them.
“Lunch?” he asked lamely, breaking their silence, and signaling the end of whatever that freaky-amazing thing was they’d shared. “I hear from a reliable source that Robintino’s has great ravioli.” Jay helped her to her feet, and they headed for the stairs.
He had never been woven into such magic with a woman before. What did it mean that he was fascinated and terrified of the almost molecular bonding he’d felt with Leela for those brief—and seemingly eternal—moments?
“You’re calling me reliable?”
Wholly. And all the other good adjectives swirled around her, too. He tugged the door at the top of the stairs closed behind them. The frame must have swollen from years of disuse.
“It’s a much bigger job than I originally expected when Burt told me about it. I pictured a day, tops.”
“I hate to say so, but it looks more like six months.”
Six months with Leela in the attic every day could turn into something off the charts, if they had another repeat of this morning.
“Six months or a big, metal trash roll-off and a torch.” He locked up the house behind him and led her to his car.
“Except for that photo album.” She settled into the passenger side, and he went around and started the car.
“No, I’ll be keeping a tight hold on that.” Mom might actually like to see it.
At Robintino’s, they both ordered ravioli. The plates arrived, steaming with a creamy tomato sauce, but Leela didn’t pick up her fork.
“About that photo album and diary,” she said. “It’s funny isn’t it? Seems like someone had plans for us.”
That was funny, but not in a ha-ha sense. More like an uncanny funny. “Before we were even born.”
Leela lifted her blue eyes from her plate, and her gaze seared him to the center. “Before they knew how well we’d get along.”
Jay swallowed hard. “We do get along. Don’t we.” It wasn’t a question. It was a declaration—mostly to himself.
The ravioli steamed between them. Beneath the table, his ankle brushed hers.
Something was happening here. Something different. And—he didn’t want to relinquish his man card, but he had to admit—a little scary. Like his life might be taking a wild turn.
No. I have it all laid out. Reedsville. Cats and dogs. The partnership.
“Have I told you how I got a giant, t-shaped scar on my knee?” he asked, and the steam cleared.
Leela blinked. “You have a t-shaped knee scar, too?”
Conversation flowed like the sauce on their plates, mellow and savory. For two hours, they filled the air with stories, from the time the retiree customer in her bookshop proposed out of the blue to the time he nearly got his cornea scratched by a fierce cat during a clinical. “Had to wear an eye-patch for two weeks. I looked like that guy on Agents of Shield.”
“At least it gave you an excuse to talk like a pirate. My dad used to say shiver me timbers all the time. Since he was a tree surgeon, he said he had a right to use the phrase.”
“He sounds cool.” And like someone she loved very much. “Can I ask what happened to him?”
“If you really want to know.”
He did.
“He loved his job. Then one fateful day that changed everything. The trunk that fell on him was so heavy. Almost a full ton, they said. A crushed spine is tough to recover from. A crushed spinal cord even harder.”
“Wow.” Nothing Jay could think to say felt adequate. “You say he used to talk like a pirate. Now …?”
“The accident took his speech along with it.”
Clearly, she missed her dad, too. The dad she’d known. “How old were you?”
“Fifteen. Nine years ago.” She talked about the things he could do. “He struggles, but he has a fighting spirit. We do exercises every day. He can drink grape soda through a straw really well. And he can feed himself most of the time now, especially when we get Mexican food from El Toro. Life’s getting better. Slowly. I’m learning things, and so is he.”
What an incredible way to view such a hardship. Leela Miller was much more than a gorgeous blue-eyed woman with a great smile and an obsession with community service, whose figure looked like Marilyn Monroe’s in a turtleneck sweater.
Around Leela, Jay didn’t want to just be a veterinarian. He wanted to be some kind of hero, someone she could describe in the way she described her dad—with admiration and wonder.
I want to be a hero when I’m with her.
“You’ve never mentioned your dad.” Leela pushed a crust of garlic bread around on her plate. “Is it okay if I ask why?”
“He wasn’t around much. I barely remember him. My mom went through some stuff when she was younger. She claimed she was hard to get along with, and that she pushed him away.” Yeah, there was more to that story, but no sense dragging Mom’s reputation through the mud with Leela—even though it was all so unfair.
“Dads shouldn’t leave.”
“No. I know that. Which is why I’ve sworn I’ll never leave a child. Or a wife, for that matter. When I was a kid, I put a lot of blame on my dad for leaving; now I can see she played a part, but it doesn’t excuse him entirely.”
“Yeah.” Leela reached across the table and placed a soft hand on his arm. Some of the thorns that were always there inside him seemed to slide out of his soul. Jay hadn’t ever really talked about this with anyone, let alone with a woman on a first date.
Is this a date?
“Where is she now?”
“Torrey Junction.” Not close, but not that far, either.
“Could you invite her over? To see your work on the house?”
“Like I say, she won’t come.” She’d been pretty clear about her feelings on the mansion and the town.
The meal ended, but the conversation didn’t, and they drove through a snowstorm back to the Layton Mansion, which looked more and more like a Dickens fantasy as the snow ensconced it.
Was he going to miss that sight when he uprooted and moved to Reedsville?
Or, the bigger question: was he going to miss Leela Miller’s company and conversation?
Uh, maybe there’d be someone just like her in Reedsville.
He sneezed. Pinocchio’s nose grew; Jay’s sneezed.
Leela
Lunch had run long. Leela should go home, but Jay Wilson was a supermagnet to her soul. She couldn’t seem to pry herself away from his overwhelming pull.
>
She texted Aunt Sal. Can you keep Dad for the afternoon?
Emily said you’re on a date. Take all the time you need. Well, until dinner. I have to go brew up the witching hour as soon as all my kids get home.
“You need help this afternoon?” she asked. “Turns out I have some time.”
Back in the attic, they carefully set aside the photo album and the diary, and then they got to work digging through the next stack.
“A stack an hour is about our progress rate, I’m calculating,” she said, inventory ledger at the ready.
“I love your optimism.”
Love? Her heart did a little flippity-do-dah—until she tamped it down. Figure of speech. Not a declaration.
Idiot. It wasn’t like Jay had felt the scary-strong bonding Leela had while they were in the enchantment of seeing the diary.
Unless he had. How could he not? And then there had been that moment over lunch as the steam of the ravioli rose between them. At least it hadn’t whispered again.
Was she losing it?
No. Because next he started asking about her dating life. Bless him. And curse him at the same time. He was leaving town, for Pete’s sake. She should not get on this amusement park ride.
“So, Massey Falls is pretty small, eh?” he said. “What’s the single life like?”
“Do you seriously need to ask that?” Leela tucked her box knife in her pocket. “It’s somewhere between a social desert and the planet Mars.”
He made a grunting sound. “Reedsville is probably better, I guess.”
Stab-stab-stab! What made him say that? “Chuh,” she grunted.
“What’s chuh for?” He set down the wooden bowl of glass grapes he’d just unwrapped from old newspaper. “Are you all right?”
Her face must be showing her disgust. “I—let’s just say I don’t want to date in Reedsville.” She quickly scribbled glass grapes onto her inventory list.
“You can’t just throw something like that out there and not elaborate.”
It’d been so long since Blaine, but it still stung like swimming with angry jellyfish. Maybe talking about it with someone would help. She hadn’t even told Mom. “There was a guy. I dropped out of college and followed him to Reedsville.” Yep, dropped out, gave up her education, everything. For Blaine. “We dated. I worked in the bookstore. Things were going well.”
“And?”
“And he was offered a promotion down the coast.” At which point, Blaine hadn’t offered Leela a ring. “He took it.”
“But he didn’t take you along.” Jay slowly turned his head from side to side. Under his breath, he muttered, “Idiot.”
Idiot. It re-echoed. Yeah. Blaine was an idiot. Leela was a catch! A devoted, bright girlfriend who’d sacrificed for him. And he left her for … what?
Idiot. Yeah.
With a single word, Jay had shooed away thousands of stinging jellyfish accumulating for years on Leela’s soul.
A deep breath. Nope, they were still gone. Miracle. The idiot miracle. There was something about this attic. Something enchanted.
Okay, maybe it’s not the attic. Maybe it’s Jay Wilson.
Ugh! But he was leaving. Going to Reedsville. And for all the reasons in the world, Leela was not going back there.
Besides, a guy with smoldering good looks like him had to have a relationship burning somewhere. Mansion Hottie, as Emily called him, would be fighting off women, pelting them with dog food to keep them at bay.
“How about you? Dating someone?”
“Huhhhh,” he let out a long sigh. “High school, I was a total geek. Then in college, I was studying to get into vet school, which is harder than you’d think. Barely made it. Then, veterinary school turned me into a monk. Then I moved straight to Massey Falls.”
“Enough said.” She tried to keep her voice level and not let the shriek of excitement creep in. “I know there’s no one to date in this town.”
“So you’re not dating anyone now?” he asked. How much hope did she detect in his tone? Some? Any? “Besides me, I mean.”
“Oh, are we dating?” Please say yes. “I thought this was a charity gig.”
“That’s what I made you think, to get you to go out with me. I’m always using my pity-date card. It works best with kind-hearted women.”
Please. “I guess it’s just you, then. Since you owe me dinner still.” He’d promised. Not like Leela would forget something like that.
“How about tonight?”
“You haven’t gotten sick of me yet? We’ve been together since dawn.”
“Sorry. You’ll have to try harder to make me sick of you.”
“Fine. I have some Laffy Taffy jokes for you. Animal-related, for your veterinarian taste.” One about a giraffe poised itself on her tongue, and one about an elephant and a rhino. “Ready?”
“Arrrgh!” He threw his head back as if in pain, laughing at the ceiling, and it bounced around in the rafters of the attic.
“There’s the pirate-speak we all knew was lying dormant in you.” She pushed his shoulder. He caught her hand and pulled her to him. She relaxed into him. He smelled like attic dust and Robintino’s and sawdust.
“So you’ll go to dinner with me?”
“I wish I could, but Dad needs me tonight.” Aunt Sal had spent all day already.
“Oh.” Did he really sound as disappointed as she wanted that sound to be? “Another time, then.”
“Maybe the night of the Cookie House. It’s also …” She choked back all the fear gathering in her throat. “It’s also the Holiday Ball that night. I do need a date for that.”
Jay
The Holiday Ball! What the bloom was that? And it was the same night as this Cookie House thing, and the day his payment was due to Precious Companion? Sure, the idea of seeing Leela Miller dressed in a sexy gown had its appeal—almost as much as the idea of holding her close while music played.
“Sure,” he said, ignoring the trouble the calendar hollered at him. “It would be an honor.”
She giggled, and that was reason enough not to backtrack. Her laugh was like a little handful of jingle bells.
“Actually, I’d better get home.” She checked the time on her phone. She got to her feet, smoothed that ruby-red sweater over her luscious curves, and reached for her jacket. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Wait. She was coming back again? “Don’t you have other stuff to do?” Like take care of her dad, or not spend a day in a dusty attic?
“Not if getting this attic cleaned out means my getting to use the Layton Mansion for the Cookie House event.” She donned her jacket, covering up all those curves. “So I’ll see you in the morning, then?”
“It’s a date.” It’s a third date. And Leela Miller seemed like the type of girl who might kiss on the third date, if he was reading her right.
∞∞∞
The next morning, she arrived just as Jay pulled up at the house. She got out of her car, balancing two tall cups and a bag. “I hope you like cocoa.”
He loved cocoa, and a girl who thought of it. “I haven’t lit the fire. It’s going to be cold up there for a while until the chimney heats up.”
“That’s why I brought the cocoa. Let’s get after it.” Her enthusiasm was palpable. “Maybe we’ll find a velvet painting of Elvis up there today. Or a stack of plastic canvas Kleenex box covers.”
“Is someone caring for your dad today?”
“I have a lot of family around. Today Uncle Max is going to spend the day with Dad. They have a big bass fishing show they like to watch, and Uncle Max has the day off to Netflix binge it with him. If it warms up, they’ll go shopping for some ice-fishing gear.”
Good. Jay could have her attention without guilt. He let her into the house. When he flipped on the light, a warm glow filled the front room, warmer than it had seemed before.
Maybe it was the time of day.
“I’ll lay the fire.”
“Do you need help? I can ha
ul wood from the pile.” She clapped her mittens together. “I saw it out there the day I vandalized the window.”
They walked out to the woodpile together, and he loaded her with a few logs, taking a pile of his own. “What were you thinking when that happened?”
“That I was going to spend the afternoon in jail.”
“Like I’d press charges.”
“I thought you were the real estate agent, remember?”
Oh, yeah. They tramped across the snow together, side by side. The light from the front window made a golden square on the snow beside the wraparound porch.
“It’s such an amazing place, Jay. How come your mom won’t come back?”
Leela was investing enough in the house. Maybe he could just tell her something about Mom and the past. ““When she was a teenager here, someone spread some terrible rumors—untrue—about her, and she vowed never to come back.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Leela reached for his hand. “That must have been so hard for her to deal with, especially if she was young. It sounds like she had to handle it all on her own with no support.”
Pretty much. “Her older brother had some issues of his own. I think Jingo eventually felt bad about that.” Which might be why he’d made Jay the sole recipient of the mansion in his will. It could have gone to anyone, even a non-relative, but Uncle Jingo had singled out Jay. “She knows I’ve been clearing out the house, but I didn’t want to say too much about the project.”
“You’re protecting her.”
“Maybe so.” Jay turned his hand over, and Leela pressed her fingers in between his and squeezed. “It sounds like we’ve both lost parents, one way or another.”
Yeah.
And I’m walking side by side with the one girl who could understand.
Leela
Day two in the attic with Jay flew by. He had a million stories for her, and somehow, she ended up telling him a million back.
That night, after working for a couple of hours on Cookie House details, she lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling. Dad’s health monitors beeped softly from the other room. He’d probably sleep like a baby, after all the shopping with Uncle Max.
The Christmas Cookie House: A Sweet Holiday Romance (Christmas House Romances) Page 6