“It just slipped my mind. I thought you probably knew. I figured Mom probably told you. Now, I need to get some ideas, so stop frowning at me. I’m not the devil.”
“No, just a meddling fool,” Cole muttered under his breath.
Kristin didn’t move. She didn’t speak. She didn’t know what to say. That Cole was clearly so pissed at simply being in a room with her hurt, though she couldn’t say why. Their break-up had happened so long ago, there was no reason why just seeing him here like this should make her feel so awkward. He glowered, turning to stare out the window. Kristin did her best to hold back unexpected, and unwanted tears, as she realized just how much this guy still meant to her.
She looked him up and down. He was even more perfect than he had been at eighteen. He had grown into his height and filled out in a most attractive way. His shoulders were broad, his hips slim and the sweater he wore over tight-fitting jeans did little to hide the contours of his impressive physique. His profile was chiseled, gone were the last vestiges of puppy fat that had rounded out his features before, and the harsh military cut only accentuated his bone-structure. He looked hard, and sharp.
Suddenly, he turned. “So, how’ve you been?” he asked her, taking a few steps toward the counter. His eyes were oddly cold, even though he was obviously trying to sound interested in her.
As Cole got closer and leaned on the counter nonchalantly, Kristin felt her stomach tie itself in knots that only grew tighter as a waft of his scent reached her nostrils. He smelled of deodorant, soap and something that was peculiarly his own, musky and spicy. It was one of the few things about him that seemed familiar. She pulled up her spine, and moved a pace away from the counter. He was too close, too real, too… everything.
Her mouth was dry. Kristin gulped, she desperately wished she had some water so she could speak without her voice cracking. “Okay,” she said finally, moving her weight from foot to foot, and fidgeting with a reel of ribbon she found on the counter. “Things are good.”
“I hear you bought your parents’ house?”
“I did. They let me have it at a good price. I would never have been able to consider buying somewhere without their help.” Embarrassed that she’d given him an insight into her finances, she looked away. What was she thinking? She didn’t need to give him details about anything.
“That’s great,” Cole said, but his voice was flat. “I walked past your place when I got back last night, just checking out the old neighborhood. The gardens are looking great.”
“Thanks,” Kristin said, not knowing how to take the compliment, or the news that he had been wandering past her house in the dark.
“So, you’re a florist? I thought you were going to be a horticulturalist?”
Kristin gave a rueful grin. “Being a florist helps pay the bills. I only work here part-time. I work up at the college, too, teaching horticulture and floristry. The semester is over, so I can help out here more,” she said.
“Just as well, by the look of it,” Cole said, looking at all the festive arrangements that were awaiting collection by those who had ordered them. “Especially with Evie being so inconsiderate as to have a wedding on Christmas, too.”
He spoke the latter words just a little bit louder, to be sure that Evie would hear him. She turned from where she was holding up a bright red poinsettia and poked out her tongue at her elder brother. “I wanted to be sure you’d be here. With a family wedding and Christmas, the US Army had to let you come home.”
Cole snorted. “I don’t think they’d care. If I was on ops, they would never have let me take leave.” The tone of his voice was edged with something, a hardness that had not been there before. Cole sounded disillusioned.
“Is it so bad?” Kristin asked, curious as to how he was finding the life he had chosen over the plans they had made together.
“It’s not all roses and candy-canes,” Cole said dismissively. “It’s the military. You go where you’re told, do what you’re ordered, and you don’t argue. You get used to it.”
Kristin couldn’t help but pick up the edginess in his voice. Cole had never been one to complain about anything, so this was a close as she had ever heard him come to saying something bad. She wondered if he regretted his choice now, she knew she still wished he hadn’t gone and messed up everything. But, maybe it was just talking about it with her that he didn’t like. After all, they hadn’t exactly parted on good terms, and maybe he thought she was only asking to be polite.
“So,” he said, tapping his fingers lightly on the counter. “Evie, being the demanding and spoiled brat we all know and love, wanted to me to help her with this, though I’m not sure what help I can be. This was never really my thing, after all.”
Kristin smiled weakly at his attempt at humor. She didn’t know what he wanted her to say. His eyes were almost pleading with her, but she simply couldn’t work out how he wanted her to behave. Just being near him was so confusing, especially as she certainly hadn’t forgotten a single thing about how Cole Wright made her feel. But, he had not even tried to see her before he left, nor had he written to her.
“Kris, do you think you could do something with this?” Evie asked, pushing the poinsettia onto the counter. “I’ve looked at everything else, but nothing is as vibrant and Christmassy. What do you think?” She looked so excited, and Kristin couldn’t remain mad at her. She was getting married after all, and it was the bride’s prerogative to try and fix up everyone around her into happy couples, even when it was most definitely not welcome.
“I’m sure we can do something,” Kristin said, frowning slightly as she picked up a pencil and grabbed her sketch pad from under the counter.
“I just want everything to be ultra-Christmassy. I’m thinking holly and mistletoe, lots of evergreens, maybe even a bauble or two, some tinsel?” Evie mused out loud.
“I can work with that,” Kristin said, sketching swiftly. “We’ll have to run it by Martha when she gets back, but how about something like this?”
Kristin turned the sketch pad to face Evelyn, who clapped her hands to her mouth and gasped. “Oh, that’s it. That’s perfect. You’re so clever, isn’t she Cole?”
“She certainly is,” Cole said drily, looking at the drawing. “Always has been. But, Evie, are you sure you want your bouquet to look like a Christmas table decoration?” He tried to look stern, but couldn’t stop himself from giggling as Evie swatted him.
“It looks nothing like a table decoration, Kris, don’t you listen to him. He has no taste,” Evelyn said, then bit her lip. “Oh, I didn’t mean…”
She broke off, but Kristin knew what she meant. It wasn’t enough that he had chosen her back then. Kristin couldn’t help but wish that they would leave the store, so she could nurse her heartache in peace. She truly had thought she was over Cole, but with every passing minute, she knew that she would never forget him. He would have a hold over her heart forever.
“Maybe we should go, and come back at my actual appointment time,” Evelyn said, unusually picking up on the awkwardness around her. “I’m sorry if I’ve taken up too much of your time, I know how crazy busy you are right now.”
“It’s no trouble, Evie,” Kristin said. “It is our job to make sure you get just what you want.”
“Then, I want it all – the more Christmassy you can make it, the better,” Evie said, jumping up to lean over the counter and give Kristin an unexpected peck on the cheek. “Now, I’ll take this great big lump out of your way, and I’ll see you later this afternoon.”
“Good to see you, Cole,” Kristin said as Evelyn bounded out of the door. He nodded.
“You, too,” he said softly. “You really do look great, Kris.”
“I’m glad you came back from ops safe.”
“I’m pretty glad to be in one piece myself. Hey, um, Kris—” Cole broke off as Evie poked her head back around the door.
“Come on, we’ve got a million things to do,” Evelyn said, grabbing Cole by the arm, and dragging
him out of the store.
Kristin wondered what he had been about to say, then shook her head. She was being foolish. He wasn’t going to say he was sorry he left, nor was he going to beg her to give him another chance. She shouldn’t want him even if he did, considering everything that had gone before. No, it was better she for her to banish him from her mind again.
She made her way back to the bouquet she’d been working on, and buried herself in work. It had been the best therapy for her broken heart for the last seven years, she was sure it would be again.
4
“Well, that was a horrible thing to do,” Cole scolded Evie as they made their way back to the car. He unlocked the door, glaring at her.
“What? Getting the two of you in a room together? The sparks were obviously still flying. When are you going to admit it? You still care for her.” She paused, to open the door and clamber inside the passenger seat. Cole sighed, looking up and down Main Street, as if checking to make sure there was nobody around to overhear them, then got in himself.
Evie gave him a solemn look. “She hasn’t really dated anyone since you’ve been gone, you know.”
“Evie, that doesn’t mean a thing. By the sound of it, she’s been studying and working pretty hard. She’s teaching up at the college, and working here.” He nodded at the storefront of the town florist. Evie pouted.
“Pish and poppycock. She still finds time to hang out with that creep, Jeremy Lowell. If she can find time for him, then she has time to date.”
“Jeremy has been Kris’s friend for as long as I can remember. I’d hate to think she’d have changed so much as to neglect the people she cares about the most, wouldn’t you? It wouldn’t exactly say much for her character,” Cole said, truthfully, though he couldn’t help but feel stung that Jeremy was still ensconced in Kristin’s life.
He hadn’t really ever paid much attention to the guy when they were in school, but Kristin had always seen something in him. It had made Cole a little jealous at times. Just jealous enough that he’d gone along with it when the football team pulled pranks on him. He never did any of them himself, but he laughed long and loud at the results.
Of course, he regretted his behavior now. A few years in the army, learning that one of your jobs is to protect those too weak to protect themselves, made you look back on your youthful indiscretions with new eyes. Cole wished he had been kinder to Jeremy. He should have tried to see the good in him, as Kristin always had.
Maybe he and Kris might not have fought so much about the guy if Cole could have been just a little bit more considerate. After all, he was the one who had won Kris’s heart. Jeremy was probably still mooning around after her, no closer to getting what he truly wanted.
“I’m sorry,” Evie said, her contrite tones breaking into his thoughts. “I just…”
“You just hoped that we’d see one another and fall in love all over again,” Cole said, with a wry smile. “You’ve always been such an out and out romantic, you daft girl.”
“I just never understood why you broke up,” Evie admitted. “You two were the ultimate childhood sweethearts, everyone thought you would be together until the day you died.”
“Kris broke up with me, just before I went away. She made it pretty clear how she felt about me and my decisions. I know she had her reasons. I didn’t get them at the time, but I guess I do now. At least I think I do. But, no more of this, Evie. I have no intention of stirring it all up again, and I certainly don’t want Kris to get hurt in any way.”
Evie nodded. “Okay. I promise,” she said. “I didn’t even think, I just thought it would be so romantic and wonderful if you could be happy, and she could be happy, and be at my wedding together. We were all like family when we were little, and now I don’t think Kristin will even come to my wedding.”
“She’ll come, Evie. I’ll make sure of that. She’d never want to hurt you.”
“It would be romantic though,” Evie said with a wink.
Cole frowned. “Come on now, please remember that I’m only back here for a week, and that I still have another year to serve before I finally get to go to college myself.”
“I know, but what’s a year?”
“A year plus the four years I’ll need to get my degree?” Cole reminded her. “I’m in no position to be able to offer stability for any woman right now. Kris and I were over seven years ago and there’s nothing left there to resurrect. Trust me.”
Even as he spoke the words, Cole couldn’t help but wish that it wasn’t true. He had thought that all feelings for Kristin Love had faded. It had gotten easier as time passed to not think about her, and he would never have come home if he’d thought there was still any semblance of attraction for her left inside him. But, it hadn’t taken much more than seeing her to rekindle the flames. She was even more beautiful, and able to break his heart just as much as she had been the day before he had left.
He wished he could banish the memory of her, but she was embedded in his heart, his soul. Kristin was as much a part of him as his right arm, and far more essential. He hadn’t really understood why she had been so opposed to him leaving town, and going into the military until his first deployment.
Every single day his life had been at risk. He was prepared and trained for that reality and he couldn’t let fear or uncertainty creep in. And in truth, he just did his job and trusted his team. That was that.
When he thought of how difficult so much uncertainty must be for the people who loved him at home, he understood Kristin’s reaction. She didn’t want to wait to find out whether he was alive or dead. Being unable to influence the outcome of the danger he faced, was more than she could handle. Now he got it.
But, it had been when his Mom had mentioned in passing that Kris had been in a car smash that it had truly hit home. He’d been frantic with fear, not knowing if she was safe, for almost three weeks as he waited for a letter with more information in it. It turned out it had been just a fender-bender, and she had emerged without a scratch on her. But that incident had helped him to see what she had been trying to tell him all along. He wished he could turn back the clock, to listen to her better. Things might have been so very different if he had.
5
Kristin couldn’t help but dwell on the disastrous reunion with Cole for the rest of the day. It was clear as daylight that he felt nothing more for her than a memory from his childhood.
The military had changed him. He was harder, less open and warm. But, maybe that was just because of the way things had ended between them. She hadn’t exactly given him any option in the matter. He must have been hurt, she knew she certainly had been. Devastated, in fact.
But, she couldn’t deny that she’d experienced the kind of reaction she simply hadn’t felt since he left town. Even now, she shivered a little at the thought of him throwing his strong arm around her shoulders and pulling her to him. She imagined him without a shirt in his swimming trunks at the city pool and she had a hot flash.
Kristin had never thought of herself as one of those girls who cared about physical perfection, but maybe that was because she had simply not experienced it in the flesh until today. He was the only man who had ever grabbed her attention, and her heart fluttered in her chest now just as it had all those years ago. He was her first love, her first kiss, her first confidant, her first date, her first everything.
She just had to pray now that Evelyn wouldn’t bring him back with her when she came in again for her appointment. There was no way she could handle seeing him again today.
Thankfully, Evie came with Mrs. Wright, and the final agreements for the wedding flowers were decided. Kris and Martha spent the next few days rushing around, trying to make sure all of their usual Christmas orders were ready on time, and putting together the most over the top wedding flowers they had ever created.
Evelyn’s choices would bring a little festive fun and merriment to the seriousness of a wedding. As Kristin began to work on the bride’s bouquet, her mind wa
ndered, dreamily imagining what it might be like to catch it when Evie tossed it off the porch of the Apple Pie Inn at the end of the reception celebrations.
Kristin let herself be enveloped in a romantic fantasy, where she turned and caught Cole’s eye, and he smiled, moving towards her so he could take her in his arms, and kiss her in front of everyone they knew, as if the years of separation had never happened. She felt goose-bumps rise on her arms as she imagined the feather-light touch of his strong fingers on her cheek.
“Hey, Kris?” Martha called, then nudged her in the ribs. “Earth to Kristin…”
“Oh, sorry, Martha. Away with the fairies,” Kristin said, feeling a little disoriented as she landed back in the cold florists shop with a bump.
“A penny for them?” Martha asked, curiously.
“Not worth it,” Kris said, trying to deflect her observant friend’s attention.
“I doubt that,” Martha said with a suggestive look, “judging by the flush in your cheeks, and the dreamy look that was in your eyes. Don’t tell me you have finally found someone to Krist that hardened heart of yours at last?”
“Nothing like that, just got lost in thoughts of all I need to do. You know with Christmas and all.”
“Oh, I know what you mean.” Martha sighed. “I’ve got a list ten miles long.”
They both laughed.
“So, which of us is on the sandwich run today?” Martha asked, putting down the tray of festive boutonnieres she had just finished making for a Christmas party up at the hotel.
“That will be me, I think,” Kris said, just as Jeremy poked his head around the door.
“I know things are crazy, but can I steal Kris for lunch today?” he asked, giving Martha his best puppy-dog eyes.
She frowned and groaned. “There goes my chance to have lunch on time.”
“I can run one back over,” Kristin said chuckling.
“Oh, go on, then. Get out of my sight,” Martha said dramatically. “I shall fade away waiting for sustenance alone.”
A Christmas Surprise (Second Chance Christmas) Page 3