The parking lot was packed. He circled the entire lot twice before managing to secure a spot, one that was about as far from the entrance as he could get. He looked around at the people milling about, permanent smiles on their faces despite the hectic time of year, then realized how ridiculous he was being.
There he was, gawking around the packed parking lot at all the vehicles, and there were undoubtedly twenty similar Ford Focus cars there, maybe more. Every time he had seen Kait’s car, it had been well into the evening. He knew the car was an older model, and a dark color. Hardly distinguishing features around these parts. Pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket, he pressed a few buttons, preparing to text her and let her know he was there.
‘Boo!’
Branch turned just as Kait latched on to his coat sleeve, laughing.
‘Scared you, right?’
‘Petrified me,’ he chuckled. ‘Where are you parked? I was just about to text you.’
She pointed clear across to the other side of the lot. ‘Between that monster truck wannabe and the black van. You can’t see it from here.’
‘Then how’d you see me?’
Kait made circles with her thumbs and fingers, staring up at him through her pretend eyeglasses. ‘Eagle eyes.’ She laughed again.
‘Someone’s in a good mood,’ he teased, shoving his phone back in his pocket as they headed toward the front entrance. Kait hooked her arm through his, and suddenly he was in a pretty good mood himself.
‘It’s my day off, Branch. No diner, no kids, and no timeline. Just you, me, and a grocery store with frantic customers I don’t have to serve food to. Sounds pretty great to me.’
It was his turn to laugh. He held the door open for her, and the scent of freshly baked bread wafted out into the frosty air. His rumbling stomach told him strolling past the bakery and remaining empty-handed might be a futile mission. ‘If you would’ve let me pick you up, you wouldn’t have even had to scrape the ice off your car. Then it would’ve been a perfect day off.’
Her mouth curled in amusement, but Kait’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know why I wanted to drive myself.’
‘Does Janna even know where you are right now?’
‘She does,’ Kait replied, pulling a shopping cart from the row inside the door. ‘That doesn’t mean I want to flaunt you around in front of her, giving her a chance to corner you.’
He reached out and took the cart from her, purposely placing his hand over hers on the handle. ‘You don’t want to flaunt us around, you mean?’ He knew what she meant, but couldn’t help poking fun at her for her dramatic choice of words. ‘So, that means you don’t want me to hold your hand in public? Or you don’t want me to put my arm around you as we stroll down the aisle of canned goods? Maybe you don’t want me to kiss your cheek as we buy bread at the bakery counter—’
‘Enough!’ she hissed jovially, turning her hand palm up under his to squeeze it tightly before gently pulling away. ‘My plight to get Janna to come around to the idea of having you here is going to be slow but steady, I’m afraid, but she will come around. We’ve just got to give her time, Branch.’
‘Your plight?’ He blew out a breath. ‘Damn, that sounds serious. Good thing we’ve got nothing but time, Kaitie.’ He nudged her playfully out of the way, pushing the cart toward the first aisle.
She fished the crumpled list from her purse. They had been working on it for days, adding things here and there as they thought of them. ‘She’ll get used to it,’ Kait continued. ‘She’s already warming to the idea—’
‘Kait.’ He reached out and touched her arm, slowing her steps and making her head raise. ‘You don’t have to convince me that your family will eventually like me, okay? I know Janna, remember? She’ll either like me someday or she won’t. I can’t change how she feels about me. Just like I can’t change how I feel about you.’ He offered her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. ‘It’s you I want to be with. If I’ve got you, then we’ll figure everything else out as we go along. Okay?’
‘Okay,’ she replied.
There was that word again. So simple, yet filled with more meaning than four letters should be able to contain. A long breath signaled her relief, but Branch saw the war that battled behind her eyes. She was always so worried about everyone but herself. Surely she had to know he would never come between her and her sister? He also needed to get through to her that her sister’s opinions, however harsh, held no weight in his decision to stay. He had made up his mind.
But it was Kait’s day off, a day to rest and relax. Albeit, they had a list of things to buy the length of his arm, but that didn’t mean he needed to use this time to talk about heavy, life-changing topics. They had time for the open declarations and logistics later. Right now …
‘Let’s start checking things off that list.’
What she needed was something to occupy her mind from the ever-whirling thoughts he could practically see tumbling around inside her head. Kait was a planner, always had been. Crossing things off lists was as good a place to start as any when it came to distraction.
Her curt nod announced she was just as ready to get down to business. Holding up the list, she addressed him with a renewed determination in her eyes. ‘I’ve rewritten our list in order of where it is in the store, meaning we shouldn’t have to run back and forth, up and down the aisles, and we have less chance of forgetting something.’
‘Why am I not surprised?’ He headed straight for the bakery counter, drawn to the decadent scent of warm bread like a moth to a flame.
Kait followed a step behind, consulting the strip of paper in her hand like it held the answers to the meaning of life. ‘So, from the bakery section we need sweet rolls and—’
‘No, we don’t,’ he interjected.
Kait glared at him, holding out the list once again as proof. ‘Yes, we do,’ she argued. ‘I doubt Paige has time at The Cakery to make them; she’s busy as all get out this time of year. And I know we’re technically supposed to be using Grandma Addie’s recipes and making them ourselves, but unless you’ve become a gourmet chef since I last saw you, I don’t think either of us has the skills or the time to pull all this off, Branch. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. I meant to tell you, there’s been sweet rolls and a whole slew of other baked goods in the freezer downstairs since yesterday morning.’
‘You baked sweet rolls?’
She looked so downright shocked that Branch wished he could have told her it was his doing, just so he could bask in the pride of knowing he had surprised her. ‘Nah,’ he chuckled. ‘I guess Jay told his mom about our Christmas Eve plans. Once she caught wind of that, he says she rallied her friends up and they did as much baking as they could. She wanted to help us out, and she did her best to make some of the items that Grandma Addie used to make, doing it all from memory.’
Stunned, Kait gaped at him. ‘That’s incredible.’
‘That’s what I said when Jay backed his truck into the driveway yesterday and hauled it all into the freezer.’
If she was surprised by the gesture now, he wished she could have seen his reaction then. Branch had been floored. He still was. Port Landon had struck again, an outpouring of affection from the residents within it, looking out for their own. It was just the Port Landon way.
‘So, we have enough baking, if we include the cookies and tarts The Port is donating, plus the gumdrop cakes I made.’ In true Kait Davenport fashion, she plucked a ballpoint pen out of the deepest depths of her purse and stroked off a bunch of items on the list.
Branch’s expression mirrored the one she had worn only moments ago. ‘You made gumdrop cake? I haven’t had that stuff in years.’
Grandma Addie’s specialty had always been fruitcake, a sweet and potent mix of candied fruit and nuts smothered in a rich brown sugar sauce, and Branch had always eaten more than his fair share of it every year, much to his grandmother’s amusement. But gumdrop cake … now that was Kait’s specialty. Growing up, she hadn’
t been an avid baker, but there was a year in the beginning of their teenage relationship when she had wanted to do something special for Christmas. Wanted something to call her own tradition. Hours of scouring the old, dusty cookbooks in her parents’ kitchen unveiled an old handwritten recipe card tucked in the inside cover of a vintage cookbook. It was assumed the recipe was her grandmother’s, since neither of them could ever recall Kait’s mom baking anything from scratch, but that, to his knowledge, had never been confirmed. What was confirmed was how delicious that gumdrop cake recipe turned out to be.
‘It might be the only thing I know how to make,’ she snickered, ‘but I make it well. So, yeah, I’ve got four loaves of it in the freezer at my place.’
‘So, yeah, that’s three for me and one for Christmas Eve, right?’
‘In your dreams, Sterling.’ She motioned in the opposite direction of the bakery section. ‘That might be a few things off the list, but there’s still a gazillion others. Better get pushing that cart.’
And push the cart, he did. As Kait scratched one item after another off their list, he continued to pull cans and jars and boxes from the shelves as she rhymed them off. They fell into an easy routine, an effective one that seemed comfortable despite the hustling and bustling of people around them. Sporadically, folks greeted Kait as they passed by, and there were even a few surprised hellos and shocked expressions directed at him. Branch wasn’t sure whether their surprise was from his presence in town, or his presence with Kait. People were polite, though, and he was thankful for it. He was growing tired of being fearful someone was going to bring up the past and ruin their fun outing.
‘Looks like you know pretty much everyone,’ he teased after an elderly man and his wife patted Kait’s arm on their way by and bid her a good day.
She gave him an Oh please! expression as she pointed at the different kinds of cheeses for him to grab from the cooler shelf. ‘All these people know you, too. They just don’t recognize you, or they aren’t paying much attention, not expecting to see you here.’
‘Here,’ he repeated, grabbing wedges of Havarti, Monterey Jack, and old cheddar, planning to cut them up and fan them out on a serving tray with an assortment of pickles, the same way Grandma Addie used to. Presentation was everything. ‘With you, you mean.’
‘I didn’t mean …’ She trailed off, resigned to the truth, just as he was. ‘Well, maybe that, too.’
Branch let the conversation dwindle, but his mind was alive with cluttered thoughts. About his hometown. About living here. About Kait. She had seemed so sure of him as they stood in front of the Christmas tree a few nights ago, showing no hesitation on her part about his decision to stay. It was true, he hadn’t asked her if she wanted him to stay, and he wasn’t sure if he had outright said the words that he was, in fact, not leaving on the thirty-first, but he thought she understood him. Assumed she did.
Okay. They had both said it, sealing their pact to move on, hand in hand.
At least, he thought that’s what happened. Now, as he let the memory tumble over and over in his mind, Branch was starting to believe things weren’t left as clear cut as he had thought they were.
The shopping cart was heaped high by the time they reached the cereal aisle, but only one other person was there so he turned into it. ‘Let’s go down this one, first.’
Kait checked her trusty list. ‘I don’t think we need anything—’
‘A man’s got to eat,’ he advised. ‘Even if it is Lucky Charms.’
‘Kids’ food,’ she laughed, following closely behind.
‘Don’t knock how good a bowl of marshmallows and sugar-laden three-leaf clovers can be.’ He feigned a serious glance in her direction. ‘It’s grownup food, through and through.’
‘Whatever you say.’ She held up her hands in mock surrender, stepping back.
The other customer in the aisle wheeled his cart around the corner, and Branch used the moment to reach for her, pulling gently on her puffy jacket, now partway unzipped, to close the gap between them.
‘What are you doing?’ she chuckled, but her eyes betrayed her, darting from one end of the aisle to the other.
‘Making myself loud and clear.’ He ran his thumb across her cheek, overcome by a wave of satisfaction when Kait took in a sharp breath, her eyelashes fluttering with his touch. ‘I want to be with you, Kaitie.’
‘I know.’ A featherlight whisper from her lips, an answer Branch felt as well as heard.
‘I want to be sure that’s what you want, too, though.’ He held her there, cupping her face in his hands, afraid to look away and miss something, anything that might indicate how she was truly feeling right now.
‘It is,’ she said on a sigh. ‘More than you know.’
‘I might know more on that topic than you think.’ One corner of his mouth lifted, elation buzzing in his veins. She wanted him, just as much as he wanted her. There was nothing more important to him than that. ‘So, we’re on the same page, then. That’s half the battle. I can’t stand here and tell you I know exactly how we’re going to pull this off, seeing as I still have a job that keeps me away for weeks at a time—’
‘I’m not asking you to quit your job for me.’ She had recovered somewhat, her gaze steadier. ‘We just have a lot to work out.’
‘And we will work it out, I promise.’ He vowed to do whatever it took to make this work, and making that vow was his first step. ‘I know no one in this town ever expected me to come back here, Kait. I know what they think of me—’
‘You’re wrong about what people think of you,’ she interjected. ‘People here still love you. Just look at what Jay’s mom and her loyal baking troops did, which only proves my point. You’re still a part of this community.’ Her gaze stayed fixed on him. ‘I think you’re harder on yourself about what happened than anyone else in Port Landon ever was, Branch. Save for me and my family.’ She swallowed, hard. ‘And Zach.’
‘Rightfully so,’ he replied. ‘What I did turned this little town upside down.’
‘No, it turned you upside down,’ she corrected. ‘It tormented you, made you think everything and everyone was against you because of it, even when that wasn’t true. Around here, some folks like to talk, that’s true. But a lot more prefer to help their neighbors. Folks care about each other here, and they protect each other. Maybe you were just too young back then to realize that the whole community was like an extended family, not just the people in your grandparents’ house. After the accident, your wellbeing mattered to everyone, too, Branch, not just Zach’s.’
‘The only people who mattered were either disappointed in me or disgusted by me, Kait.’ The second the statement was out, he regretted it.
She didn’t hesitate. ‘I wasn’t fair to you, in a lot of ways. But you weren’t fair to me, either.’ Her eyes blazed, so much tumultuous emotion in them that he wasn’t sure if she was about to pull away from him or break down and cry. ‘I can’t change the past.’
He needed to veer the conversation onto steadier ground. Make himself crystal clear. ‘That makes two of us,’ he replied quickly. Confusion niggled at him, about part of what she said, but he needed to pick his battles. The past was the battle he hoped to end with this conversation. If it had to be done in the middle of the cereal aisle, so be it. ‘Just like we can’t change what Janna thinks, or what anyone else thinks, for that matter. But we can change how we go forward, and I want to go forward with you.’ He took a deep breath, then let it out. ‘Ignore everything and everyone else, Kaitie. We can hide if you want, but let me love you, the way I always have. The way you deserve. Please.’
He didn’t think he could get any clearer than that. He loved her, and he didn’t deny it. He wouldn’t. Anyone, even in an overcrowded grocery store, could see that she was the only one there in his eyes.
Let me love you, he chanted silently, watching her gaze search his expression for something he couldn’t define. Because I already do, and I don’t know how I’d ever stop.
/> ‘Okay.’
Her voice was so quiet, and her mouth barely moved, so he wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly. ‘Okay?’
A faint grin appeared. ‘Okay,’ she said again. ‘It’s crazy and it’s unexpected and surreal, but I’m all in, Branch.’
He felt even more alive than he had the other night in front of the Christmas tree. This time, there was no room for misinterpretation. They were doing this. Really doing this.
He reached out and grabbed a box of Lucky Charms from the shelf. ‘Hide with me for a second.’
‘What?’
He didn’t elaborate. Instead, Branch held the cereal box up in front of them, preventing any prying eyes from witnessing their tryst, then he kissed her, soft and warm and full of promise.
Kait chuckled against his lips, her eyes fluttering back open.
‘Well, aren’t you two lovebirds a sight for sore eyes?’
Instantly, the floating feeling and euphoria was shattered. Branch jerked the cereal box down, his expression a mirror image of Kait’s horrified one.
‘Zach.’ She sounded breathless, and Branch suspected it wasn’t merely from the effects of their kiss.
The man held up his hands, a shrewd and wicked grin marring his features. ‘Don’t stop on my account,’ he quipped. ‘I’m just passing through.’
‘Zach, I—’
‘Kait, you look traumatized,’ her friend snickered. ‘It’s fine, really. It was inevitable, really, wasn’t it? You two have always been each other’s kryptonite.’
Branch waited for some condescending remark that she was Zach’s kryptonite as well, if the past was any indication, but only a white-hot glare followed.
He couldn’t stand to see Kait looking so uncomfortable, like she had done something wrong. Like they were wrong. ‘Look, Zach, I know you—’
‘Wrong again, Sterling,’ Zach shot back, a malicious laugh mixed in with his words. ‘You don’t know me, and you don’t know what you’ve put me through. What you’ve put her through.’ His hand flailed out of his pocket to point an incriminating finger toward Kait. ‘There’s only one good thing about this that I can see.’
The Winter Berry House Page 16