by Maggie Marr
Wait.
Us.
He said Us.
Were they an us?
Brinn slid her gaze toward Tyler.
He ate his pancakes and one hand still covered hers. “More coffee?”
Brinn nodded.
They were an us. She and Tyler Emerson were an us. As in having a relationship, as in discussing their day and eating pancakes that he had made for her after providing her with orgasm after orgasm for an entire night. A smile burst over Brinn’s lips. Wow. Her heart bounced around her chest.
“I was wondering—” Tyler looked at her. His eyebrows creased. “Wait? What is it? What’s the smile for?”
Brinn kept her smile and shook her head. She sipped her fresh coffee. “Just happy.”
Tyler squeezed her hand. “I’m happy too.”
Her heart might burst from her chest.
“Back to today. Maybe later you could go sledding with me and Charlotte?”
The bouncing stopped. Brinn’s chest tightened. Of course she wanted to go sledding with Tyler and Charlotte. Charlotte was an angel, but was her going with Charlotte and Tyler a good idea?
“I’ve thought about this. Charlotte’s already met you, and she talks about you and your castle. This won’t be a big deal for her.” Tyler lifted her hand and pressed his lips to the soft skin of her wrist.
A tingle slipped through Brinn.
“I don’t want to hide this from her.”
She wanted to agree with Tyler and to believe that Charlotte would be okay with her, but would she?
“Won’t this be confusing to her? Make her sad?”
“We’ll do what comes naturally and answer any of her questions. I haven’t brought anyone around her since the divorce.” He looked into Brinn’s eyes. “There hasn’t been anyone… I mean, I’ve dated…” His look asked her to understand. “I just… There hasn’t been…”
“Me neither.” Brinn wanted to relieve Tyler of whatever weight he felt about having to explain why he hadn’t seriously dated in such a long while.
A smile cut across his face. “I’d love to go with you to pick up your mom’s Christmas gift, and I’d even go with you to find something for Nonna.”
“Brave man.” He must really like her if he was willing to help pick out lingerie for her eighty-year-old grandmother.
*
They pulled past the yellow house with a white wraparound porch on Mayberry and toward the backyard where the giant shed with windows and skylights sat with a garage door big enough for a semi. The giant blocks of clay that workmen dropped off for Savannah’s sculptures went in and out of the two-story front door.
“Such a nondescript building for such a world-renowned artist.”
Brinn nodded. This was amazing. That a giant two-story yellow aluminum building was home to one of the most sought-after sculptresses in the world. And that very same woman was making Ma’s Christmas gift. Brinn smiled. Sometimes small-town life was absolutely brilliant. She’d known Savannah and her older sister Tulsa since she was a kid. They’d been substantially older, but they’d still shared Popsicles and run through sprinklers together.
Tyler pulled his SUV to a stop. They both climbed out of the truck and walked toward the door. Smoke whispered out of a chimney that sprouted from the top of the building. Brinn knocked on the door.
She liked Savannah. Even as kids, they seemed to get each other. Other people in town thought Savannah was a kook, and once upon a time, many Powder Springs residents might have called the McGraths trash. Nonna had been close to Savannah and Tulsa’s Grandma Margaret—well as close as anyone could be. Grandma Margaret had been a prickly pear of a woman. She’d raised both her granddaughters without any help from a man or even much help from her own daughter.
Tulsa and Savannah were a testament to Grandma Margaret’s ability to create something from nothing. Tulsa was a hotshot divorce attorney with a practice in Powder Springs and Los Angeles while Savannah created pieces of art for people all around the world. She was in such demand right now she’d all but stopped doing individual sculptures for sale and was concentrating on big pieces for public places like hotels and museums and parks.
Warmth shot through Brinn that Savannah had agreed to do the piece for Ma. Because while Ma was always polite to the McGraths, she was one of those people, Brinn knew, who thought Savannah McGrath a bit odd. Brinn pushed open the door with Tyler right behind her. Savannah had said to come on in when they got there.
The scent of wet clay, sharp and earthy, hit Brinn. Not unpleasant, but so very different than the smells that surrounded her when she worked. In the center of the room was a scaffold, and Savannah was twelve feet in the air, wearing a welder’s mask and concentrating on the shoulder of a giant bear that she’d created out of first clay and then bronze. Beside her stood a younger woman. Savannah wore her stained overalls that seemed to be her staple outfit.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Her gaze swept the room and all along the edges and the walls were pieces, some finished and packed, just waiting to be shipped, while others were in different stages of completion. The room was warm and a fire crackled in a potbelly stove.
“Yo! Hey, Brinn, I didn’t see you.” Savannah had flipped her welder’s mask up and scrambled down the scaffold. She walked toward Brinn and Tyler and then clasped Brinn into a giant hug. Her wild reddish hair was a giant halo of unstructured curls.
“Tyler Emerson, how the hell are you?” Savannah pulled Tyler into a giant hug, ignoring the hand he’d held out to shake. “I haven’t seen you in years. Heard you were back, also heard you’re in the mix for the giant remodel and expansion at the Grande. Hope you get it!”
Savannah was happy, and her joy was infectious. “That’s Lauren up there.” Savannah pointed to the top of the scaffold. “CSU sends me an intern once a semester, and long as I don’t scare them off, they stay.”
Both Brinn and Tyler waved to the pretty girl still up on the scaffold, now holding two welder’s masks.
“Okay, so come see what I made.”
Savannah led them across her workshop to an area filled with completed work. “Now, Brinn, I hope you’re not mad, but I did a little something extra.” Savannah stopped in front of two three-foot-tall statues, both covered with a heavy flannel cloth. “Ready?”
Brinn’s heart was about to explode from her chest. She’d waited for months to see what Savannah had created. Brinn had simply told Savannah that she wanted angels. A beautiful Christmas angel for Ma.
Savannah pulled away the cloth that covered both statues.
Brinn’s pressed her fingertips to her mouth and a gasp came over her lips.
“Oh my God, Savannah. They’re…” Her gaze leapt to Savannah’s eyes, which held a pure moment of vulnerability and hope, as though she the artist needed to desperately know that Brinn was pleased. “They’re more than I ever imagined—they’re just perfect.” Brinn reached her fingertips out and felt the cool, smooth bronze beneath her fingertips. The first statue was two girl angels side by side with giddy smiles on their faces as they held a Christmas flame. The faces of the sculptures were those of her and Deborah when she they were little girls. Brinn’s wild ringlet curls and Deborah’s smooth, tame black hair, but somehow they were both beautiful. Stunning little cherubs with joy cascading in their eyes.
“And I made this one for Nonna.” Savannah rested her hand on the other statue’s shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind—it’s just, well… Nonna has always been so good to me. Helped me out when I needed it, believed in me.” Savannah’s voice lowered and Brinn heard a crack in the tone. She met Savannah’s gaze and nodded. Brinn understood. She completely understood how Nonna had an uncanny ability to make people feel comfortable in their own skin. Nonna accepted everyone’s quirks and eccentricities, which in turn helped the quirky and the eccentric to accept themselves.
Tyler grasped Brinn’s arm. His eyes, just the warmth in his eyes, made her feel so loved. “I’m going to pull the truck around t
o the garage door so we can load these.”
Brinn nodded and turned back to the sculptures. “This looks just like Ma when she was a little girl.” Brinn pressed her fingertips over the upper arm of the sculpture. Ma with her beautiful high cheekbones and patrician nose, the face so solemn even for a child. “Where’d you find a picture to go by?”
“Grandma Margaret had pictures of your ma with Nonna here at the house. I got them out. They were close you, know, Nonna and Grandma Margaret. Well, as close as anyone could be to Grandma Margaret, I guess.”
Brinn nodded. She did know. Strong women all. Women who ran businesses and raised children alone and fought their way through atrociously hard winters with little more than firewood and water.
“Thank you.” She’d wanted something special for Ma this Christmas, and what she’d gotten was a gift created by Savannah that would forever be cherished by her entire family. “Nonna is going to love this.”
“I sure hope so. How is she? I keep meaning to go by for a drink and a cigar but I keep getting more and more orders.”
“She’s good. I’m going over tomorrow night. Want to come?”
“Would, but the whole family is back and Tulsa has some family picture thing scheduled.” Savannah ran her hand through her wild curls. “Sure as hell hope I don’t have to put on a dress.”
“You look good in a dress.”
“Oh, I know I look good in a dress. I even like wearing them once in a while. I’m just so busy—don’t want to take the time to get ready and go and… just a hassle.”
“You’d rather stay right here and work?”
“Exactly. You like that at the bakery?”
“Was.” Heat warmed her cheeks.
“Oh right.” Savannah smiled. “I heard some rumblings about this little romance you’ve got going with Tyler. He’s cute.”
“He is.”
“And probably waiting on us.”
Savannah pushed a button on the wall, and the giant garage doors at the end of her workshop lumbered to life. Tyler had backed his truck up to the door and pulled open the bed. He stood and waited with a giant smile on his face.
Savannah leaned closer to Brinn. “Really good job. Really really cute.”
A rush of heat rolled through Brinn. Yes, Tyler was super cute, super nice, and apparently, at least for right now, he was hers.
Chapter Twelve
A light snow began after they dropped off the two sculptures at Brinn’s house. An hour later, they arrived at the Emersons’. Charlotte was bundled in a pink snowsuit and a little stocking cap that looked like a cupcake was on her head. Bright blond curls peeked out and framed her face. She ran out onto the porch and waved toward the truck as they pulled into the drive.
“Ready for this?” Tyler looked at Brinn. A warm smile was on his face as though he had no worries about their sledding excursion.
“If you are.”
Charlotte was a precious child, and Brinn had enjoyed both her encounters with her, but today felt different. This wasn’t some random meeting where Brinn was dropping off a dessert or when Charlotte came by the Grande to see the Christmas castle and they all had lunch. This was Tyler specifically bringing Brinn to an outing with his daughter. This day, this outing, felt heavier, more important, as though something weighed in the balance. Maybe because Brinn realized that with Tyler came Charlotte, and if Tyler was to be part of Brinn’s life then Charlotte was too. Brinn would love to let the little girl into her life and her heart. She adored children. But she couldn’t overlook the responsibility that came with letting Charlotte into her life. To be the person with Charlotte’s daddy also meant Brinn would not only have a responsibility to Tyler but to Charlotte as well.
“She already thinks you’re pretty cool and she likes you. Don’t worry—everything will go well.”
And everything did go well… for a while.
At Thunder Ridge Mountain, they purchased their lift tickets and rode the chairlift up to the children’s sledding hill since they’d already decided that the giant hill populated with adolescents and adults would be too much for Charlotte. When they all three stepped off the lift, Brinn grabbed one of Charlotte’s mittened hands, and Tyler grabbed the other. They lifted her and swung her out, forward and back. Charlotte squealed with delight. Skiers and snowboarders whizzed by them on their way off the lift and to their runs.
“Daddy, hold me.” Charlotte reached her little arms up to Tyler and he bent down and picked her up.
Brinn dutifully picked up both inner tubes and tracked behind Charlotte and Tyler to the top of the inner tube run.
“I want to go down with Daddy.” Worry glimmered in Charlotte’s eyes.
“No problem, bean.” Tyler looked at Brinn and she nodded. “How about we let Brinn go first and we’ll follow?”
“No. I want us to go first.” Charlotte tilted her head. She’d always been sweet and accommodating, but there was temper in her voice. Possessiveness. She looked at Brinn and grabbed her father’s leg.
“That sounds okay too.” Brinn handed Tyler the inner tube and smiled at him. This was normal, right? Charlotte had been alone with her dad for going on two years. Of course she was possessive and wanted to make certain that she had the prime spot in Tyler’s life. Brinn smiled at the little girl.
“Maybe after a couple of runs we can go back to the bakery for hot chocolate and a cookie?”
Charlotte’s eyes lit up with the idea of a sweet treat.
“Do you have more castle cookies?”
“I made some especially for you.”
Charlotte smiled and Brinn glanced at Tyler. He mouthed the words “thank you,” and Brinn nodded. How hard was this for him? He wanted his daughter to be happy, and Brinn was certain that he would do nearly anything so that Charlotte was happy. And yet, he wanted to move on with his life. They could do this. She reached out her hand and Tyler clasped it in his. He gave her gloved hand a reassuring squeeze as if to say these were just little bumps.
Brinn’s heart swelled. Tyler adjusted the inner tube and sat down. Brinn lifted Charlotte and placed her in her Tyler’s lap.
“Thank you.” Charlotte looked up at Brinn with the warmest eyes. Eyes filled with happiness and excitement.
“You’re welcome.”
Tyler pushed off, and Brinn watched them slide down the hill, listening to Charlotte’s happy shrieks and delighted giggles.
“They’re cute together aren’t they?”
Charlotte turned around. Her heart leapt to her throat. Beside her stood Jasmine Dumont, Charlize’s mother and Charlotte’s grandmother.
“Mrs. Dumont, I had no idea you were here.” Brinn pushed at the edges of her snow hat. Why did she feel as though she’d just been caught doing something very wrong? Jasmine Dumont was as beautiful as her daughter Charlize. She had high cheekbones and bright blue eyes. She had the fair skin that seemed ageless. She looked much younger than her fifty plus years.
“Just getting in a few runs before dinner tonight.”
Mrs. Dumont’s eyes trailed over Brinn. Brinn’s lips thinned under the woman’s judging gaze.
“This is a very small town, Brinn. You didn’t forget that, did you, while living in San Francisco?”
What kind of question was that?
Mrs. Dumont’s hard-eyed gaze remained latched onto Brinn. “I was so sorry to hear about what happened between you and your fiancé.” The expression on Mrs. Dumont’s face didn’t match her words. With her soft, sly, smile, she seemed to be saying that it was only to be expected that a woman who looked like Brinn could never keep a man. “I certainly hope nothing like that happens to you again.” She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head.
Was that a warning? A fire lit in Brinn’s belly. A dire warning that Brinn should stay away from Tyler and Charlotte and that somehow, even though Mrs. Dumont’s daughter had been the one to abandon her now ex-husband and daughter, Tyler and Charlotte still belonged to Charlize.
“Thank you for
your concern.” Brinn dropped the inner tube to her feet. She forced a smile to her face and plopped down. “Hope you enjoy your runs. Come by the bakery, Mrs. Dumont. I’ve got a chocolate torte with your name on it.”
Mrs. Dumont grimaced. Of course the woman was Q-tip thin. The idea of a dessert passing over her lips had to give her hives. With those words, and some other choice ones that Brinn kept locked in her mind, she pushed off and whooshed down the sledding hill to meet Tyler and Charlotte.
Cheeks bright red and smiles on both their faces, Charlotte and Tyler waited at the bottom of the hill.
“What took you so long?” Tyler’s eyes sparkled from the thrill of the sledding run. “You look like Old Man Winter kissed you.” Tyler leaned forward and pulled her to her feet, then planted a kiss on her lips. Brinn pulled back, surprised but happy about Tyler’s public display of affection.
“Daddy kissed the pretty lady!” Charlotte clapped her hands. She seemed nearly giddy. “Do it again! Do it again!”
“Can’t argue with that.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Brinn’s. The cold leapt away and Brinn heated from her toes to her ears. He pulled away but still stayed close. She was nearly breathless.
“Your ex-mother-in-law is here,” Brinn said once Charlotte stood a few feet away, picking up clumps of snow and throwing them.
“Where is she?” Tyler scanned the area as he stayed close to Brinn.
“Top of the sledding hill. She had a few things to say about you and me and about”—her lips stalled around the words—“us.”
“That’s choice. Seeing as we’ve been back in Powder Springs going on a month and she’s yet to come by and see her granddaughter.”
Brinn’s eyes widened. “What?” How could that be? How could anyone stay away from Charlotte? She was sweet and adorable and just pure joy in a tiny body.
“Seems when Charlize left us, the entire Dumont family left us too. I never hear from them. Charlotte doesn’t either. She gets a birthday gift and a Christmas gift each year, but they never come see her. Not in Denver and not even when we’re here. And I always let them know when we’ll be in Powder Springs.”