The Christmas Wish (7 page)

Brinn nodded. She stared at her slice of pizza and took a long sip of her soda. Her chest tightened like that of an embarrassed eleven-year-old girl caught in the throes of a horrible crush. She didn’t want to meet any of the ladies’ gazes, especially Nonna’s. The innuendo in Nonna’s voice would be confirmed by the look on Brinn’s face. With one glance into Brinn’s eyes, Nonna would know for certain that the crush Brinn had harbored all through middle school and high school for Tyler Emerson was not only alive and well but flourishing because of their lunch together at the Grande. Warmth flew up Brinn’s neck. Heat flamed her cheeks.

Damn, she had to be blushing.

Dorothy rolled one three and shook her head. “On to fours.”

“That poor dear of a girl.” Eustace took the cup from Dorothy. “I can’t fathom how that Charlize Dumont abandoned that little girl. She looks like an angel.” The dice rattled against the sides of the shaker. “I heard Charlize hasn’t seen her daughter going on six months.”

“She only calls the poor dear once a week.” Roberta’s gaze darted around the table. “Or so I hear.” Her gaze landed on Brinn, and she arched an eyebrow. “According to Carol, Tyler hasn’t really dated much since that woman left. What’s it been now? Nearly two years?” Roberta took the dice from Eustace.

“Well, a good-looking single man from a good family here in Powder Springs?” Nonna pressed her fingertips to her cheek. “I imagine there will definitely be some women circling Mr. Emerson.” Nonna’s lips curled up into a smile. “Unless he’s already got his sights set on someone.”

The dice flew across the table with Roberta’s roll. Roberta managed to get bunco with four fours and she passed the dice to Nonna.

“Brinn, darling, didn’t you just have lunch at the Grande the other day with Tyler and Carol and Charlotte?”

Brinn’s breath shortened and her fingertips tingled. There was the information these women wanted. Nonna laid the whole thing on the table. These old women were sneaky. They could set up a conversation to get the information they wanted.

“I did.” She pulled deep and forced her face to remain calm. Brinn met Nonna’s gaze. “Mrs. Emerson brought Charlotte to see the Christmas castle and then Tyler asked me to join them for lunch.”

Roberta leaned forward. “What’s this I hear about him holding your hand?”

Where did these women get their information? Alison was right, just because this group of gaggling octogenarians didn’t choose to gossip on bunco night, they still knew every damn thing that went on in town.

“He didn’t
hold
my hand…”

“Listen here, little lady.” Roberta pointed her finger at Brinn. “My granddaughter waited on your table, and she said that Tyler held your hand.”

“That was Margo?”

“Nearly all grown up.” Roberta smiled and tilted her head. “Starts college next fall. Early admission to Notre Dame.”

“Last time I saw her, I think she was in fifth grade.”

“Time rolls, baby. It rolls fast.” Roberta nodded her head. “Don’t usually realize that until you’re well past thirty. Think you got tons and tons of time, but you don’t.”

The Bunco Babes nodded.

“Back to Tyler holding your hand—” Nonna started and Brinn’s phone rang.

Air whooshed over Brinn’s lips. Saved. She picked up the phone from the table and flipped it over. A Denver number? Who from Denver would be calling her?

“Excuse me.” She stood and walked from the kitchen and toward the bedrooms at the far end of the house, thankful to escape the interrogation at the bunco table.

“Hello?”

“Brinn?”

Could it be? The voice was a warm caress over her skin.

“Tyler?”

He had called her. He was on the phone with her right this very moment. She pulled in a long breath. Calm down. He probably was just wondering when would be a good time for him to bring Charlotte by to see the castle again.

“How’s the Christmas castle going?”

“Good. Drapes are down. Foundation is finished. We’re right on schedule.”

“You’re quite the builder. Sure I couldn’t hire you for the Grande project?” There was a smile in his voice. She could picture this gorgeous man with the phone pressed up to his ear.

“If you want the buildings done in eggs and flour, no problem.”

There was a pause and Brinn cast her gaze around her mom’s childhood bedroom.

“Soooo.”

“So.”

He took a deep breath. “Would you ever want to grab some dinner? Maybe see a movie?”

Brinn’s heart stopped in her chest. She bounced on her toes like a fourteen-year-old girl. A date! Oh my God, a date with Tyler Emerson!

“Sorry, did that come out okay?”

“Uh, sure, when were you thinking?” Brinn forced her tone to remain even, to play it cool, to keep the excitement from her voice.

“Friday? Around seven?”

“Sounds good.” Brinn smiled. She had exactly two days to make herself gorgeous. They said good-bye, and Brinn sat on the bed. Her mouth dropped open and she shook her head. A smile pulled across her face and she pressed her phone to her chest.

Tyler Emerson. Tyler Emerson had asked her out. The world suddenly felt upside down. On the far side of her mother’s old room hung Ma’s wedding picture. Ma a drop-dead beauty with an incredible hourglass figure. Her father, more square and thick. She took after her father.

Brinn pressed her lips tight. How could a man who looked like Tyler ever want a woman shaped like a box? The moment of excitement drained away and Brinn bit her bottom lip.

“Well?” Nonna stood in the doorway with a giant smile on her face, and behind her four other women gathered around the door.

“I know you heard.” Brinn stood, slipped her phone into her back pocket, and folded her arms over her chest. “You bunch of magpies. I bet you knew he was going to call.”

“We cannot compromise our sources.” Mabel wiggled her eyebrows.

Roberta ducked her head around the group. “But there was some chatter about just how smitten you two seemed at lunch.”

Brinn had dreamed of dating Tyler Emerson when she was a girl and still found him gorgeous now that she was a grown woman.

Her stomach pitched. Even with her excitement, she couldn’t quell the nagging voice in her head that whispered she hadn’t been the type of girl Tyler went for when he was younger, so why would she be the type of woman he’d want to date now?

“Come on, girls.” Nonna turned toward the Bunco Babes. “It’s late. Nearly past my bedtime and we’re still only on fours.”

Brinn followed them into the hall. Why worry about the date with Tyler? This was dinner and a movie, not a wedding proposal. Brinn walked into the kitchen, certain that she’d now hear what the Bunco Babes thought she should wear this Friday and how to make Tyler Emerson fall for her.

He hadn’t strolled along Main Street during the Christmas season since before he left Powder Springs for college. Tourists, holiday shoppers, and people simply enjoying a warmer winter evening than they’d had in the past couple of weeks darted down the cobblestone sidewalk. He’d planned on taking Brinn to a movie, but they talked so long over their burgers at the Around the Block diner that they missed the start time.

Former classmates and friends of his parents waved and nodded at them as they walked down Main. Curious looks from locals were pointed their way. Tomorrow he and Brinn would be the big Powder Springs gossip. So what. Despite the cold, warmth cascaded through him, an enjoyment caused by being with someone he felt comfortable with. He hadn’t felt this calm a very long while.

“You’re happy that you moved back from San Francisco?” Tyler wanted to keep their conversation going. Listening to Brinn talk was easy. She told good stories and her face lit with excitement when she talked about her work and the bakery and her family.

Brinn pulled at her black curls that peeked out from beneath her white wool cap. “Even when I went away to culinary school in San Francisco, I always thought I’d eventually move back to Powder Springs. So when I walked in on—” Her eyes clouded with a memory and she stopped speaking. Her gaze dropped to the ground, almost as though her words had gotten away from her. Brinn pressed her lips tight and then her brown eyes glanced back up at him. “When I discovered that staying in San Francisco wasn’t an option, I was sad at first, but I love Powder Springs.”

His breath hitched in his chest. The pain had disappeared from her gaze and her eyes were full of light again, her smile so warm that he could almost think he’d imagined the pain.

“Do you feel the same way about leaving Denver and coming home for a while?”

Tyler nodded. “Powder Springs is what I want for Charlotte. I want the same kind of magical childhood for her that I had here. Especially now.”

“You should bring Charlotte back out to the Grande next week. The Christmas castle looks more like a castle. This time she won’t be disappointed.”

“I peeked in on you the other day.”

Brinn turned to him with a surprised smile. “You should have stopped and said hello.”

“You looked so serious. I didn’t want to interrupt. You were so focused on your work.” He creased his eyebrows and pursed his lips as though trying to recreate the look he’d seen on Brinn’s face.

She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “That’s what I look like?”

“Much cuter than any look I could do.” Tyler flashed her a smile. “I know what it’s like to be in that zone. I didn’t want to pull you out of it.”

“Well, thank you for that.” She stopped walking and turned to him. “But next time say hi.” Her voice was nearly a whisper.

His heart flipped in his chest. He could spend hours with Brinn Bartoli, walking down Main Street, eating at the diner, watching a movie… or missing a movie. Worry didn’t bounce around his gut when he was with Brinn.

“I will.” He angled closer to her as they walked, and the scents of vanilla and cinnamon filled his nose. An electrical pulse zipped through him. Yep, there it was again. When he was close to her, when he looked into her eyes, when he caught her face in profile—there was a heat, an anxiousness, a want that latched onto him because dammit, he was attracted to Brinn. The urge to grasp Brinn’s hand or even put his arm around her waist as they walked through town shot through him. His gloved hands remained at his sides. The desire to touch her, to pull her close, to turn to her and tilt her head toward his so that he might grasp her lips with his became more intense with every hour that passed. She was comfortable and familiar and just easy to be with in a way he’d never experienced. In a way he wanted to continue experiencing.

They stopped in front of the store window at Curios & Crowns, and Brinn pointed into the window. “See the angels?”

Tyler nodded.

“Savannah McGrath does those each Christmas. I had a special one made for Ma. Should be done next week. I love Savannah’s work.”

“We commissioned one of her pieces last year as a focal point outside one of our new buildings in Denver. People always stop to look.”

“She makes her work come alive.” Brinn turned from the window, and they continued walking down Main.

“Look where we are.” Tyler pointed to the door of Bea & Barbara’s Bakery. “Want to go in?”

Brinn’s mouth squished into a line. She peered inside the front window as though she were looking for someone.

“Uh, sure.” She pulled open the door before he could and darted inside the bakery. A bell jingled and Brinn muttered something under her breath. They walked toward the counter where a familiar-looking woman with bright pink hair and a leopard-print apron stood helping customers.

“Hey, you two!”

Brinn waved. She waited until the pink-haired woman finished with the customers. “Tyler, this is Alison.”

Alison’s hand jutted out. “I was five years behind you in school. But my cousin was a year ahead of your class. Mathilda Cooper?”

“Right!” Tyler nodded and smiled. “I remember Mathilda. Whatever happened to her?”

“Married an Air Force guy. They travel all over the world. Have three kids. We see them sometimes on holidays.”

Brinn shot Alison a look. What was that about? He couldn’t read what was going on between the two of them. Alison’s eyes widened and she shook her head no. Brinn smiled and her shoulders relaxed.

“How about a couple of cinnamon coffees and cannoli?” Alison opened the display case and started plopping the sweet confections into a box.

“No coffee for me. I have to be at the Grande by eight tomorrow.”

Tyler glanced at his watch. The time was already close to ten. “Brinn, I’m sorry.” He reached for the box of cannoli and tried to give Alison some money, but she wouldn’t take it. “I thought you’d have Saturday off from the Grande, and it’s nearly ten. I should probably get you home.”

Brinn’s shoulders sagged the tiniest bit at his suggestion. Was he doing a bad job on their date? He thought they were having fun, but when they’d stopped at the bakery, Brinn’s entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he wasn’t certain she wanted to be on a date with him.

“I’ll drive you home.” Tyler took the box of cannoli and followed Brinn out the front door of the bakery.

A few minutes later, they climbed into his truck, which was still parked in front of the diner. He drove through town and headed the direction of Brinn’s house. Silence filled the cab. This silence held a heavy feeling, much different than their time at the diner or walking down Main Street. A quiet had built between them since they’d entered the bakery.

He pulled into her drive. White lights trimmed the edges of Brinn’s windows, and a tree sat on the other side of the front window. What would it be like to start a fire and sit on the couch and kiss Brinn? He’d like to find out.

“Would you like to come in?”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.” Tyler stared out the front window of his truck.

“It’s not an imposition. I would love for you to come in, it’s just”—Brinn brushed her mittened hand across her forehead—“I’m sorry. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself tonight.”

Her eyes held such sincerity. A vulnerability that he completely understood. This was her first date in a long while too, perhaps even longer than it had been for him.