The Christmas Wish (11 page)

“This is me cooking for you.”

A sleepy smile formed on Brinn’s lips.

“I have a couple of standbys in my repertoire and one of them is cinnamon pancakes.”

The rich scents of coffee and pancakes greeted her.

“Can I please have coffee?”

“Your wish is my command.” Tyler poured a large cup for her.

Her toes curled. This was a slice of heaven. She walked to the dining room table and settled into a chair. Too good to be true? According to Ma, yes. But there would be no second-guessing. She was going to enjoy these moments for as long as they lasted.

“You’re off today?” Tyler set a plate of fluffy pancakes dripping with butter and syrup in front of her.

“Technically I’m never off at the bakery during the holidays, but we managed to schedule a couple of days off for each of us this season. One of mine is today.”

Tyler slid into the seat beside her and passed her a plate filled with bacon.

Brinn took a bite of pancake. Fluffy magical goodness. “This is so good,” she said, looking at Ryan. The morning sun came through the windows and lit his hair and his eyes. How could he roll out of bed and look this gorgeous? Her hand went to her hair and slid across her messy curls. No rolling out and looking perfect for her.

A ball of worry formed in her belly. She should have showered and brushed her teeth and at least combed her hair before coming out this morning. She crossed an arm over her chest.

“What are you doing with your one day off?”

“I have to go pick up Ma’s Christmas gift and I still need to find Nonna something. Although she’s pretty easy, she usually just wants lingerie or booze.”

Tyler coughed. He took a long drink of coffee. “Nonna? Wants lingerie and booze?”

“She says why waste time.”

“Go, Nonna.”

“What about you?”

“Well, I talked to Mom and the cousins are over, so Charlotte hasn’t noticed my absence.”

Brinn winced. Oh my goodness, Tyler’s mom knew he’d spent the night at her house. Tyler clasped his hand over hers. “She’s happy about this. Both my parents are. About us. My staying here won’t change how my mom feels about you.”

She pressed her knees together under the table. Relief washed through her, and yet hesitancy persisted. Being so open, so public about this relationship, people actually knowing about Tyler staying with her, was different than people seeing them walking down Main Street together. Here, now, with his truck parked in her drive at nine a.m. on a Sunday, this relationship became public. A simple fact of small-town life. She chewed her pancake and replayed in her mind what he’d said.

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 to 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.

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.