Page 66 of Sweet Surprises

The local postman looked so much like Santa that he played the jolly old elf at the country store, where he had a whole Santa set-up going during the lead-up to Christmas. No wonder Chance had been so excited to go get bread the other day. He must have run out to see Santa while Tag was in line at the counter and chewing the fat with Max Hayes.

Unfortunately, old Kris was as gossipy as he was cozy, and he certainly made his way around town as a mailman. Tag was going to be getting dirty looks about this for years.

And that wasn’t the worst part by far.

Chance wanted her to be his new mommy.

His chest ached all over again at the thought of what he had done to Charlotte, and what it meant for his children.

“Well, I ruined it,” he said feeling empty inside. “So no need to talk about it anymore.”

“Why did you want to talk to me then?” Allie demanded.

“I guess I was just hoping you wouldn’t hate me forever,” he ventured. “I’m really sorry.”

“I’ll always tell you when you’re being a bonehead, but I’ll never hate you, Tag,” she said, her voice gentler now. “Why do you think you ruined it?”

“Olivia is so angry,” he murmured.

“She lost her mom,” Allie said. “And her dad has been clammed up ever since.”

“I didn’t mean to close up,” he said, meeting her eyes and praying that she believed him. “I don’t think I realized how much I had cut everyone off, until…”

“Until Charlotte,” Allie finished for him.

“I can’t, Allie,” he said, shaking his head. “I just can’t.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Iris,” he said softly.

Allie began shaking her head.

“It’s not that she wouldn’t want me to move on,” he said quickly. “I think she would want us all to be happy.”

“Iknowshe would,” Allie said.

“It’s just that I already married one young girl, and held her back from her dreams,” he said softly.

“What are you talking about?” Allie asked.

“She loved acting,” he said. “And she was so good. She should have gone to New York, or London, or wherever. I had no right to ask her to stay here.”

“I was only like nine or ten,” Allie said. “But I seem to remember her complaining to Zane that you weren’t proposing fast enough. They were in the kitchen, and I was trying to sneak frosting off the cake, so it must have been a birthday. You didn’t ask her that night, by the way. It wasmonthsbefore you did.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked.

“You could ask Zane about it,” she suggested. “But yeah, she definitely wanted to marry you. And she wanted to have kids and the whole thing. Besides, Iris would never do anything she didn’t want to do. Are you sure you ever even met her?”

That ripped a chuckle out of him. It was true. Iris had been pretty outspoken. If she’d wanted something different, she would have said so.

“She didn’t know how little time she would have,” he whispered. “Maybe she thought she could follow her dreams later.”

“Well, we’ll never know, will we?” Allie asked. “Right now, though, you have to think about your kids and yourself, because you’re all still here. And you’d better think about Charlotte, too, if you called me here to ask how to get her back.”

“She was in the barn with Olivia the other night,” he said. “Practicing play stuff, they said. But when I walked in Olivia, was just screaming about how she was mad at me and mad about her mom.”

“Good,” Allie said. “That poor girl spent too much time fussing over her brother when her mother passed. She needs to accept her feelings and get them out. If yelling about it in the barn makes her feel better, and Charlotte’s there to listen, then you should be grateful.”

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