Page 53 of Wish You Faith

She chattered with new customers who stopped at the display. A small new crowd grew, and she repeated herself a couple of times. Eventually they thinned out and disappeared.

Rosie realized that she hadn’t taken her own lunch break. She made her way to the apple cider stand and poured herself a paper cup of hot apple cider. Sipping it, she returned to the bonsai and looked around to see if Evan was back. She didn’t want to leave the tree until she handed it over to Evan. It was for his mom, and Rosie wanted to leave a good impression.

A good what?

She busied herself standing at the bonsai display, feeling more nervous than usual.

Rosie, Rosie. Calm down.

She took a deep breath and busied herself checking the bonsai display. She made a mental note to invite Chevy and his wife to teach another master class during the offseason. Christmastown got busy for Christmas starting July every year, but there was a lull between January and May. During that period, the tree farm often conducted classes for the public and welcomed school field trips in the spring semester.

She stayed close to Evan’s bonsai, just in case someone messed with it. Funny how she hadn’t been that concerned about the bonsai or any of the other plants and trees in the tree farm until now. After all, the entire place had security cameras everywhere, so vandals would eventually be arrested anyway.

Still, this was now Evan’s tree—or his mom’s, for that matter.

Rosie wondered what his mom was like. Would she like Rosie as much as her own mom liked Evan?

Then again, their relationship was between just the two of them. Whether Evan’s mom accepted her or not, Rosie would still go out with him if they both wanted to. It wasn’t his mother’s business, even though it would be nice to have parental blessing on their relationship. After all, she liked him.

Well, do I really like him?

She chuckled at her own thoughts. What kind of a question was that? They had held hands. They had kissed. They had cared for each other more than anyone else—besides Mom—this month. They had seen each other every single day for two weeks. That was a lot of time wasted if Rosie didn’t like Evan.

“I’m back.” Evan’s cart rumbled across the pine floor. “Is my tree okay? Did you protect it with your life?”

Before Rosie could answer, Evan eyed her apple cider. “The cinnamon smells so good. Allspice and everything nice.”

He took the paper cup from Rosie and sipped it. “Mmm. Temperature is just right.”

“That’s mine,” Rosie protested quietly. She had never shared a cup with anyone—not even with Mom.

“I’ll get you some more.” Evan emptied the cup.

His eyes were on her lips—again. He was smiling—again.

“Sweet,” he said.

Rosie’s knees wobbled.

CHAPTERTEN

Evan floated on cloud nine the rest of the day and all the way back to his rental apartment after work. He wanted to have dinner with Rosie, but she and her mom were going to a ladies’ night out with Dottie and Marcella. Three widows and Rosie the driver.

Evan ate some Chinese takeout leftovers from Sunday night and was about to watch Netflix, when he received a text from his brother. He checked it right away because he and Connor chatted a few times a week.

Connor

Family meeting this weekend. Can you come?

Evan

No.

Connor

Intervention.

Evan sighed.Here we go again.

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