Page 37 of My Ex for Christmas
Small towns have a habit of resisting change, but one little thing here and there over the years, and soon it’s not the same place it was a decade ago. Being confronted with it like this would be jarring, I imagine.
I glance at her. “Nothing like Brazil, huh?”
She shakes her head. “Not at all.”
It’s my own damn fault for bringing it up, but her response sets off a chain of nerves inside me.Not at allcould mean so many things. It could mean she’s simply biding her time until she can return there. It could mean she loved it there, but she loves it here, too. That she wants to stay.
I want her to want to stay. For her own reasons and notanyone else’s, no matter how much a small part of me selfishly wants to get on my knees and beg.
I shake myself from my thoughts as I turn onto a familiar snow-lined street. Hadley shifts in her seat, suddenly looking uneasy.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Yeah,” she says. “Okay, no. Maybe. I guess I’m just a little nervous.”
My brows raise. “Nervous to see my mom and sisters?”
She cuts me a sharp look that I catch from the corner of my eye. “I haven’t seen them in eight years, and that was just before we broke up. I’m sure they know how we left things. HowIleft things. What if they hate me?”
“They don’t hate you,” I say. “They never have. Did they miss you? Sure. But we both needed different things back then, and they understood that.”
Well, my sisters did after Mom explained it to them ad nauseam. All they knew at first was Hadley was too far away for them to visit.
Hadley doesn’t seem convinced as she picks at an imaginary piece of lint on her sleeve.
“And you’re sure it’s okay that I’m here? I still have time to take Sam up on her offer.”
I pull up to the curb in front of my childhood home and put the truck in park, but I don’t make a move to get out yet.
Reaching over, I take Hadley’s hand in mine and intertwine our fingers. She finally looks at me, and I can see the worry in her expression.
I squeeze her hand. “You’ve always been welcome. You know that, and Mom would be on your ass for forgetting.” This pulls a small laugh from her. “But more importantly, I want you here.”
I knew it from the moment I saw her sitting at my bar. It wasn’t our time before, but life has thrown this second chance at us, and I’ll be damned if I let it slip by.
I only hope she feels the same.
Hadley’s eyes soften, and she smiles. “I want to be here,” she says. “I’ve missed my Dawson family dinners.”
That hits me right in the chest, knocking the breath from me.
“They weren’t the same after you left,” I admit. It took Mom weeks to stop setting a seventh place at the table. She didn’t even struggle like that when our sperm donor of a father left town.
Leaning across the centre console, Hadley places her free hand on my cheek and brushes her lips against mine. I press a little harder, savouring the feel.
“Let’s go inside,” she says when she pulls back.
When I get out and round the hood of my truck, I slip my hand into Hadley’s. She turns to me with a grateful smile before marching up the sidewalk, ready to face her fate.
Seeing the wreath hanging on the front door, covering the chipping paint, makes me smile. It doesn’t feel like Christmas until Mom hangs that wreath.
As I push open the door, Hadley takes a deep breath. Then I tug her inside.
We’re instantly met with a loud squeal. “They’re here!”
Ronnie skids into the hallway, sliding in her fuzzy socks. She has a beaming smile on her face, and it only grows brighter when she sets eyes on our intertwined hands.
“So itistrue,” Ronnie says. “Andi didn’t believe it, but Marcy said that you said that Hadley came back, and Izzy thought you might get back together. It’s true, right?”
