Page 14 of A Mountain Springs Christmas
Noelle smiled. “No. That’s for you to decorate then take home and eat.”
Jack watched Noelle help Aiden as he worked on his own train car. He loved how patient she was with his nephew and how well she explained how to make the box and helped hold some pieces but let him do all the parts he could do on his own. It was sweet. He knew Rachel couldn’t give Aiden all the attention he needed right now and knew how happy it would make her to know her son was so well cared for. It made him happy, too.
Once they had their train cars made and were decorating them with the candy and icing, Aiden let out a long exhale. “I wish my mom was here making these, too.”
Noelle set down her icing bag. “How about we take lots of pictures? Then you can tell her about every single bit of it when you get home and show her the pictures, and she’ll feel like she was here.”
Aiden nodded his head enthusiastically. Jack probably should’ve thought about taking pictures on his own. Noelle pulled out her phone and took a few pictures, then Aiden turned to Jack and tapped his arm. “You get some on your phone, too. Get a selfie with me, you, and Noelle.”
Jack held his phone out to get all of them, but Aiden apparently wasn’t happy with Noelle being the furthest away from the camera, so Aiden turned to Noelle and said, “Come over here and squish your face right between mine and Uncle Jack’s.”
Noelle’s face reddened a bit, but she got out of her seat and positioned her face right between him and Aiden. Close enough that he could smell her peppermint shampoo and feel the buzz of energy that seemed to be fueled simply by their being so close.
When everyone finished their creations, they all headed over to the table with the Christmas village and placed their train cars on the mechanical wheel base set on the tracks. With his parents gone when he was fifteen, he’d always felt like he had to spend all of his extra time doing things that made money. Even after his company became profitable, he never slowed down to do something like this. He hadn’t even felt like he should come to this activity tonight because there was so much more work to do back at the office. Noelle had only said that he had to be at half of the activities, so this had been one he had definitely planned to skip.
But after missing half of the last event, he decided that he didn’t want Noelle thinking he couldn’t keep his word. At least he was pretty sure that was his entire reason for coming tonight. Or maybe he just hadn’t been willing to admit that other feelings about Noelle played a role in the decision. Regardless of the reason, tonight had felt refueling, somehow, which totally surprised him. He wouldn’t have guessed that would be what he’d be feeling at this point.
Once everyone’s train car was on the tracks, Noelle’s dad turned the train on, and Aiden watched in wonder as the train went all around the village, carrying the train cars that they had just made.
Jack looked at Noelle, and they both shared a smile. But he knew that his smile wasn’t just about seeing Aiden’s wonder. It was also about Noelle herself. He’d already felt attracted to her more than he was okay with, but now he felt a deepening attraction to her that scared him.
This woman was going to be the death of him. She was as off-limits as they came since not only was she his employee, but she was currently his employee times two.
seven
NOELLE
Noelle satdown at her desk at work, and before she got started on the day’s work, she pulled out her tin of cards from Gran-gran and started shuffling through them. When she came across the scene painted of the two of them making a snow creation in Downtown Park, she smiled and put it back in the tin. A little acknowledgment of having finished that part of what Gran-gran had wanted her to do.
Then she came across one of them decorating the boxcars for the gingerbread train. That one made her insides smile, too, just thinking about the look on Jack’s face as he had moved in close to wipe the frosting off her cheek and the feeling—almost an electricity—that passed between them. Seeing him help Aiden was so sweet, too. She couldn’t believe that she had worked with this man for a year and a half and hadn’t had a clue about who he really was.
And now that she had caught a glimpse of it, she could feel herself falling for him. Which wasn’t a good ideaat all. But still, she’d take that smile he gave her as they saw Aiden’s face at seeing the train go around the Christmas village any day. All day, any day.
“Look at you being all smiley,” Bridget said, and Noelle jumped, not even realizing that her coworker was at her desk, let alone watching her. “Dish. Tell me what’s new in your life.”
Noelle immediately thought of Jack, but she wasn’t about to say anything about him to Bridget. Instead, she said, “I don’t know. I guess it’s just because I’m finding the Christmas spirit again after losing it a year ago.”
“Aww! That’s so sweet! Do you know who else is finding their Christmas spirit as well?"
“Who?”
“Our boss.”
Noelle’s eyebrows rose, and she glanced toward the hall that held Jack’s office.
“Do you remember what a Grinch he was last year?” Bridget asked. “The biggest Grinch you’ve ever known, right? He always wants to work more at Christmas and gets even more surly whenever he sees Christmas decorations on people’s desks and stuff like that.”
“Oh.” Noelle glanced back toward Jack’s office. “I had just assumed that he had something hard going on in his life last year.”
Bridget shook her head. “This is my third Christmas here—he’s like that every year.”
Lennox must’ve been listening in as he was typing something into his computer because then he swiveled his chair around their direction and said, “I can confirm that it’s an every year thing. I don’t know what’s changed in his life, but I was the first person here this morning, and I actually heard him whistling a Christmas tune.”
“No way,” Noelle said.
Lennox shrugged. “I’m not even kidding you. But I know you won’t fully believe it until you’ve checked it out for yourself.”
She really did want to experience it because it made her insides flutter, just thinking that she maybe had something to do with it. The fact that he was changing his opinions about Christmas enough that other people were noticing was kind of a big deal. And, okay, her insides fluttered just thinking about Jack himself. So she grabbed her notebook and stood up.
