Page 28 of Stocking Stuffers
She moved around languidly, like she was satisfied, and a burst of pride hit him. He loved seeing her like that and knowing he’d caused it with nothing but his mouth and a toy.
They made their way out of the attic, with a quick pit stop in the Blue Spruce Room to stash the toys, then to the ground floor of the inn. The place was alive with activities and warmth. The stranded members of the Staunchly Raunchy Book Club were playing gin rummy in front of the fire in the hearth room and several other guests were watching football.
He and Sasha avoided everyone as they traversed the house. He didn’t want to answer any questions about where they’d disappeared to.
He pulled her into the formal dining room, which had huge windows that overlooked the backyard. From those windows, the carriage house and the rest of the property was visible. The family with the kids was in the backyard building a snowman as flurries whipped around them. He’d never seen snow that thick.
“Okay, you ready for this?” he asked her as he directed her in front of one of the windows.
She nodded. “Born ready.”
He pointed at the gazebo. “That gazebo is surrounded by hydrangea bushes I planted the summer after I graduated high school. I love the way they pop against the white of the gazebo, but they can be finicky. In the back corner of the property over there by the row of copper birches, I created a huge butterfly garden. I think I was twenty or twenty-one and home from college at the time. It has beebalm, baptisia, yarrow, blazing star, lavender, calamintha, daisies, black-eyed susan, verbena, and buddleia. I set a cobblestone path through the middle with a few rustic, refurbished benches. It’s one of Valerie’s favorite places to get away.”
It was hard to imagine what the backyard was like in the summer, but he hoped she could picture the magic.
“Behind the carriage house, Valerie and I built a patio and outdoor kitchen, complete with wood-fired pizza oven. In the west corner of the lawn, there are curved perennial beds, lined with limestone rocks. That one over there has several peony bushes that were our mother’s babies. I built the rest of the flower beds around them. Do you see the rustic arbor back there, the one made of cedar logs?”
Sasha nodded, and Perry rested his hand on her hip.
“My granddad built that. It’s covered in clematis and leads to a picnic area. I repurposed some of his old garden tools, along with antique farming equipment, into sculptures back behind it. You can’t see them because they’re covered in snow.”
“So, you did all the landscaping back there?”
He shrugged. “It’s hard to picture in the winter. Mostly, I added to what was already there. I love wild gardens that feel lived-in and natural. Gardening and landscaping aren’t Valerie’s forte. She hires someone to keep it in tip-top shape during the spring and summer.”
Sasha turned and gazed up at him. “Why did you become an accountant, then?”
And wasn’t that the million dollar question. He didn’t want to go into his recent failings, not with a woman who seemed to know herself so well, who was so brave and interesting. He was the opposite of brave and interesting. He was an unemployed accountant who hadn’t been interesting enough to keep his last girlfriend through his current job upheaval.
It paid to be self-aware.
“Pragmatism? Financial security?” he said with a laugh, but it wasn’t funny. Being laid off and changing his career trajectory to a profession that was less financially solvent than accounting had not been a decision he’d made lightly. It had cost him so much.
“Pssh, life is too short not to take chances.”
She squeezed his shoulder, and his chest ached with tenderness. He was trash at one-night stands. He felt way too much for her and way too soon.
“I’m kind of expecting everything to fall apart, more than it has at least. I haven’t told Valerie that I lost my job, just that my ex and I broke up. She thinks I’m only here for Christmas. I’m nervous to ask her if I can stay. So I’m homeless, jobless, single, semi-directionless. I have a safety net, but that’s about all I’ve got going for me right now.”
He might as well have said that he was the opposite of a catch.
“As an older sister myself, I can tell you there isn’t a single thing I wouldn’t do for my younger brother. I’m sure Valerie feels the same way. I think you’re brave. Leaving your home and stability and a relationship that wasn’t working is scary. You have a big, romantic heart. That’s a good thing.”
He knew nothing of bravery, and he suspected he hadn’t scratched the surface of the ways she outstripped him in that department.
“Thank you.”
“What’s your favorite flower?”
He caught her hand and laced their fingers together. She let him.
“This one. Peony.” He tapped the huge tattoo on his side through his shirt.
“And your favorite Christmas plant?”
“Winterberry, of course. It gives the dreariness of winter a splash of color. There’s a ton lining the front porch.”
“I’m surprised it’s not mistletoe,” she said with a bit of cheek.
