Page 69 of Meet Me at the Christmas Cottage
Jonah opened his mouth to contradict his sister, but…could she be right? He’d told his parents so long ago that he wanted to join the Army after college to go to med school because that’s what his grandpa had done. He thought they’d agreed because he was still on track to becoming a doctor, but could it be that they’d said yes because that was what Jonah had said he wanted?
“But I’d be throwing away years of school, and for what?”
“What’s your point, Jonah?” Holland threw up her hands. “If you aren’t happy, if you’llneverbe happy being a doctor, I don’t think Mom and Dad will force you to keep doing it. Dad might be disappointed for a little bit, but it’s not the end of the world. The end of the world would be finding out you’re in a life you hate because you thought you had no other choice. That would break his heart.”
Hadn’t Bronte told him basically the same thing? “I don’t even have a good plan of what to do if I get out.”
The idea of the bookstore popped into his head. It had just been a dream when he and Bronte had walked by the store. He’d never imagined that there was a world where he could live on the island, not be a doctor, and own a bookstore. Had he been worried about nothing?
“You’ll figure something out. I’m sure you have a backup plan for your backup plan somewhere in that brain of yours. Besides, if you think you can use Dad as an excuse to stay in a mind-numbing life, you are highly mistaken, mister.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re using Mom and Dad as an excuse for making a decision about your life.”
“I’m not. I’m just…it’s hard to go against the plan that’s been laid out for you.”
Holland reached over and punched him in the shoulder. “They want you to be happy.”
“I thought it was going to make me happy. It’s a solid job and can provide for a family here on island. That’s what I always wanted.” Jonah turned back to the TV, not believing that he was confessing this to his sister. “But I just don’t know if that’s what I want anymore. At least the job part of it. I still want a family. Still want to stay here. Mostly, I want a woman I can partner with. Who will make me a better man.”
“And that’s Bronte?”
Jonah shrugged. “If she wants the same thing.”
He and Bronte still had so much to talk about. But he was determined not to let her leave without telling her that having biological kids wasn’t the be all and end all for him.
“Then why are you still doing the Army thing?”
Jonah huffed out a breath. He knew she was asking a rhetorical question, because he had already answered it. Or maybe she just wanted to make the question sink in.
“I think you would be surprised at Mom and Dad’s reaction if you told them you weren’t planning on reenlisting and you didn’t want to take over the clinic. Especially if it meant you were moving back home.”
Maybe he could make this work. He would tell his dad about his idea to open the bookstore, and everything would work out. He’d settle down and start a book-loving family.
Thoughts of the dreams that his mind had conjured of him and Bronte and a huge family slammed to the forefront, and he remembered what could never be. At least, not with Bronte.
ChapterSeventeen
“I’m going home, Lexi.”
Bronte had sequestered herself in her bedroom—Jonah’schildhood bedroom—for the last three hours. In that time, she had packed, cried, unpacked (thinking that maybe she should stay and talk it over with Jonah, maybe they could work this out), then repacked, remembering that, one, at the end of the day she always ended up alone, and two, Jonah deserved so much better. He deserved the big house filled with kids. The White family was a crowd of people. They filled up spaces, and it was unfair for Bronte to ask Jonah to give up that dream for her.
“Hold on. Rewind. I thought you weren’t going home for another week.” It was after one in the morning in Michigan, but with the time change for California, it was still an acceptable calling time. Not that that would have stopped Bronte. She was desperate. “And Merry Christmas, by the way.”
Bronte pinched the bridge of her nose to keep from crying again. “I told him I couldn’t have kids.”
Lexi was silent for a breath. “And he didn’t take it well?”
“I don’t know. His family walked in.”
“His family?”
“Walked in. All of them. There were, like, fifty people.” Bronte paced.
“Fifty?”
Bronte threw up the hand that wasn’t currently holding the phone to her ear. She needed to find her earbuds so she could free her hands. “Okay, fine. It wasn’t fifty, but there were a lot of them.” She dug around in her messenger bag for her missing earbuds. “He has a big family, Lex. Like four sisters, and a niece, and I’ve lost count of all the people on the island that consider him a big brother. His family is big, huge.”
