Page 24 of Mistletoe Misses
“Please come inside.” The nervous shake in her voice does not go unnoticed, and I find a little comfort in knowing this ambush isn’t easy for her. “It’s freezing out here.”
“I’m fine.”
“Please?”
“I said I’m fine.”
“Okay.” Instead of walking away as my harsh tone advises, she stomps forward with determination and sits on the curb beside me.
“What are you doing?” I ask, letting out my frustration for the unwelcome intrusion with a sigh.
She wiggles her hands into leather gloves before answering. “Since you won’t come in, I’m preparing to shiver my way through this conversation.”
We’ll see how long that lasts.I can be very stubborn. Not ready to reconcile the girl I once knew with the woman she became in my absence, I turn away. “Did Mom put you up to this?”
“No. I’m as ready for this as you are, but—”
My disdain materializes into a puff of white air. “I doubt it.”
“Fair enough.” Her hands fly up, then fall into her lap. “But I’m hoping the boy I once knew is inside you and willing to give me a few minutes to explain.”
I glance out over the snow-covered street, begging for a distraction. Her familiar scent, the feel of her warmth leaking through my thin layers, the melodic sound of her voice—it’s more than my sputtering system can absorb and comprehend. Being this close to her once filled me with contentment. I lived and breathed for her before she stripped my life of meaning without warning.
Thinking about the days and weeks that followed without her still haunts me as if it happened yesterday. I forced myself through those final five months of school, barely earning passinggrades, before graduating and giving my body to my country. I didn’t care if I survived each mission, and the brothers I gained in the Army are the only reason I did.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
A broken chuckle leaks out of me without permission. “No, you really don’t.”
“You’re wondering about Sadie after what I said to you that night.”
I turn on her. “I can’t believe you have a kid.”And she’s not mine. “You gave up your career for her.”But not for me.
“That’s the thousand-foot view.”
“Who’s her father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Excuse me?” Struck speechless, I glare at her, and she holds her ground with that unfathomable strength I once admired. But I don’t want a reason to admire her. I’d much prefer to stay burning with fury, so I can stop wishing she’d chosen me for that life-changing moment instead of some absentee stranger.
“Sadie isn’t mine, Maddox. Well, she is in every way that matters, but I didn’t give birth to her.”
Relief courses through my veins, but it doesn’t erase all the images of her with another man my imagination sent through my brain like a highlight reel.
“Soon after I arrived in L.A., I met Charlotte,” she continues through my silence. “We were the same age with similar hair, skin tone, and eye color. At every audition opportunity that needed an actor who looked like us, we showed up and helped each other through the grueling process. We grew close and eventually became roommates.” She takes a deep breath. “But we didn’t always run in the same circles, and trouble seemed to find her. She wanted to keep Sadie safe and stayed away from the source as much as she could. It didn’t last, and she didn’t have family to help her. She asked me to be Sadie’s guardian ifanything happened, and on Sadie’s first birthday, she wrote up the necessary paperwork. She died in a car crash three years later.”
“That’s when you came back to Ember Falls?”
She nods. “I didn’t know how to raise a child. I needed help.”
“What about your dreams?”
“With Sadie counting on me, I guess I made new ones.”
“Like what?” I ask, despite my efforts not to.
“Giving her an incredible childhood like I had and endless opportunities to chase her own dreams.”
