Page 38 of Under the Mistletoe
Devin paced the other direction. “If I give them these, then they’ll be upset and numbers will go back down again. I have glitter glue, but fifty-six stockings will take a while to make, plus they need time to dry.”
Logan stepped in her path and laid his hands on her arms. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
Tears began to form again, and Logan pulled his hands back and shoved them in his pockets. She needed a solution, not him making a pass at her. But there had been something about that look that made him want to be the Rand in the story and comfort her, to tell her it was okay. To rescue her. Even if it was over a messed-up order rather than being kidnapped.
“Can’t someone help you?” Logan picked up one of the red stockings and ran his hand over the white fur at the top, then dropped it back in the box.
“Jess and Piper will be grading papers all night.”
“Have you asked anyone else? Hannah might?—”
“I know Hannah and Janie have a girls’ night planned. And it not anyone’s fault but mine.” She shrugged and walked back to the door as if to dismiss him, but he wasn’t leaving her like this.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.” He planted his feet and crossed his arms in front of himself. “If you need help, I can help.”
“You?”
Ouch. She expected so little of him, that he wouldn’t help her if she needed it? Then again, maybe she didn’t want his help. Or maybe she just didn’t see him as the guy who rescued. She saw him as Orin. “Only if you want me to.”
He held his breath. Why did her answer mean so much to him?
“Do you have time?”
Nope. He still had a ton of work to do on the chapter that was due to go live in less than twelve hours, which meant Christina was waiting for it. But it wasn’t like he had an ending for it yet, anyway. “One second.”
He pulled out his phone and sent her a text.
Logan
How late can I send Chapter 10?
Her reply came back almost immediately.
Christina
We’re having a family game night, so I won’t get to it until about 11 pm. But I need it no later.
Logan
It’ll be there.
He checked the time. “There, I made time. Now, where do I start laying out the stockings?”
“Shoot.” Devin’s face wrinkled. “Jess claimed the dining room to work on grading, and Piper already claimed the living room. I was going to take them up to my room but?—”
“Let’s take them to my parents’ house.” Hanging out with Devin in her room, even if they were only decorating stockings, was not where his head needed to be right now. “They have a great room where we can spread them out.”
He hefted the box and opened the front door, nearly stepping on the blue box that had started this whole adventure. Shoot. Although his near miss caught Devin’s attention as she looked around him.
“Oh.” Devin bent down and grabbed it. “Someone must have left this while we were talking.”
She opened the lid and, oh, the smile that spread across her face before she slipped it into her coat pocket. At least he got to see her open this one and know she liked them.
He carried the box of stockings down the sidewalk to his Bronco. Luckily it seemed like he’d been visiting family when he’d found the dog.
He opened the back and set the box in as Libby and Hannah climbed out of Hannah’s minivan. Hannah’s brown eyes jumped from him to Devin. “What are you two up to?”
Devin stopped next to him as he shut the back. “The stockings came in without names. Didn’t you two have a girls’ day?”
