Page 15 of Welcome Home for Christmas
Allison looked down at the table. “I’m a bad judge of character. My mother, on the other hand, is a pro. I pick the rotten apples, or just the wrong apples, and she points them out. I’m tired of it all.”
His eyes softened. “Who says the next…apple wouldn’t be the right one?”
She pulled her drink close, needing something to do with her hands. “Doesn’t matter. I’m happy on my own.” And that was the truth. She enjoyed a quiet house. Enjoyed having all her free time to herself. She could meet her girlfriends at Heroes anytime she wanted. Volunteer her time with Mercy’s kids. There was no significant other vying for her attention.
“Fair enough,” Troy said.
She felt her body relax as he moved on to another topic.
“Can I get you something else?” a waitress asked a few minutes later.
“Missy! How are you?” Troy said, obviously knowing her. “I didn’t know Sam had hired you on.”
The brunette nodded. “And he’s a good boss, you’ll be happy to know.”
“I’ll tell him to give you a raise,” Troy grinned.
“Taking this job came with a raise,” Missy said. “He told me to hand you this.” She laid a flyer down on the table. Troy glanced at it and groaned. Not his brother, too.
“What is it?” Allison asked.
Missy pointed at the top. “Only the biggest, brightest Christmas tree you’ll ever see. If you haven’t seen it, it’s amazing. Troy knows. He’ll take you.”
Troy lifted a brow. “I take back what I said about you getting a raise.”
Missy waved a hand. “Jokester.” She returned her focus to Allison. “Sam also said dessert was on the house. You like chocolate, right? What am I saying? Of course you do, you’re a woman. We have chocolate cheesecake tonight.”
Troy groaned happily now. “You’ve never had dessert like this,” he told Allison. “This will be the most satisfying thing you’ll put in your mouth this year.”
She swallowed.
He grinned.
Had he meant that to sound the way it had?
She hoped the blush of her skin wasn’t telling on her. “Great. I can’t wait.”
It was after ten when they finally left the restaurant. They’d talked and eaten for hours. Everything that Allison learned about Troy was polar opposite to her. He was a dog guy. She preferred cats. He liked steak and potatoes while she usually went for a lighter salad. The one thing they had in common was that neither of them was interested in an ongoing, serious relationship.
Good.
Allison pulled her jacket tighter around her to ward off the frigid December air and held up the flyer that Missy had laid down for them. “I have to see this Christmas tree.”
He glanced over. “It’s just a big tree with lights.”
“I love big trees with lights. The bigger the better.” Why was everything sounding so suggestive? “I’ve been a fan of Christmas trees since I was a little girl. I used to stare at ours and try not to blink, until the colors swirled and mixed, and everything except that blur of wonder disappeared.”
The man beside her was silent.
Allison glanced over. He hadn’t needed to know that piece of information. It wouldn’t be on the list of things her family expected him to know. She wouldn’t tell him, though, that while she’d stared at her childhood trees, she’d fantasized for a long time about her birth father coming home. That when she was really young, she’d pretend that there was some kind of magic in those trees that could make her deepest desires come true.
“Okay,” Troy finally said. “You’re a hard woman to say no to, you know?”
Allison laughed, resisting her need to lean in closer to him as they walked. Resisting everything he ignited inside her.
—
Paradise Point’s Town Park had been a magical place for Troy as a kid. He’d come here with his brothers and gone ice skating around the town’s tree for hours after school and all day on the weekends.
