Page 55 of Wrapped Up in Christmas Love
“And will offer to stay all night if it serves as a way to avoid me because I just upset you by wanting you to come to the Quilts of Valor booth with me?”
“Maybe,” she admitted, both annoyed and impressed by his sharp mind.
He leaned close, whispering as if he needed to tell her something for her ears only. “Don’t look now, but we’re being watched, so smile.”
“Oh, goodie. I’m so thrilled.” She bared her teeth in a grimace-like smile. “For the record, we’ve been watched from the moment we stepped out of the kitchen together.”
His eyes twinkled. “I wasn’t sure if you’d noticed, what with the smoke billowing around us from the burnt rolls.”
“There wasn’t smoke. Well, not much,” she relented, fighting back a real smile. There had been smoke. Not tons, but enough that her eyes had watered when they’d rescued the rolls. “Besides, even if there had been enough to warrant Cole suiting up, it would have been difficult to miss Maybelle’s eagle eyes when you grabbed my hand during prayer.” His hand holding hers during that prayer had felt… nice. That had completely unsettled her to where she hadn’t been able to focus on the words her Uncle George spoke, thanking the Lord for their meal and for those who had prepared it, for their health, for family and friends, old and new.
“The man with Maybelle seems besotted. He’s who was with her the day at the park?”
“John?” Glad for the subject change, she nodded and looked at where John offered Maybelle his last bite of pie and, shaking her head, she patted his cheek. “He is. Apparently, she was the bee’s knees back during their teens and he’s crushed on her ever since.”
“That would be the Butterfly’s knees,” he teased, tilting his head expectantly until Isabelle smiled.
“You’d like John. He served in the Korean War.” Why was she telling him this? She liked John, liked that Maybelle had his company, but she never discussed his background, and yet, she was. “My cousin Morgan presented him with a Quilts of Valor quilt last year. She’s a nurse. You’ve not met her yet as she lives in California. They were planning to surprise everyone tonight, but unfortunately, they won’t arrive until late tomorrow night.”
Zach’s gaze flicked from Maybelle and John to Isabelle. “She’s married to Ruby’s grandson? The one who is Cole’s friend?”
“Yes. Morgan, along with her son, moved out west with Andrew after they married this summer. She’s working at a hospital not far from where they live. She and Greyson are happy.”
“Another person who escaped this town.”
“Morgan doesn’t really count. She didn’t grow up here, just visited for summers and holidays when we were younger. She grew up at whatever base her military parents were currently assigned to.”
His brow lifted. “For someone so anti-military, you sure have a lot of military in your family, Blondie.”
“I’m not anti-military. I’m very thankful for the military and the freedom it affords me, and not just because it’s the holiday to be grateful.” She was also grateful for the interruption when her phone buzzed. A shop employee’s name popped up.
“I’m so sorry, Isabelle,” Gwen said, sounding miserable when Isabelle answered the call. “I have a stomach bug and won’t be at work tomorrow. I’d have called earlier, but I kept thinking I had just overeaten and would be better. Instead, I just keep getting worse.”
“No worries. Just get better. We’ll make do.” Somehow. Isabelle hung up and slid her phone into her back pocket.
“What’s wrong?” Zach asked when he returned from tossing his paper bowl into the trash bin.
“Gwen called out of work tomorrow.” She sighed. “She’s not feeling well, so can’t help it, but it’ll make tomorrow more stressful. Black Friday is our busiest day of the year.”
Zach eyed her a moment, then suggested, “Put me to work in her place.”
“You?”
He nodded. “Why not?”
How was she supposed to focus if he was there? He’d be like a reindeer in an ornament shop. It would be total chaos.
“You don’t know anything about working at a quilt shop, Zach. Just because you have a knack for making quarter-inch seams doesn’t make you qualified to fill in at my shop.”
His gaze boring into hers, he asked, “You’d rather be shorthanded than to have me help you? Seriously?”
Did it make her terrible if she said yes?
“What business turns down free labor?”
Isabelle shook her head. “I wouldn’t let you work for free.”
“Zach is offering to work for free?” Sophie came to the table with a slice of chocolate pie. “Quick. Sign him up before he changes his mind.”
