Page 63 of Christmas at Valentine Inn

I blinked, trying to get my equilibrium back. I had the feeling Patrick was about to tell me something significant. Even more important than the proper way to squeeze toothpaste.

“Cruz just asked me to the winter formal. Can I go, Dad?”

It was the most excited I had ever seen her. For that I was grateful, even if it meant I had missed out on something I surely needed to know. Perhaps even something I already knew but wasn’t quite brave enough to hear yet.

Patrick took a moment to shake out of lover mode and back to dad mode. “Uh ... yes. Of course.”

I had to keep reminding myself how very different dating him would be. His life wasn’t his own anymore. As it shouldn’t be.

Bridgette tucked some hair behind her ear. “Isabelle,” she said shyly. “Do you think you could take me dress shopping?”

Oh. Wow. “I would love to.”

She squealed, looping each of her arms through one of ours. We finished skating to the rest of the song together.

I smiled over at Patrick. It was weird that even though we weren’t touching, with his daughter between us, I felt closer to him than I ever had before. Was I finally going to get my greatest Christmas wish—a family of my own?

“I’VE NEVER SEEN YOU HAPPIER.”Charlotte crawled into the bed across from me. We called our sleeping arrangementsthe Desi and Lucy beds. Twin beds separated by a nightstand. I was already sad, knowing soon I would be staring at an empty bed. The funny thing was, we never shared a room as children. Though Charlotte often found her way into my room and snuggled in bed with me. As a child it annoyed me. As an adult, I wanted more nights of her and I talking late, sharing everything from our fears to what made us inexplicably happy.

I finished applying the nighttime eye cream I was sure wasn’t helping and set it on the nightstand. Maybe it was futile, but I wasn’t going down without a fight. As long as the fight didn’t include me going under the knife. Not that I judged people for it, but it wasn’t for me. I’d always promised myself I would try to age gracefully,as myself. After hearing how Nina died, I didn’t want to go down that road more and more.

I rested against my plethora of pillows, grinning. “I am happy.”

“You have the entire town buzzing about your secret relationship and wedding.”

“I hope people don’t hate me when they find out the engagement was fake.”

Charlotte snuggled down into her pillows. “Why does it have to be?”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, it’s so obvious you two are in love.”

“Love?” I coughed out. “No one has said those words.” I mean sure, Patrick all but admitted to being in love with me, saying he was willing to make the engagement real. And did I see myself married to him in the future? Absolutely. But ... “We’ve known each other for all of one month total. That’s like two tenths of a percent of my life.”

“That was some quick math there.” She laughed. “But love doesn’t care about percentages.”

“Char, I just found out my ex-husband didn’t really want to marry me and more than likely cheated on me. And someone I thought was one of my best friends in college orchestrated it. I think a bit of caution is warranted here.”

“I get that, but it needs to be said that Jared is a pig and Nina was obviously a psycho. Don’t let them rule your life. So, caution, smaution.” She waved her hand around. “What did Amanda do when she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with the receptionist?”

“Are you talking aboutThe Holiday? As in a fictional movie?”

“There are some very real-life takeaways from that film, thank you very much.” She giggled.

“And what are those?” I challenged her.

“Well, first, Amanda did something she’d never done before, and it paid off big-time. We are talking Jude Law big. If she had never swapped houses, which I admit is kind of creepy, a drunk Graham would have never shown up on her doorstep. And since she was in a different country, it freed her to, you know, kiss him and, uh,talk.”

“Patrick and I aren’ttalking.”

“Which I totally admire.” She fluttered her lashes. “I’m just saying, Amanda opened herself up to the possibility of love even though she’d been hurt and it was going to be complicated, considering they lived in different countriesandhe had two children. Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “You are kind of living outThe Holiday.”

“You’re a nut. I’m not living out one of my favorite rom-coms.”

She sat up. “Are you kidding me. It took Graham all of a few days to fall in love with Amanda, and he had two kids like Patrick.”

“We don’t know for sure that Patrick is in love with me.”

---