Silent Night, Star-Lit Night (Second Chance at Star Inn)(22)

“You’d have done fine,” he told her, and squeezed right back. “You’ve done fine all along. This trip wouldn’t have been any different.”

A tiny smile of appreciation softened her jaw. “Thank you.”

“You hungry?”

She paused again, looking around. “I am, actually. Starved.”

“Are they all set in the shelter?”

“Jude and the kids are back in their house with everything up and running and the last three people were heading home in the morning when the roads north are fully open, so Reggie sent me on my way.”

“Then, Mia O’Loughlin.” He tucked her arm through his and turned back toward the inn. “Since it’s just us again, Angel’s invited us to share supper with her at the inn again. And it is our last night here.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

He hoped that wistful note in her voice meant something, but he’d learned a good lesson the night before and didn’t press. He helped her down the curb to cross the road and then up the other side. “You’ll be in Roslyn for Christmas, and I’d like to make sure we spend some of Christmas together, depending on Grandpa Joe’s condition. If you wouldn’t mind having some fresh eggnog with an old friend who kisses really well.”

Her cheeks had been pink from the cold, but his words drove the blush deeper. “It was a beautiful kiss, Jed.”

“Glad you liked it.” He moved forward to open the inn door once they’d climbed the steps, but Angel surprised them by stepping outside with a camera.

“Perfect timing.”

“Is it?” Jed looked at her, then Mia, wondering what Angel meant.

Angel stepped quickly toward the broad front stairs. “You two have been wonderful to have here during a crisis. You went all in, and not everyone would do that.” She waggled the small camera. “I want to do an online scrapbook of our blizzard for the Web page, so if you would just come back down the steps so I can get you, the star, and the inn in a shot that would be marvelous!” She half-sang the last word, and Jed was pretty sure no one refused to do Angel’s bidding.

“Glad to oblige.”

“Make sure that’s a wide-angle lens,” Mia quipped.

“Won’t need it if we do this,” Jed replied. He stood behind her on the broad step and slipped his hands around her middle, resting them lightly on the baby curve, then laid his chin against her hair. “How’s that, Mia?”

*

How was that?

The feeling of Jed being kind, looking out for her, holding her, kissing her . . .

Beautiful. Special. Amazing. And absolutely unbelievable, so she was pretty sure when he had a day or two back in the busyness of Roslyn with skinny girls in cute sweaters, the shimmer of romance in the snow would melt to stark reality of swollen ankles and stretch marks. But for now, it was delightful. She tipped her head back and caught his gaze. “Perfect, Jed.”

He smiled at her, leaned down, and touched his lips to hers in the gentlest of gentle kisses. “Good.”

“Got it!”

“You got us kissing?”

“Excellent,” Jed declared.

“I think so, too,” said Angel as she dashed back up the steps. “And I’ve done an old family specialty for your supper. I hope you don’t mind that I took it upon myself to assume you’d be eating here, with half the shops still closed up.”

“It came down to you or Hoagie’s Deli, and Angel, when it comes to a choice between the two, well . . .” Jed flashed her the smile that all of Roslyn knew and loved. “There is no choice.”

“Oh, you!” Angel flapped her Christmas apron at him and hurried away.

Lorrie had just finished setting the table, and when she hit the switch for the Christmas lights the entire front of the inn took on a holiday glow. One little light glowed especially sweet, and Mia crossed the room to the beautiful Nativity set and pointed to the lit star above, a miniature of the inn’s star. “This is new.”

“It was broken,” Lorrie explained. “We had old Tom Smith make us a new one, he’s that good with things even though he’s kissing eighty years come March, and he brought it by today once things started settling down. This was the family’s Nativity set back in the day, and the star above was modeled after this one. It’s over seventy years old, and every year we set it out with love.”

Mia’s throat went tight.

Her palms grew damp.

“Oh, now you’ve done it.”

Jed moved closer and settled firm hands on her shoulders. “Between the hormones and the holiday, it doesn’t take much to make her cry, Lorrie.”

“I’m not crying. I’m close to crying. There’s a difference.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Oh, ma’am, I’m so sorry.” Lorrie looked truly distraught. “I wouldn’t have said anything if I thought it was going to upset you! I should learn to just be quiet.”

“Lorrie, I’m fine. Just tired and emotional and very, very pregnant. You’ve got kids, right?”

Lorrie nodded.

“So you understand.”

“I sure do. And it is nice to have old things and new around, isn’t it?”

It was, but the thought that the family had taken such care to do things together, to build and take care of the sprawling old house, to keep a Nativity set through three generations . . .