A Chance This Christmas(26)
“I couldn’t agree more.” Briefly, she weighed the idea of sticking around the area long enough to attend one of these town meetings and make her thoughts on the subject known. But her whole point in being here was to make peace with the past this week—not get mired in it all over again. Still, for all his work to help Yuletide, Gavin’s efforts should be championed.
“I’ll call the mayor tomorrow.” Gavin nodded as he seemed to come to a decision. “Ask him point-blank what his plans are.”
“It does seem like an unlikely coincidence they brought Sven in at a time when they thought you were going to be in Austria for the week.” That worried her about the mayor’s intentions. “I checked your schedule before I came, and the website for the team says—”
She realized what she’d revealed, perhaps because his grin made her all too aware.
“You checked my schedule. Were you wondering if you would see me?” He seemed to like the idea, based on his teasing tone and the way he squeezed her hand tighter.
She realized they’d walked to the Candy Cane Slide as if drawn there by the past. They stopped there now, right at the site of that long-ago kiss.
“I was trying to make sure I would avoid you,” she shot back, even though the words lacked any heat. “Just because I thought it might be awkward to patch things up with Luke when you were here.” She had spent a long time thinking about the best time to return to Yuletide after she’d made the pact with her girlfriends to heal the past. “I didn’t realize you two had repaired your friendship so well after Luke found us that day.”
Not that she’d expected one kiss to drive a wedge between good friends forever, but Luke could be stubborn. Judgmental. Then again, that was nineteen-year-old Luke. He would have matured a great deal since then, the same as her. Even if he had avoided her at the party last night.
“I went to see Luke every day before he left for his next deployment.” Gavin rested a shoulder against one side of the steps leading to the top of the slide. “He didn’t acknowledge me until his last twenty-four hours in town, but by the time we spoke, he was ready to move past it. He admitted you’d broken things off with him weeks before that day he found us.”
Rachel exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. She leaned her shoulder on the side of the slide steps too, buffeted from the wind by the molded plastic wall.
“That was good of you.” She couldn’t help but admire Gavin for putting in the effort to make peace with his friend, especially when he knew Luke had been headed overseas. Although it would have been nice if one of them had reached out to her. She’d been hurt, too. “I’m sure it helped him to clear the air before he left.”
“For what it’s worth, he knew even then that he’d put you in an awkward position—asking you not to tell people about the breakup. I guess he hoped a big romantic gesture might make you change your mind.”
It had been romantic. Half the reason the town had been so outraged at her rejection was because Luke was a local hero and females from tweens to grandmas all thought he was a terrific guy. And he was. He just wasn’t right for Rachel. “We were too different. I always knew I wanted to leave Yuletide and even then he was talking about when he would come home to settle here for good.”
“All his family is here. I always envied him that,” Gavin said, a wistful note in his voice.
“At least now Luke is getting married to someone who will appreciate those big romantic gestures and wants to live in Yuletide too.” She knew Kiersten and Luke would have a beautiful marriage. “I’m glad they’re happy.”
In the quiet aftermath of her words, she realized how close they stood. How nice it felt to have his hand wrapped around hers, an anchoring warmth in the chilly evening while a few snowflakes took their time falling to the ground. They dotted her cheek and nose, skimmed her parka with a gentle swish-ing sound.
“How about you?” Gavin asked, his voice low and for her ears only, even though the playground was empty except for them. “Are you happy, Rachel?”
She stared into his eyes as he lifted his free hand to swipe a dark lock of hair from her cheek. Shivers of awareness radiated out from that small place he touched her.
“I guess so. Or, at least, I will be happy when I settle things here so I can go home with a clear conscience. Knowing I tried to smooth over old wrongs and make peace with Yuletide.”
“It means a lot to you, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t think I realized that my grudge against the town was as big as their grudge against me until I got back here.” She wondered when was the last time she’d had a conversation so intimate—so personal and focused on things that mattered to her—with anyone. “I don’t want to be the kind of woman who uses old hurts to justify being bitter or resentful.”
“In snowboarding, we call it being able to put the last run behind you.” Gavin stepped closer still. “If you can’t do that, it’s hard to find success in the next run.”
She nodded vague agreement, watching him as his head canted nearer. His lips.
And then, he was kissing her. His mouth covered hers gently, his fingers spearing up into her hair to draw her against him.
Chapter Seven