Nick curled his lip and crossed his eyes at Noel, earning a chuckle. When Noel went back to egg cracking, Nick typed out a text to Amber.
Just got home. Would love to see you ASAP. I missed you.
He tucked his phone back into his pocket and leaned against the counter. Knowing Amber, it would be hours before she responded. She wasn’t a morning person.
If he was being completely honest with himself, there could be other reasons why she wouldn’t respond right away. Things were strained between them the last few months, but he figured it was just the distance getting to her. They’d started dating when he’d come back from boot camp and only had a few weeks before he left for his first tour. She’d wanted to stay with him despite the distance and the stress. Although they’d broken up and gotten back together several times over the years, he hoped once he got home for good that things would be better.
Lately their conversation always ended in a fight, usually with Amber hanging up on him. It drove him crazy. Most of the time, he’d call right back and they’d make up, but he’d been too exhausted to play the game last time. They hadn’t spoken in five days, but Nick hoped when she saw him, all the tension would dissipate and it would just be the two of them, ready to be together all the time.
As a couple, they had a lot in common. They’d spent years talking about their futures. They’d buy a decent-sized house with property. Three kids. Maybe a dog. He would have proposed years ago, but he hadn’t wanted their relationship to be a cliché. Now that he was home, if everything went the way he hoped, he’d ask Amber on one knee with his grandma’s ring.
“Hey,” Noel said.
He swirled around and met Noel’s contrite brown eyes. “I’m sorry. I know I give you a lot of crap about Amber, but it’s only because I love you and want what’s best for you. You know that, right?”
Nick walked over and pinched her straight nose, returning her smile. “I do. And I love you, too.”
“Good.” She leaned against him, the sweet scent of strawberries and vanilla tickling his nose. “I may pass out if I have to wait much longer for your mom to get off the phone and resume her culinary arts.”
“How about I hop in there and hurry things along?” he teased.
“Ew, no thank you. You have many fine qualities, my friend, but you did not inherit your mother’s cooking skills.”
“Man, I’ve been back for two hours and you haven’t stopped giving me shit.”
Noel laughed. “That’s what friends are for.”
Chapter 2
NOEL
The Winters family reunion was filled with warmth and laughter. Once Merry and Holly arrived, the noise level tripled and Noel almost wished it wasn’t too cold to slip outside for some peace and quiet. Although she loved Merry and Holly like they were her blood sisters, they were as bad as her friend Gabby when it came to that high-pitched girly noise they made when they got excited. It was enough to have her swallow a bottle of Tylenol like a shot.
The three siblings were very close in age, although their coloring differed. Nick was the oldest at twenty-six, born the fourth of December. Two years later on December tenth, Merry made her appearance. Then on the sixteenth of December just a year later, Holly had come into the world.
Noel used to envy Merry’s long wavy blond hair, hazel eyes, and lush bee-stung lips. More than one person in Mistletoe had compared Merry to the golden angels she resembled, and only those closest to her knew beneath the sweet exterior lay a terrible temper. Noel fingered her own coarse dark hair as she watched Holly toss back her fiery red locks, a gift passed down from her great-grandmother on her dad’s side. Like her big brother, Holly’s eyes were a deep chocolate brown, and her full figure had been the envy of her female classmates in junior high. All of the Winters children were kind, funny, and well respected throughout the town of Mistletoe, and there would no doubt be a parade in Nick’s honor the minute people realized he was back for good.
Noel stood off to the side, drinking her coffee as she watched Nick’s sisters take turns filling him in on all he’d missed.
Merry didn’t have quite as much to share, because she’d only returned to the heart of her family’s bosom before Halloween, a sudden and unexpected move. Victoria let it slip once that Merry went through a bad breakup, which didn’t shock Noel. Merry’s relationships never seemed to last. Holly griped often about Merry’s atrocious taste in men.
Holly came back after college and opened A Shop for All Seasons a few years ago. What she lacked in age, she made up for in common sense and a head for business. The girl was a marketing whiz, and as for her extracurricular activities, well, they’d all sworn not to tell her mother about her YouTube channel, Holly the Adventure Elf. It sounded crazy, but it was actually really popular. Who didn’t like watching an elf skydive?