When I got them settled with a few puzzles, I meandered into the kitchen, where Chloe sat at the table, sipping ginger tea. The sink had dishes waiting to go into the dishwasher, and cereal and bowls were scattered around the table as though she had mustered just enough energy to feed her charges with nothing left over for cleanup.
“How are you feeling?”
She smiled wanly. “I’m doing okay. Hopefully, it will just be another week or two of feeling like this.”
“You make pregnancy sound so fun.” I made my way to the sink and began putting the dishes into the dishwasher.
“It can be hard, but it comes with the best payoff. You don’t have to do those. I can get them.”
“So can I,” I said. “Where’s Ben?”
“He went to grab some Almond Joys and frozen burritos from the store.”
My eyebrows raised. “Almond Joys and frozen burritos?”
“The heart wants what it wants.”
I snickered. “Your poor heart must be sick, too.”
“All I want is a burrito I can microwave and then cover in ketchup, and some Almond Joys to polish the whole thing off. It’s literally all I can think about.”
“Yikes.”
“So, how are things going with you and Miles?” Chloe asked, taking a calculated sip while she studied me.
I closed the dishwasher and made my way to the table to pour myself a bowl of Lucky Charms, contemplating my response. She only halfway believed that we were really dating, so it wasn’t a huge stretch to just divulge my whole secret now. But if I told Chloe it was all fake, it would feel fake again, and there was a dangerous warmth growing inside of me when I thought of Miles. It had been kind of nice to think of him as something like a friend. He still drove me crazy and was having way too much fun pushing the lines of our fake relationship, but I wasn’t ready to come clean just yet.
“We had ice cream sundaes with his parents last night, and his mom kissed me.” My family members were not kissers, so to say I had been surprised at his mom planting one on me was an understatement.
“Wow. Is she better or worse than her son?”
I snorted. I should have known Chloe would have no interest in the boring details I was willing to give her. She’d go right for the good stuff.
“Nice pivot,” I said through a mouthful of cereal.
“Thank you. I could be puking at any moment, so I need you to get right to the good stuff . Besides, nobody could really tell from that pathetic kiss you gave him at the lodge earlier.”
“I’m not into PDA. I told you.”
“With the right guy, you will be.”
My skin betrayed me as it blushed hotly under her perceptive gaze. I promptly changed the subject, which only made her laugh.
“So, what are we doing here again?” Miles scratched his head as I led him down the cereal aisle at Shaws, the local grocery store in Montpelier.
“Listen, Taylor, if you want to win this gingerbread competition, I can’t just use whatever sub-par materials come in the kit. We have to get creative.”
“You know we don’t have to win to get it checked off our cards, right? We could just slap some frosting down on the kit and call it a day.”
I finally found a box of Golden Grahams and handed it to Miles, grabbing his arm to herd him into the next aisle. “You made me jump into a frozen pond, so you will be wearing an apron and holding a hot glue gun for me without complaint.”
He looked interested. “Just an apron? I’m suddenly intrigued.”
I pushed him away as I finally found the fresh herbs. “My cousin makes these amazing gingerbread houses every Christmas. They’re next level. We’ll win for sure.”
He bit back a grin and gave me a slight bow as I handed him a plastic container full of fresh rosemary sprigs. “I love it when you’re bossy.”
We checked out a few minutes later and piled into Miles’s white truck with our bags.
“I was planning to pay for all of that,” I insisted, settling into the passenger seat as he started his truck.
“I know. You told me several times.”
“Then why didn’t you let me?”
He looked over at me, his eyes seeming to soak me in from my hair all the way down to the tips of my wet boots. “Because I wanted to,” he said simply.
All the retorts I had about being an independent woman who could pay for my own groceries went right out the window. To be honest, I didn’t have super strong convictions about being an independent woman—no offense to Beyoncé—but it was more the fact that I hadn’t wanted Miles to pay for my things because that would feel like a date. I didn’t need this situation to get any more confusing than it already was. But his brown eyes held nothing but kindness, a sweetness that I hadn’t been expecting.
“Well, thanks,” I sputtered, looking out the window as we pulled back out onto Main Street. For a long while, I was taken aback by the beautiful small town of Montpelier. Trees and hills provided a perfect backdrop to the shops and old historic buildings that lined the streets. Coffee shops, book shops, a toy store and even a record store were interspersed with delicious bistros and restaurants. Beautiful churches and a library finished out the street. Even in the winter, people were out walking the sidewalks, holding shopping bags and chatting with friends. There was an excited buzz in the air, and I could feel it even inside the truck—a small-town glow, like I’d just stepped into a Hallmark Christmas movie. I couldn’t believe places like this were real.
“I can’t believe you got to grow up here. It’s so idyllic.”
He looked at me, slowing the truck at a stop light. “You want to get out? Go for a walk?”
“How did you know I wanted to do that?”
“The drool smear you left on the window.”
I swatted his arm. “Don’t we need to get back for the gingerbread thing?”
“It’s going on all afternoon. We could walk around and grab lunch if you want. I need to find my mom a Christmas present anyway.”
I folded my arms. “Last-minute shopper? And for your own mother of all people.”
He laughed. “I am the world’s worst present giver, so this actually might be good to have some help.”
We sat smiling at each other until the light changed. “So…do you want to walk around for a bit?” Miles asked again, a sweet hesitancy in his voice that did something to my insides.
“Yeah.”
Whatever this holiday glow was, I wanted part of it. I hadn’t felt this way in so long. Miles found some parking in front of the library, and we both got out, the smell of pine trees and snow feeding my soul the second we exited. The lodge smelled very similar, but there was something about this small town that felt different. We spent the next couple of hours wandering down the streets, stopping for lunch at a small bistro that was absolutely delicious. But my favorite was Miles pointing out landmarks and rehashing memories and old stories, like when he and his high school buddies jumped buck naked into the Winooski River running through the town. It had been in the middle of the night, but still. I found it hard to believe he wasn’t a daredevil as a kid, even though he insisted he wasn’t.