A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 13

thirteen

NOELLE

Noelle’s workload of last-minute ad copy changes for the final days of Christmas advertising was huge. She spent all morning intensely focused on them, then hit it again hard after lunch. By two, her brain was mush, so she leaned back in her chair and ran her hands over her face.

Then she opened her desk drawer and pulled out the tin of cards from Gran-gran. She ran the tips of her fingers over the scene Gran-gran had painted of the two of them standing in front of the little tree they’d decorated with balloon snow globes, half of them popped, holding their stomachs from laughing so hard.

It was a great memory.

So was Saturday night’s.

If Gran-gran had been there, she would’ve been hooting and slapping her knee and wiping tears from her eyes from laughing so hard at the skits. During the dinner, she would’ve been giving commentary on the meal like she was a food critic at a Michelin-starred restaurant, saying how delectable everything was. And she would’ve said that the tree she and Jack decorated should be on display in the White House.

She carefully placed the card back in the tin and put the one with the pet costume parade leaning against her monitor. The painting on it was of when they had dressed Gran-gran’s dog, Daisy, up as a Christmas tree with a star on her head. They were going to do something similar tonight with Aiden’s dog, Bailey. She had already dropped off at Rachel’s and Aiden’s house a big piece of green felt, colored pom-poms, ribbon that looked like it could be used as a garland, and her hot glue gun.

Bridget rolled her chair over to Noelle’s desk. “Remember how I didn’t have a clue what to get my mom for Christmas? Well, her little dog apparently decided she was mad about something and took it out on my mom’s favorite lap blanket. So I went to that store in the mall with all the comfort items and got her the softest blanket I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh! Jack got his sister one of those blankets! I couldn’t believe how soft it was.”

Bridget cocked her head to the side, a mix of confusion and something else on her face. Suspicion? “You went shopping with Jack?” She paused a moment, then added, “Is that the after-hours job he was asking for a volunteer to take in the meeting a couple of weeks ago?”

Noelle nodded. “Well, actually, it was all about doing Christmassy things with his five-year-old nephew, Aiden. His sister is sick and can’t do it herself. But since he hates Christmas, he wanted help.”

Bridget nodded slowly.

She hadn’t meant to keep it a secret from her coworkers. They just hadn’t asked, and she hadn’t thought to bring it up. But she fully intended to keep the kiss a secret. But even though she would’ve had no problem talking about it last week or the week before, she felt weird talking with Bridget about it now, especially because of all the feelings she was having about him.

“How’s that going?”

“Good!” Her voice came out bright, just like she’d hoped. She hoped it came out with zero guilt, too. “He’s a super cute kid. He’s helped me to reconnect with Gran-gran.”

“Aww. That’s so sweet. Then I’m glad it was you who agreed to help.”

Noelle really didn’t want the conversation to continue, just in case she asked any tough questions. So she said, “Have you created the images yet for the Ducasse account? I’m having trouble coming up with ad copy for them and could use some inspiration.” The topic change totally worked, and she did a mental fist pump.

By the time she got everything together that she needed for their staff meeting, most of her coworkers had already headed to the conference room. Arms full of papers, notebooks, and her tablet, she headed down the hall leading to the meeting. Jack stood outside of the door, greeting people as they entered, like he always did, standing tall and looking so incredible and professional in his navy suit. It was such a different look than what she saw him wear outside of work, yet he was every bit as attractive both ways.

A wide smile spread across her face at seeing him. She expected a similar return smile from him, but instead, he just gave a nod and said, “Noelle.”

She walked into the meeting and found a seat, wondering if he was losing interest or if he was just so much better at hiding their relationship at work than she was. She hoped it was the latter because a forbidden relationship was kind of exciting. That, and it made her heart hurt to even think that he wasn’t interested.

Which was stupid, because she’d already decided to back away and keep her heart protected.

He was acting so distant all through the meeting, though, which made her start questioning everything. He’d always been distant at work, so that part wasn’t entirely unusual. He just hadn’t been quite so distant since she started seeing him outside of work to help with Aiden.

And then, completely unbidden, their kiss popped into her mind. He had definitely been on the same page as her during that kiss. They had definitely connected on a new level Friday and Saturday. Seeing him acting like nothing had happened—even if that was the way he should be acting while at work—made her realize just how much she’d fallen for him.

She was the last one to gather her things at the end of the meeting, and as she passed by Jack at the door, she said, “Are we still on for the pet parade tonight?” After seeing how he’d been in the meeting, she’d started to wonder if they were.

“Aiden is really looking forward to it.”

She nodded, wondering exactly what that meant. She had gotten about three steps down the hall when he said, “Noelle, can you meet with me in my office at four?”

She turned and said, “Sure,” then headed back to her desk.

There was still a lot she needed to get done by the end of the day. But at least half of her brain was constantly wondering why he wanted to see her in his office. Should she be excited because he was going to sneak a kiss when no one in the office was looking? Or should she be worried that his acting distant was a foreshadowing of what was to come?

At four o'clock on the dot, she knocked on his office door, and he immediately opened it, then closed it behind her. He motioned to the couch that sat against one wall—the one she’d never seen him use. So she sat down and studied his face. There was no “I’m about to kiss you like we kissed Saturday night and make your entire week” look on his face. All that was there was a seriousness. A sense of determination.

“I have...worries. About”—he glanced at the door—“Saturday night. Worries about myself, I guess. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be around you outside of work.”

Just the thought of not seeing him outside of work made her feel like she was going to crumble. She could talk big with Hope, and she could even talk big to herself and mostly convince herself that it was for the best. But the fact remained that she had completely fallen for him. Enough that it sounded miserable to not have him in her life outside of being her boss.

Okay, Noelle. Think about this logically . He said he was worried about Saturday, so the kissing her part. He hadn’t mentioned all the other days. “Let’s just assume that Saturday happened because Aiden wasn’t there. He’ll be there tonight, so it’ll be just fine.”

“I don’t think it’ll be fine. Aiden’s presence hasn’t stopped me from wanting to be around you yet.”

So he was interested in her. Somehow, though, the knowledge of that made this all even more heartbreaking. Could he not get over the fact that he was her boss? She swallowed hard and tried to be strong. “I can take Aiden to the pet costume parade tonight without you.” That was what their original pact had been, anyway.

He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s going to work, either. I’m sorry. I know tonight is important to him, so I’ll help him make the costume for Bailey and take them to the costume parade. But I think we should mark our agreement as fulfilled. I will still pay you the amount we agreed upon, of course, but your help is no longer needed.”