A Mountain Springs Christmas

Chapter 8

eight

NICK

Nick stood in front of the closet doors that were made of mirrors in the guest room where he was staying at his in-laws’ house. The mirrors were dated monstrosities that had startled him more than once when he walked past them at night when the lights were off, but they were sure helpful while he was getting ready.

His fingers kept fumbling as he was tying his tie, making him restart. What was he doing, going to the wedding of a couple he’d barely met, just because the groom’s sister was the mom of one of the kids in his daughter’s first grade class?

That wasn’t why he was nervous, and he knew it. He was nervous because that mom was someone who made his heart beat faster every time he saw her. His breath catch. His chest floated like everything that had been weighing him down was suddenly lighter. As he was sitting at the desk in this cramped room, writing code or working through lines of code, trying to find exactly where an issue was, Rachel’s smile started popping into his head. But not just every smile—the smiles she gave him, specifically. He was starting to crave those.

He glanced over to the wooden chair at the edge of the closet where Holly was sitting as she waited for him to get his suit coat and tie on. “Do I look okay?”

Holly stood up on her chair and motioned him over, so he walked up to her. She reached out and straightened his tie and then brushed her hands over his shoulders. “You look beautiful, Dad. Oh, wait. For boys, it’s handsome , right? Rachel is going to see you and her eyes are going to bug out because you look so handsome.”

He looked back at the mirror. Was that why he was so nervous? Was that what he wanted— for Rachel to see him and like what she saw? Yes, it was, he realized. So why did he feel so very not ready? Maybe because it had been so long since he’d been in the dating pool that he’d forgotten how to swim. He felt like he was in the shallow end, thinking someone really should put arm floaties on him before he waded out any further.

“Now this is the part where you tell me that I look like a beautiful princess.”

He smiled at his daughter as she twisted from side to side on the chair, her poofy ankle-length dress swishing out as she did. “You look like a beautiful princess, Hollybear.”

“Thanks!” she said and leaped off the chair. “Now let’s get there already.”

They said goodbye to Ben and Linda. Yes, they’d encouraged him to start dating, but it didn’t make it feel any less weird to see them right before meeting someone who was not their daughter. It wouldn’t be too much longer, though, before he would be finished with the renovations at the new house and he and Holly could move in.

They pulled up to the address that Rachel had given him, which was apparently the bride’s parents’ house. Strings of Christmas lights lined the house and lit up all the trees and shrubs. Santa’s village and a manger scene decorated the lawn, and a couple of dozen people milled about all the decorations, kids chasing each other around everything. A truck with two flat-bed trailers loaded with bales of hay covered in blankets sat parked in front of the house.

Holly put her hands on her cheeks. “It’s just so magical!”

They got out of the car, and Holly ran ahead, her golden dress bouncing below her blue winter coat, and Nick scanned the crowd for Rachel. He found her talking with a small group of people and started walking toward her. She was wearing a plum-colored dress coat and tall boots, the bottom of her dark green dress visible below the coat, and her dark hair pulled up all fancy. She looked stunning standing there in the middle of the snow and the Christmas decorations.

It took a moment before she glanced in his direction. The moment her eyes landed on him, her expression—the one that spontaneously appeared before she even would’ve had a chance to choose it—looked a lot like elated happiness. Something washed through him at seeing it. He wouldn’t have been able to describe it, but it made his chest swell to know he evoked that reaction in her.

She was still smiling when he reached her and she said, “I’m so glad you two came. We are going to be loading up soon. Should we get some hot chocolate, first?”

Holly and Aiden both seemed to materialize at their side just then, almost like they knew the hot chocolate was coming. Rachel led them to a table filled with different hot chocolate mix-ins where Noelle’s dad was pouring hot chocolate into cups with a ladle and handing them out.

As they were choosing their mix-ins, Holly asked, “Are these all the people that are coming to the wedding?”

Rachel glanced out at the crowd. “No—the hay ride can’t fit everyone at once. This group is just us and Noelle’s parents, siblings, and their kids. Extended family will be arriving in a bit, and they’ll ride over in the second group. Everyone else will just meet us at the chapel.”

Holly’s eyes grew as Rachel listed off who was coming, but all Nick could think was that they were in the wrong place. Everyone there was only close family. They were a last-minute addition, and it wasn’t even a real date.

Not long after they got their hot chocolates, he heard a ringing and everyone’s attention went to the bride and groom—Rachel’s brother, Jack, and his soon-to-be wife, Noelle, whom they’d met three days ago. They stood at the top of the sloping yard, near the house. Jack was dressed in a fine-looking tux, and Noelle wore a white wedding dress with a white fur-lined coat that looked kind of like a cape and went all the way to the ground. They were both grinning and holding champagne glasses filled with hot chocolate.

“We want to thank you all for coming,” Jack said. “It means a lot to us.”

Noelle smiled. “This is not the most traditional start to a wedding, we know, but we wanted to celebrate with you in a way that we most love celebrating.”

Jack said, “Noelle was my employee a year ago when we last had this hot chocolate and hay ride activity, and I had some pretty high walls up. It was sitting on that second trailer right over there when I first let those walls come down for a minute. It felt appropriate to have this lead to our wedding.”

“Cheers!” Noelle said, holding her hot chocolate up high.

Everyone else held theirs up and shouted “Cheers!” right back.

They all took their hot chocolates with them and climbed onto the trailers, the bride and groom sitting on hay bales stacked two high on the first trailer, facing everyone.

Aiden initially sat down next to Rachel, but in true six-year-old fashion, only stayed there for about five seconds before he jumped up to sit next to the woman Nick had figured out was Noelle’s mom. So Nick took the opportunity to sit right next to Rachel. The story Jack told about this hay ride was pretty sweet. It surprised him that he was suddenly wanting the same thing to happen to him.

Someone started Christmas music playing, and Rachel motioned to a woman who was videoing everything with her phone and leaned in close to him to say, “That’s Noelle’s sister, Katie. She interviews the family at the Christmas activities and makes a video to show on Christmas Eve.”

She continued, telling him who all the people were on both trailers, but there were so many names and he was so distracted by her nearness. The peppermint scent of her hair. The feel of her warm breath against his cheek.

Holly had been right when they pulled up. There was a sort of magic here.

His attention, right along with Rachel’s, went to Aiden as the boy said to Noelle’s mom, “So what do I call you after Uncle Jack gets married?”

Mrs. Allred cocked her head. “Call me?”

“I’ll get to start calling Noelle ‘Aunt Noelle,’ but I don’t know what I’m supposed to call you.”

“Well, technically, we still won’t be related.”

Aiden frowned, his eyebrows pulling together. “No, we have to be related. Won’t you be my grandma-in-law or something?”

The woman chuckled as she put an arm around Aiden and pulled him into her side. Then she told him a story about how where she grew up, they referred to found or adopted family as hanai and said that they were hanai now. “So, as hanai, what would you like to call me?”

Aiden pointed at the boy on her other side, who looked about his age. “Tommy calls you Grandma. Can I call you that, too?”

“You sure can.”

Nick stole a glance at Rachel and saw the most elated smile on her face. It must’ve meant a lot to her that this family that was soon to be her brother’s was also claiming them.

On Nick’s other side, Holly tugged on his coat sleeve, then she got to her knees so she could whisper in his ear, trying to surreptitiously point to Noelle’s mom. “If you and Rachel get married, will I be able to call her Grandma, too?”

The question caught him off guard so much that he was almost too stunned to answer. He hadn’t thought Holly would’ve connected so many dots with him and Rachel, and he wasn’t sure if he should be worried that she was starting to form connections with her friend’s uncles in-law.

“Um, I don’t know, honey. I guess we should wait and see.” It wasn’t the best answer, and he knew it. But he hadn’t prepared himself for questions like that.

“Would you like to dance?” Nick asked, holding a hand out to Rachel, who was seated at a table.

He soaked in the smile she gave him as she set down her drink and stood, putting her hand in his. When they reached a good spot on the dance floor, he put one arm around Rachel’s waist and held her hand with his other, just like his mom had taught him and his siblings all those years ago at the army base in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

As they moved to the music, so in sync, he reveled in the feel of her in his arms and felt himself fall for her just a bit more, like he had been all night.

Shortly after they’d arrived, he and Holly went with Aiden and Rachel, where Rachel and Katie were prepping Aiden to be the ring bearer. As they told Aiden about how special and important his role was and what exactly he needed to do, Nick could see Holly getting surlier and surlier.

He understood that Holly felt bad that Aiden was getting so much attention and was being assigned a cool job and Holly wasn’t. But the groom was someone very important in Aiden’s life and Holly had just barely met the guy.

Holly getting upset and jealous seemed to happen a lot lately, which told Nick that she was struggling to adjust to the big move. And since she didn’t know anyone well except for Aiden, she was kind of taking it all out on him. He was about to crouch down to Holly’s height and talk to her about it. What he’d say, exactly, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t like anything he could say would make her less jealous in the moment.

But before he could, Rachel turned to Holly. “And I have a huge and important job I could use your help with.”

Holly perked right up, all signs of dejection falling from her demeanor. “You do?’

Rachel nodded and took her by the hand to a small table by the doors that led into the chapel. It held the guest book and a basket of something. She told Holly that they wanted all the guests to toss rose petals as the couple came back down the aisle after getting married and that each guest needed a pouch of roses. They’d be coming soon, and she wanted her to hand one to each guest.

He was sure that the plan had been to just leave the basket on the table for each guest to pick up their own, but by the time Rachel finished talking with Holly, Holly was convinced that her job was the most important one of the entire wedding. He’d watched Rachel as she’d pulled off the magic, feeling his chest warming, his heart being tugged, that she would care so much for his daughter. What she had done had completely changed how the evening was likely to go, and he was so grateful to her for it.

But his feelings hadn’t stopped at gratitude. He’d fallen some more. The kind that left his stomach whooshing.

He’d sat next to her during the wedding ceremony and watched as she’d beamed at her son, walking up the aisle in his little suit, acting so proper yet with a wide grin on his face, and he’d had the thought When Clara said she wanted me to get remarried, this was the kind of person she was imagining . And he fell for Rachel a bit more.

It was just Jack and Noelle and the officiant at the front of the room, which felt so perfect for the venue and the crowd. They’d both written their own vows, which made practically the entire chapel start reaching for the tissues. When Rachel’s brother said, “I had always hated Christmas and thought it was impossible to get past it,” Rachel grabbed Nick’s hand. He gave it a squeeze as Rachel sniffed, dabbing at her tears with a tissue in her other hand.

“You came along and changed everything,” Jack had said. “I spent most of my life figuring that I would never find ‘the one.’ Then you walked into my office for an interview and I knew that day that you were it. But I spent the next year and a half thinking that a relationship with you was impossible.” He’d smiled at Noelle. “I should’ve known that, once again, you’d find a way to make the impossible possible.

“I’ve seen it time and time again since then, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, knowing that nothing is impossible.”

He’d gotten choked up hearing Jack’s vows, too. Between the words, the way they were said, and the looks that Jack and Noelle had given each other, it was impossible not to.

“I wish my parents were here,” Rachel had said, her words barely a whisper. He looked over at her, studying her. She hadn’t talked much about them, but so many emotions filled her face. And then she’d leaned into him, putting her head on his shoulder. So he put his arm around her shoulders and he felt himself fall further.

All during the refreshments and chatting with guests, whenever his eyes weren’t on Holly, they were on Rachel. Everything about her, from the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled, to how freely she laughed, to how she always seemed to have all the details of everything in her head and knew just when to check on something or get something, to how she made everyone around her feel made him feel like he was falling. Hopelessly falling.

And now that they were dancing together and all the emotions he’d been experiencing all night felt like they were wrapped in the bubble of the two of them dancing, he didn’t just feel like he was falling. He felt like he’d been pushed out of an airplane. The parachute hadn’t been deployed—he was just free-falling and taking in the landscape and the exhilarating feel of the wind rushing past his face.

A part of his heart had been so damaged when Clara died. But even though he’d known it had been damaged, he’d ignored it and pushed on because being a single dad was hard. Being a single dad who was grieving was even harder. Some things, like that pain in his heart, he’d just learned to live with. It had become his new normal.

But tonight, he’d felt things starting to shift and heal and not hurt so much. Just being around Rachel brought a lightness that he hadn’t felt in a very long time.

He swung her out and she laughed as she twirled back into him, ending with her back against his front, and he held her for a moment as they swayed to the music. He’d seen her laughing so much tonight. That had done something to his heart, too, especially when he was the one who had made her laugh. Feeling her close to him, her breath tickling his neck did something else to his heart and made him feel things he hadn’t for so long.

As they moved around the dance floor to a faster-paced song, they saw Holly making up crazy dances with Aiden and Noelle’s nieces and nephews. Holly looked so happy. Maybe her heart was healing, too.

“There’s so much I still don’t know about you,” Nick said. “And I find myself wanting to know everything.”

Rachel smiled. “Me, too. What’s your favorite topping on a pizza? I mean, it’s not the deepest question ever, but if we’re ever going to share a pizza, it’s vital information to know ahead of time.”

So she was thinking about the future and seeing him in it. He was smiling with his whole face when he said, “Can it even be called a pizza if there isn’t pepperoni on it? But my favorite beyond that is black olives.”

“Olives? Interesting. Mine is chicken.”

“Chicken? I don’t understand. Like, along with the pepperoni?”

Her arms were still around his neck, but she lifted her shoulders in a slight shrug. “With or without. I like it all ways.”

“Huh. Okay. If you had to play an Olympic sport, what would it be?”

She bit her lip as she thought. “Hmm. I’m going to have to go with the bobsled. I’m not the most athletic person, and for that one, it’s mostly about the leaning, right? You?”

He laughed. “Um, ski jumping, maybe?” He hadn’t ever done it before, but it probably felt a lot like what his stomach was experiencing now. Was he feeling all these emotions just because they were at a wedding? He’d been a sap for weddings ever since he’d had his own. Maybe what he was feeling was just because of the situation and their surroundings. It felt like more than that, though, and he had to know for sure. “Let’s go on a date.”

Rachel’s eyebrows rose. He was hoping in interest.

“Not because we have a project or because something else pulled us together. Let’s go because we want to. Just the two of us.”

Rachel bit her lip as she glanced over his shoulder at where their kids were dancing, and it was killing him to not know what was going through her mind right then. Then her eyes met his again. “I would like that.”

He held back the smile that threatened to overtake his face and forced himself to play it cool as they moved to the music. “I would love to take you out on a Friday or a Saturday, but I don’t want to wait that long to see you again. How does Tuesday sound?” He had just told himself to play it cool and then he says something like that? He was so out of practice. But also, he really did want to see her.

She bit her lip and once again, he wished he could hear her thoughts. “I’ll have to see if I can find a sitter for that soon. Bria has finals this week. I would ask Jack and Noelle, but the house they bought isn’t ready for them yet, so they’re staying in Golden, and that’s probably a bit far.”

“My in-laws are always free on Tuesdays. Would you like me to ask if they’d mind watching Aiden, too?”

She glanced over at where Aiden was doing a dance that looked a little like T-Rex trying not to step on Legos and failing miserably. Holly and the other two boys were trying to mimic him but were unable to because they were holding their stomachs from laughing so hard.

“I’d really like that.”

After they got home that night and after he got Holly in bed, he walked into his temporary bedroom, feeling like he was still on a high from the entire evening. He loosened his tie, unbuttoned the top button, and flopped down on his bed, opening his phone.

He swiped to the last screen and smiled at Clara’s picture. “I met someone and I really like her. Her name is Rachel. I know—it feels weird to come to you to talk about this, but you were my best friend and the first person I always told everything to. You told me that you wanted me to start dating again, so here I am, dating again.

“I think you’d like her, too. She’s a great mom and she is so good with Holly. If you’ve been keeping an eye on us, I’m sure you already know that. But I wanted to tell you that you were right—I’ve felt so alone since you died, but tonight, I experienced how great it feels to not be so alone. So thank you.”

He turned off the phone and marveled at how excited he could be for a Tuesday.