Cowboy’s Christmas Bridesmaid (Trinity Falls: Icicle Christmas #8)

23. Valentina

23

VALENTINA

A fter an evening of dancing, celebration, and telling a stunned Tanner what had really happened in Baz’s makeshift office, Valentina was exhausted and delighted as Tanner walked her to her car.

The stars winked as if they were happy too, and the fresh cold air of the wintry Pennsylvania night felt good on her flushed cheeks. Tanner took her hand in his as they stepped down from the castle porch and into the parking area.

As they walked, it hit Valentina that they were all alone for the first time all night, and she felt shy. She hadn’t had a lot of time for dating, or really for anything but working ever since she had taken her job with Baz Radcliffe. She didn’t have much experience with dating or kissing, and she knew she didn’t really want things getting physical, at least not now. She hoped that was okay with him.

“What’s wrong?” Tanner asked, stopping in his tracks .

“Oh, nothing,” Valentina said, feeling mortified.

“I know you too well for you to tell me nothing’s wrong,” he said. “It was a big night, with a lot of changes. Is that it?”

“Kind of,” she admitted.

“Sloane said those deeds won’t be recorded until she takes them down to the courthouse,” he said, squeezing her hand. “We can march right back up there, and you can tell him to keep that land.”

“What?” she asked.

“You can go back to the city,” he told her. “You can get the kind of job you want, running a business and reporting to a board, or whatever it is you like to do. You don’t have to change your whole life just because he’s offering. Anyone would be lucky to hire you. And Baz can clean up his own mess here.”

“What about us?” she asked softly, feeling stupid the moment the words left her mouth. There was no us . They hadn’t even been on a single date.

“We’ll figure it out,” he told her seriously. “I don’t want to lose you. But mostly, I don’t want you to lose yourself.”

Suddenly, tears were sliding down her cheeks again.

“Oh, no,” he moaned. “I’m so sorry. What did I say?”

“You always say the right thing, Tanner Williams,” she told him, letting go of his hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “It never occurred to me to turn him down, because I love it here, and I do want to handle the Trinity Falls market project myself.”

Tanner smiled at that, his eyes crinkling with warmth .

“But I owe it to my parents to talk to them first,” she said, not exactly wanting to give him the details.

He nodded thoughtfully.

“I’ll call them tonight,” she told him. “Even though it’s late.”

“Will you tell them about me?” he asked hopefully.

“Yes,” she said, smiling up at him. “I’m going to tell them all about you and Zeke.”

He wrapped a gentle hand around her still-wet face and stroked the apple of her cheek with his calloused thumb.

“You mean everything to us,” he told her. “So we’re going to take this slowly.”

She nodded, soaking in the heat of his hand and feeling sweet relief. Tanner was really and truly the perfect man.

Half an hour later, she was safely home. She had taken a moment to put on cozy pajamas, and then pulled out her laptop and initiated the video call before she could lose her nerve.

“Valentina?” her mother said sleepily, wiping a hand over her eyes. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” she replied. “Is Dad there?”

“Where else would he be after ten o’clock at night?” her mother scolded gently. “Hang on. I’ll wake him.”

“ Vale?” her father’s voice said in the background a minute later.

“ She says she’s okay, ” her mother whispered back in a decidedly suspicious way. “But she’s wearing a lot of makeup and her hair is weird.”

“Hang on, honey,” her dad called out.

“I was at the wedding, Mom,” Valentina reminded her mother. “That’s the reason I look like this.”

“Okay, baby,” her mom said, still sounding worried.

Valentina waited, watching the video feed from her mother’s phone screen deliver a topsy turvy montage of blankets and her father’s plaid pajamas, a bumpy ride down the staircase, and finally the usual view from the napkin holder her mom used as a phone stand, down in the kitchen.

“Okay, mi vida ,” her dad said. “What’s up?”

“My boss is giving me a huge tract of land,” she said, cutting right to the chase. “He told me tonight at the wedding. But I can’t sell it.”

“He’s what?” her father asked.

“You can’t?” her mom asked at the same time.

“Well, I could sell it legally,” Valentina said. “But that’s not what he wants, and it’s not what I want either. This little town…” But it was too hard to explain the place Trinity Falls had won in her heart.

“It’s your Manchester,” her father finished for her.

“What?” she asked. It was ridiculous to compare the storied Manchester apartment building and its wealthy residents to the down-to-earth people of Trinity Falls.

“I don’t mean what it actually is,” her father said. “Of course your country village isn’t like this building. But you love the people, don’t you? They’re your community.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it,” she said, still not seeing the connection between the two places, but glad he understood. “If I take this land, I’ll basically be a steward for it. I’ll earn a living from rents from the organizations that use it, but I won’t allow anything to go in that won’t benefit the town, so it probably won’t be enough to help you. At least not for a while.”

“Help us?” her mother asked.

“You both worked so hard all your lives to give Gabriel and Rafe and me a good education,” Valentina said softly. “I always hoped one of us could buy you your own condo one day, so Dad wouldn’t have to run around fixing people’s sinks and changing their lightbulbs forever.”

There was absolute silence on the other end of the call, and if she hadn’t seen her parents exchanging a look, she might have thought the screen had frozen.

“Oh, honey,” her mother said, turning back to her. “I hope that’s not why you’ve been working so hard.”

“We could have bought our own place a long time ago, mi vida ,” her father said gently. “After all, we haven’t paid rent since before you were born. And we lived as simply as we could.”

“Wait… then why are you still there?” Valentina asked in awe.

“I love the Manchester,” her father said. “This is our home, our community.”

“But they call you twenty-four hours a day,” Valentina said, shaking her head. “For things that aren’t even emergencies.”

“They’re our neighbors,” her father said sternly, as he had many times over the years, but suddenly she realized he meant it, every time. “And most of them are older than we are. They’re lonely, and they need our help.”

“Besides,” her mother said with a smile. “Your father likes to stay busy. Now that you kids are up and running, he gets lonely too.”

“Marinela,” her father protested.

“Well, it’s true, mi amor, ” she said, leaning over to kiss him on the nose. “We won’t leave the Manchester for a long, long time, Vale. And when we do, we’ve got our own savings. You don’t need to worry about Papá and me.”

“What’s going on?” Rafe asked sleepily from the kitchen doorway.

“Your sister is about to tell us all about her boyfriend,” her mother said with a knowing smile.

Valentina’s jaw literally dropped.

“Am I wrong?” her mother asked with a smile as her brother made silly cooing noises in the background.

“No,” Valentina said with a smile of her own. “I guess not. Although he hasn’t taken me out on a single date yet, so I’m not sure how you guessed.”

“You missed a Sunday call,” her father said wisely. “That’s how we knew there was a man.”

That actually made a lot of sense.

“I’ll keep you posted on him,” Valentina promised. “But so far, he’s pretty great, and so is his son.”

Her brother put on the tea kettle as she began to tell them all about Tanner and Zeke. It was almost as good as being home at the kitchen table herself. And the more they talked and laughed, the more Valentina felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her.