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Surprised at this change in behavior, Sophie just stared at him.

“Well, how about that?” she mused, wondering if maybe Sarah was right. Maybe she just needed to be patient and the cat would come around and eventually want to stay. She’d never force the animal to, but if he quit coming around, she’d miss him.

She glanced over at her phone.

And Cole? Was Sarah right about that, too? Did she just need to be patient there, too?

And what was it she was being patient in hopes of gaining, anyway? Cole wasn’t a cat that she wanted to bring in from the cold. So what was he? What did she want him to be?

Friend. She wanted to be Cole’s friend.

Even if he hadn’t texted her back.

Would it seriously have hurt him to have sent some funny little meme back? Or to have at least typed in a LOL or SMH or some other acronym, the way anyone else would? Just something in acknowledgement that he’d gotten her text, that he’d smiled or had a happy thought at the funny picture.

Maybe the firehall had been busy. She hadn’t heard of anything that had happened around town, but who knew what all the firemen did that she had no clue about?

Pushing the needle through the material, Sophie jab

bed her finger.

“Ouch.” She stuck her finger in her mouth, then got up to go to the bathroom to get a bandage so she wouldn’t risk getting blood on the quilt.

When she came back into her bedroom, the cat was gone from her windowsill.

And her phone still hadn’t dinged with a returned text.

Why couldn’t patience have been her virtue?

Chapter Twelve

When Cole had volunteered to work during the Pine Hill On-the-Square Christmas Festival, he’d pictured himself manning the firehall, maybe even walking around the square, keeping an eye on things to make sure everyone stayed safe.

He sure hadn’t seen himself as being part of the parade.

He wasn’t a parade kind of guy. He wasn’t a Santa-suit-wearing kind of guy, either, but here he was in the perfectly fitted costume Sophie had altered for him, riding in the Tower, waving and tossing Christmas candy to kids as the bucket truck slowly drove along the crowded streets of the parade path.

“Hey, look who’s just a few yards up ahead on your side of the street.”

Cole wanted to ignore Andrew, knowing from his friend’s tone that if he looked over, he’d see Sophie there, but his gaze automatically jumped in the direction his buddy had mentioned.

His phone burned in his pocket, reminding him he hadn’t texted her back, and that for the past two days, he had spent way too much time dwelling on why he hadn’t.

He supposed he could have snuck away from Ben and Andrew to come up with something to say in return. But every time he’d considered doing so, he’d reminded himself that Sophie was just being nice to him because she felt sorry for him. Nothing more.

He’d be a fool to think otherwise.

Which he must be because when they’d been sledding, snowball fighting, playing their game, he hadn’t felt anything like an emotional charity case.

He’d felt…like someone she really liked.

Then he’d remind himself of all the reasons why he needed to distance himself from Sophie. Reasons that included his past lurking in the shadows. The last thing he needed was Sophie having that kind of interest in him when he never planned to be in that type of relationship with anyone. Especially not someone as wonderful as Sophie. She deserved better than a messed-up man such as himself.

He’d done her a favor by not texting her back. Once they were through with the toy drive, she could forget about him.

The truck rolled closer to where Sophie stood and as his luck would have it, the parade slowed to a standstill right at the moment when he was opposite from where she stood, wearing a Santa hat and a flashing Christmas bulbs necklace.

From where she was looking straight at him. When their gazes met, she smiled and waved. Not just a little wave, but a big, exuberant one as if she hadn’t texted him and been ignored. As if he was a long-lost friend she’d just spotted for the first time in years.