Page 59 of The Christmas Tree Farm

‘Why not?’

She sighed. ‘You’re going to get the wrong idea.’

‘What’d you do with it, Kira?’

She blew out a long sigh. ‘I gave it away.’

He smirked. ‘Gave it away to whom?’

She rolled her eyes. He was getting this all wrong. She wasn’t some kind of saint. Giving her money away had just been a new way to piss off her mother. ‘I gave it away to some women’s and children’s charities. And a few animal shelters.’ She tried to wave it away like the donations hadn’t enraged her mother.How will this look to our friends?!her mother had asked, and byfriendsshe’d meant the conservative folks from the country club who would not approve of funds going to single mothers and women’s healthcare. They didn’t care much about stray animals, either. Kira couldn’t help but smile grimly at the memory.

‘See,’ Bennett said, smug as hell. ‘You have plenty of good ideas.’

His fingers were still curled around her wrist, his thumb tracing distracting circles over her pulse.

‘Maybe. Sometimes,’ she conceded. ‘But it was the least I could do…’

‘Other people would have done less.’

Kira frowned. It still didn’t feel like enough, but Bennett’s warm gaze was making her feel like maybe she was on the right track. Like maybe she didn’t have to punish herself forever.

‘Okay. But let’s not pretend buying a farm, sight-unseen, and thinking I could somehow figure out homesteading overnight was a good idea,’ she said, tired of unearthing her past.

He laughed. ‘Okay, so maybe that wasn’t yourbestone. But you’re here now. Making it work.’

She swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat. Why was she getting choked up about this?

‘Yes, well. Can’t go back now.’

‘Brave.’

She gave a slight shake of her head and Bennett’s fingers tightened on her wrist. He stood and pulled her closer.

‘Brave, clever girl,’ he said, brushing a kiss on her forehead.

Never in her life had she been called either of those words. Wild, stubborn, reckless, yes. But never brave. Never clever.

Bennett’s fingers left her wrist. ‘So, soup?’ he asked, moving past her, leaving her reeling from his assessment of her.

Apparently, kissing wasn’t the only thing nice guys were good at.

ChapterSeventeen

The wind rattled the old windows, and from her spot on the couch the view of the outside world was a blur of white and gray. This wasn’t pretty Christmas card snow anymore. The storm lashed icy shards at the windows and the wind shook the trees behind the old farmhouse. This was shut-the-roads-down-stay-indoors-and-pray-the-power-stayed-on snow.

Inside, the fire crackled cheerfully in the fireplace and Kira was thankful for the delivery of firewood she’d ordered back in the fall. And that she wasn’t alone.

Bennett’s phone buzzed on the coffee table, rattling their empty soup bowls.

He’d gone to the bathroom and his phone had buzzed at least five times in the two minutes he’d been gone. Maybe she should check it. Maybe it was an emergency. Maybe her foot might accidentally nudge it off the coffee table and she might have to pick it up…

Just as her toe brushed the edge of his phone, Bennett came in through the blankets. She pulled her foot back and tucked it underneath her.Bad foot.

‘I really hope you sell a lot of trees. It is not pleasant using the bathroom right now.’

Kira laughed. ‘Yeah, I know, right?’

Bennett sat down next to her, but he didn’t reach for his phone.