Page 87 of The Christmas Tree Farm

Things about the future.

But because she was trying to be a better person, she didn’t say them out loud.

ChapterTwenty-Three

Five days before Christmas, and Jeanie was at his door. Well, Jeanie was at Kira’s door. Where he’d basically been living for a week, against all his better judgment, but Kira had asked him to come back after the snowstorm and he wasn’t going to say no to that offer. He thought she would pull away. She sure as hell tried to and he was willing to accept that outcome, but when she called, he came running.

He wasn’t in the mood for assessing what that meant about him or them or anything, really. He’d woken up with a naked Kira in his arms and that was all he really felt like thinking about today. Except for right now when he needed to talk to his sister.

‘He lives!’ Jeanie teased when he opened the door.

‘Ha. Ha.’

‘Hi, babies!’ Jeanie ignored him to greet the herd of dogs who’d followed him to the door barking their welcome. ‘Hello, hello, hello,’ she crooned as she petted and scratched each dog in greeting. Eventually, she remembered he was standing there.

‘I’ve been texting and you haven’t responded. I haven’t seen you in days!’ She peered over her shoulder as she admonished him, clearly trying to get a glimpse of Kira, nosy thing that she was.

‘The signal is spotty here. Sorry.’ His sister didn’t need to know that little problem had been fixed weeks ago. Or that he’d been avoiding her.

Jeanie eyed him suspiciously. ‘And…’

‘And what?’

‘And what the hell are you doing here, Bennett?’ she stage-whispered. ‘You come to town to visit me, and then you just shack up with Kira? What’s going on?’ And then her eyes lit up in a very dangerous way. ‘Wait, is it serious? Are you moving back east?!’

Bennett shushed her while he grabbed his coat from the nearby hook. He nudged his sister back out the door and onto the porch. It felt wrong to invite someone into a house that wasn’t his, no matter what pretending he’d been doing lately.

Plus, Kira was just in the shower. He didn’t need her coming downstairs to this conversation.

‘It’s not serious,’ he told Jeanie once they were safely back outside.

She looked at him like he was the dumbest man in the world, which might not be that far off.

‘You moved in with her, bro.’

‘I mean … not really.’

‘Bennett!’

‘Okay, I mean, yes, I’m staying here for the rest of my vacation, but that’s it.’

‘Why?’

‘Why what?’

Jeanie let out a little groan-growl of frustration. ‘Why isn’t it serious? Why can’t you stay?’

‘I have a life in California. A job and an apartment and friends. I can’t just…’

‘Do you even like it there?’

‘I like it fine.’

‘But don’t you miss us? You could see me and Mom and Dad so much more if you lived on this coast, and now if you and Kira have a thing going, it makes even more sense! And you have told me on multiple occasions that your job can be done remotely, so…’

Bennett swallowed hard. Why did this all sound so reasonable coming out of his sister’s mouth? Probably because she knew nothing about Nicole or just how bad his people-pleasing tendencies went and how he was trying to finally break them.

‘It’s not like that. That’s not what she wants.’