Take Me Home for Christmas (Whiskey Creek #5)(60)
Author: Brenda Novak

He shook his hair off his face. “I looked but I didn’t see a receipt for the extra groceries and other stuff you bought today—the flowers and candles.”

“That was my treat. I don’t expect you to repay me.”

“You wanted Eve and me to have flowers and candles?”

“I know it’s not much. I just hoped to make your dinner extra nice. You’ve both been so generous to me.”

He didn’t say anything but his eyes never left her face.

“What?” she said, growing uncomfortable. Being out here alone with Ted like this, in the dark, made her have thoughts she shouldn’t be having—especially after Eve’s kindness in not telling Ted about her alcoholism. She wouldn’t do anything that might undermine Eve’s happiness, wouldn’t reveal the longing she felt now, and had felt for years.

“It was nice,” he said. “Eve liked it.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m glad.” She wondered if he’d liked it, too. He didn’t say, but she got the impression that he had.

When she found herself glancing at his bare shoulders, wishing things could be different, she stood up. “I’ll let you have some time to yourself.”

“Sophia?”

She looked at him as she passed.

“You seem to have changed a great deal.”

“Well, it would have to be for the better, right? There was only one way to go.” She laughed as if she wasn’t quite serious, but she knew that he—and half of Whiskey Creek—would probably agree with that statement.

She stepped out and got her towel, but even then he didn’t let her leave. “How’s your mother?”

It’d been ages since anyone had asked about Elaine. Her mother had been gone from Whiskey Creek for so many years that the hole her absence had initially created in the community had filled in long ago. At least that seemed to be true for everyone else. Sophia found it ironic, considering that the town had once revolved around her parents.

“She was okay the last time I checked,” she said. “I don’t speak to her very often.”

“Because…”

She wanted to blame Skip. He’d been so nasty whenever she planned to visit the hospital. “I don’t see the point!” he’d growl, and he’d usually refuse to go with her. But she knew the real reason she avoided contact ran much deeper.

“She doesn’t know me anymore,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she’d told him about her mother. That wasn’t something she normally talked about. It had just…popped out, as if she couldn’t keep something so painful inside anymore. But she regretted it the second the words left her lips and she saw the sympathy on his face. She didn’t want him to think she was trying to make excuses for herself or manipulate his emotions. So she hurried to get behind closed doors where she couldn’t say anything else. And where she’d no longer be tempted to tell him how much she’d always loved him.

* * *

Cheyenne and Dylan were at coffee the next morning. So were Riley, Callie, Levi, Kyle and Eve. Once again, Ted had thought about skipping the weekly ritual. He was falling so far behind on his book. He figured that provided the perfect excuse to avoid the ribbing he was going to get for helping Sophia after being so opinionated about her. But then Eve called to see if he’d pick her up, and he knew that with Sophia living in his guesthouse, he needed to do all he could to be available to Eve and help his girlfriend feel secure.

When they walked into Black Gold together, they weren’t holding hands or doing anything else to announce that they were a couple—and yet Cheyenne’s smile stretched so wide Ted could tell she knew. That meant Dylan did, too—and the others would inevitably find out. He wasn’t ready for the added pressure. He and Eve would be the first official couple inside the group after all the years they’d been friends and that would generate more attention than he felt comfortable with. Especially now, when he had so much going on inside his head. But he couldn’t expect to keep the relationship a secret for very long. They were both too close to their friends.

At least it would put any suspicions that he had plans to get back with Sophia to rest.

Noah was the first to start in. “Hey, Ted. I hear that Sophia got a job.”

Everyone sitting at the table laughed and glanced at each other.

“I heard that, too.” Kyle joined the fun. “Apparently she wasn’t quite so mean in high school that you couldn’t forgive her. So…tell me, what was all that talk about?”

“Shut up,” Ted grumbled. “It’s not as if any of you were stepping up to help.”

“You were the one with the job,” Noah said. “We’re heading into the winter, which is my slowest time. I would’ve had to let someone go in order to hire her, and that didn’t seem fair.”

Ted spread his hands. “I felt sorry for her, okay? No big deal.”

“What was it he said last week?” Riley asked. “‘Actions have consequences’?”

Thank God no one seemed to know he’d let her move in with him, too….

Eve slipped her arm through his. “Come on, guys. Go easy. No matter what he says, Ted has a heart the size of Texas. That shouldn’t come as any surprise.”

Ted didn’t want Eve sticking up for him. It made the change in their relationship too obvious—obvious enough that Kyle suddenly took note of the possessive way she was touching him. “What do you know about his heart?” he asked.

Eve let go of him and tried to shrug it off. “We’ve been friends for years.”

“Are you still friends?” Riley asked, searching their faces.

Ted couldn’t deny the truth. That would imply that he was embarrassed about their involvement. So when Eve seemed uncertain about how to respond, he came out with it. “We’re seeing each other.”

Adelaide’s mouth dropped open. “Seeing each other as in…dating?”

“Isn’t that what seeing each other is?” he asked.

“I wasn’t sure, since you’ve been friends for so long and see each other all the time.” Addy hadn’t been part of the original group, hadn’t even been around after high school. Noah had included her when she returned a year ago.

“Since when?” Callie asked.

“Halloween,” Cheyenne chipped in with a knowing laugh.

“Whoa, apparently some people had more fun in the hot tub than others,” Riley teased.