Authors: Shayna Ryan
-22-
Pure white snow blanketed everything in sight, and the roads were a bit slick so my trip took longer than expected, even though I had allotted extra time for the winter travel. Everything was bathed in the harsh glow of a full moon reflecting off the fresh snow, giving it an eerie glow. It was the perfect Christmas night.
I made my way throu
gh the familiar little downtown and laughed out loud when I saw Ginger’s café decked out for the holiday with garland and colored lights in the windows. It was closed, of course, as was everything else at this hour on this day. The main street was eerily empty.
As I made
my turn off of the main street, my pulse quickened with excitement. Even though I was quite confident in the outcome of this trip, I couldn’t quell my nervousness completely. What if something had changed, and this was all for nothing?
The Brixby Inn was breathtaking
ly beautiful now that snow covered its long forgotten yard and the dark evening sky hid the Inn’s neglected condition. As I pulled down the driveway, I caught sight of one lone spruce decked out in Christmas lights in the front yard. I smiled to myself when I saw it; no doubt Will had taken the time to put the lights up for Dottie’s sake.
I parked and made my way up the shoveled walk, careful not to slip on any of the underlying ice.
The sound of the snow crunching underfoot blended with the rapid pounding of my own heart that thundered in my ears.
Before I lifted the heavy brass knocker to announce my arrival, I took a deep breath to steady myself. I was taking a huge leap of f
aith here but nothing in my life had ever felt so right. It didn’t make it any less unnerving.
I held my breath
for what felt like an eternity but finally the door swung open. There he stood, and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw me.
“I thought you were at your sister’s for Christmas?” he gasped.
“Nope, just taking a little road trip instead,” I replied with a shrug.
Without waiting for an invitation, I stepped through the doorway and wrapped my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around me
and held me tightly, and I knew that everything was going to be okay.
“I can’t believe you came for Christmas!”
“Well…about that,” I began with a sly grin. “I did indeed come for Christmas, but I may have overpacked.”
My comment piqued his interest immediately.
“Just how much did you ‘overpack’ for this trip?” His voice was strained as he tried to restrain his optimism.
“Hmmm…let’s just say that I don’t usually haul a trailer full of all of my remaining w
orldly possessions for a quick holiday visit.”
Will’s hands flew to his mouth in a gesture of disbelief as his eyes lit up. “Does this mean you’re…are you really…you’re going to stay?
Permanently?”
“If you’ll still have me.”
He let out a whoop of glee, picked me up off the ground and swung me around. “Best Christmas present ever!”
“What’s all the…
Calista!” Dottie shuffled towards us and Will put me down so I could greet her. I hugged her gently as she babbled with excitement.
“…just in the middle of Christmas dinner but there’s plenty! What a wonderful surprise this is! How long are you here for?”
“Well, Dottie,” Will clasped my hand in his and we stood as one to tell her the news. “I’m actually here to stay. With your permission, of course.”
“It’s about time,” she grinned. “You could have knocked me over with a feather when Will came back without you last time
! Of course you’re welcome here! I told you, you’re family now. Now come join us for our first Christmas dinner together!”
Will gave me an encouraging smile as he squeezed my hand, and in that moment, I knew that I had made the right decision. It
didn’t matter if I lived in the city or the middle of nowhere. Home was wherever he was, and the rest didn’t matter one little bit.
-23
-
“You need anything?” Will called as he stuck his head out the front door to check on me.
“More roses,” I mumbled as I examined the flower bed I was working on. While Will worked on making the changes necessary on the second floor to turn it into our own private suite, I worked on the grounds of the Inn
. Bit by bit I was taking back the wild, over grown gardens. “No, I’m fine, thanks,” I called back to him.
“Are you sure you don’t want a glass of water or something? Maybe take a break for a few minutes?”
“All right,” I relented. I knew he wouldn’t give up until I gave in, so I hoisted myself off the ground with a grunt and made my way to the front door.
“I worry about you in this heat,” Will commented as he held the door open for me.
“Relax. We’ve been through this a hundred times already! I’m three months pregnant, not nine. You don’t have to treat me like I’ll break at any minute.”
“I know, but it’s so hot out today!”
“It’s 82 degrees today, Will, not 102.”
“Okay, okay…but just make sure you’re drinking enough fluids, okay?”
“Yes, Doctor,” I mumbled as I accepted a glass of ice water from him. “So how’s it going upstairs?”
“Good.
But I need you to make a decision on the baby’s room colors because I plan on starting on that soon.”
“We’ve got months yet,” I reminded him gently. Ever since we found out that I was pregnant, Will had been acting as if the baby would arrive at any moment and I was made of glass.
“I know. I just want to take care of you, you know?” He moved behind me and wrapped his hands around my stomach, which hadn’t even begun to swell with the life within me yet.
“You do take care of me,” I remind
ed him gently. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the light trail of kisses he left down the back of my neck.
“It
is
my job now, Mrs. Holbrook. I take my husbandly duties very seriously, you know.”
“Indeed, Mr. Holbrook.”
We had been married for four months. It had been a small ceremony in the backyard at sunset, when the early spring flowers were in bloom and the last of winter’s snow stubbornly clung to the darker recesses of the yard. Blue acted as our Justice of the Peace, but I would have wanted him there even if he wasn’t qualified to preside over the ceremony. He was a good friend to us both and was becoming more and more like extended family. My sister and parents drove up to witness our union, and to finally meet Will for the first time. They adored him instantly and were happy to give us their blessing.
As Will was an only child and his parents were working on a humanitarian project in Asia, Dottie stood in to represent his side of the family. Janie came too, though Joey was conspicuously absent, but that was all right with us. Janie and I had become fast friends since I moved to Maine and she’d often come over during the day with the kids to visit. She and I chatted and laughed like old friends while Dottie fussed over the little ones, each time not-so-subtly complaining that she wanted some grandbabies of her own to enjoy. When Janie pulled me aside after the wedding ceremony to express that Theresa would have approved of Will’s marriage to me, I broke down and cried. It was one the nicest things anyone had ever said to me.
Our wedding was small,
casual, and absolutely perfect. Will wanted to get started on a family right away, and I couldn’t argue with that. It had taken only a few short months for me to fall in love with the area and I no longer missed city life. Living in the country had quieted me deep inside somehow and I was ready to take on the duties of becoming not only someone’s wife, but mother as well.
My busi
ness was still growing steadily and I was routinely making a full time wage with my graphic design work. It enabled me to work at home at the Inn, which made it easy for me to keep an eye on Dottie and lend her a hand when she needed it during the day.
On the weekends, in our spare time, Will and I worked on completing our private apartment on the second floor. On top of our own renovation project, I had been working to slowly revitalize the
rest of the Inn bit by bit. I had to wait until our apartment was done for Will to be able to help me with the larger projects but in the meantime I worked on smaller things, like the gardens. Our plan was to reopen the Inn when it was back in tiptop shape, hopefully within two years. If we could reopen the third floor suites for guests we could have a steady flow of good income to support our family, and Dottie, on top of my graphic design business and Will’s job as a game warden.
Dottie looked forward to reopening the Inn most of all. She missed the days gone
by of having guests year round and now that I was there to do all of the work she no longer could, her dreams could come to life once again.
“So are you really going to keep gardening out there, in this heat?” Will asked me as I finished my glass of ice water.
“Why not? You got a better use for me in here?”
“Oh, funny you should ask…” His hands slip up from my belly to cup my ever-growing breasts. They constantly enlarging due to the pregnancy, and neither us of were complaining.
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Will. We’ve got work to do!” I teased.
“All right,” he sighed, but he didn’t release my breasts. “Can you at least come keep me company upstairs? I’ve star
ted painting in the living room and if you’d like to finish rolling the walls then I can start on the trim. But we’re coming back to this later.” He gave them one final gentle squeeze and released me.
“It’s a deal–for both the painting, and uh, the other bit later on.”
“You’re on!” He held out his hand and I took it, and together we headed upstairs to work on our home.
-Epilogue-
It felt like the whole town turned out to watch the unveiling of the new sign. Everyone lined the road in front of the Inn, anxious for the moment when we’d unveil the new sign and officially open the new and improved Brixby Inn.
Many of the townsfolk had embraced me as one of their own, once I came back to the Inn to stay. If I was good enough for Will, I was good enough for them, and now the term ‘city girl’ was strictly reserved for some good-natured ribbing. Those who were reluctant to accept me when I
moved into town quickly changed their mind once Will and I wed and I was officially the warden’s wife.
The website I designed for the Inn had b
een up and running for weeks and we were already booking stays well into the start of ski season. After almost two years of working on it, we had restored the Inn to its former glory inside and out, and the beautiful pictures on our website represented it well.
Dottie stood next to me in front of the sign, and I balanced little Billy on my hip as Will made a short speech thanking the community for its support of the Inn.
“And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for, some of us more than others,” he paused to drop me a sexy wink, “I now present to you the newly redone Brixby Inn!” With a bit of a flourish, he yanked the sheet off to reveal the new sign carved out of white ash, with the name ‘The Brixby Inn’ painted in beautiful, flowing gold letters.
The crowd applauded and cheered, and after admiring the sign for a moment, folks began making their way to the front lawn for a community potluck dinner. Many of the townsfolk had pitched in a
nd brought a dish to share and our little re-opening had swiftly turned into a town social event.
“Maybe we should do this every year,” Will mused and slung an arm around me.
“Maybe,” I agreed, “But you’ll have to hold one next year.”
“Hold one what?”
“Baby. I won’t be able to juggle them both at the rate Billy’s growing!” I replied with a twinkle in my eye.
“Both? You mean…you…you’re pregnant?” I thought his face might split in two, he was smiling so hard.
“You bet,” I grinned. “Come next spring, The Brixby Inn will be growing by one more.”
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Looking for other works by Shayna Ryan?
Contemporary western romance novellas:
Between Two Sisters
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKF3F00
Broken Spirits
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D9D2SZA
Buy both together and SAVE!
Combo pack
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DTNGI60