True, but she’d gone through his closet anyway and told him which ties made him look sharp and what outfits just made him look as if he was trying too hard. And she’d helped him refine his résumé. She was a lot like her mother, a nurturer. He suspected that Susan Waide wasn’t shy about giving advice to her children and husband, just as he suspected that advice was often right.
Had Gabe found Arianne’s meddling more overbearing than it really was simply because he wasn’t used to anyone caring enough about him to interfere?
Disturbed by the possibility that he’d judged her too harshly, he entered the building and told himself to focus. This interview could mean a fresh start and a new life for him. Maybe even work put toward a college degree. Get your head on straight.
But Arianne was too deeply entrenched in his thoughts for him to ignore. When the interviewer discussed a traditional campus festival they held in the spring, all Gabe could think about was Arianne in her pirate costume. And out of it. When Gabe saw the desktop picture of the man’s wife and child, he couldn’t help recalling the way Arianne looked holding Bailey. She’ll make a great mom.
She’d be fiercely protective, and he imagined that any child of hers would sometimes chafe under Arianne’s insistence that she knew best, but that child would also grow up secure in the knowledge that he or she was unconditionally loved.
Gabe had spent the better part of the interview so distracted that he was almost startled when it ended.
“I think that’s all the questions we have for you,” the man behind the desk said genially. “Unless you have any more for us, I’ll let Bruce show you around the grounds some. While the hiring committee writes up their applicant recommendation, you be thinking about whether or not, if offered the job, you could see making a home here at Whisthaven.”
Home. The word was a revelation. He’d felt torn recently, trying to decide if the right home for him was Mistletoe or somewhere else. But home wasn’t a place. It was a state of being—a sense of belonging, of knowing you were loved even if the people who loved you aggravated the hell out of you, a sense of security and the knowledge that someone else had your back, even while you argued that you could take care of yourself.
Home was Arianne.
WAIDE SUPPLY WAS JUST opening for the day when Gabe strode through the doors. After a long drive back to Mistletoe, which had given him too much time to think about what he’d lost, he’d spent a sleepless night staring at his clock and waiting for this moment. Out of sheer impulse, he’d even reached once for his phone, but sanity had prevailed. If you woke a woman up at three in the morning, she was probably even less inclined to take you back. Gabe was already at enough of a disadvantage.
Arianne was setting up an end-cap display, while her father and David stood looking at some kind of paperwork at the counter. Gabe made a beeline for her, fully aware that the two Waide men had both stilled and were watching him.
David stepped forward, inserting himself between Gabe and Ari. He flashed a shark’s toothy smile. “Anything I can help you with this morning?”
Arianne got to her feet, looking tiny in comparison to her brother. It was funny, Gabe had noticed her height early on, but after a while, her larger-than-life personality made her seem a lot taller than she was.
He looked over David’s shoulder, appealing to her directly. “Can I talk to you?”
She jerked her thumb toward an open box that contained many smaller boxes of nails. “As you can see, I’m busy laying out the sales inventory.”
“I can help,” he said, probably sounding desperate and not really caring.
Her eyes flashed at him. “Teamwork isn’t really your thing, is it, Gabe? I pegged you more as someone who worked alone.”
“Maybe that’s just because it’s what I was used to. Maybe it took me longer than most to recognize a good thing when I had it.”
She bit her lip, looking beautiful and vulnerable, and Gabe considered removing David bodily from his path so that he could go hug her.
David raised an eyebrow, shooting pointed glances at Gabe’s kneecaps. “Didn’t you and Tanner have a discussion a few days ago?” he asked meaningfully. “Maybe your being here isn’t such a good idea.”
“It’s probably the best idea I’ve ever had,” Gabe countered.
Arianne had narrowed her eyes at her brother. “What do you mean, he and Tanner had a discussion? Do you two not understand that I’m a big girl now? I can take care of myself.”
Gabe couldn’t help it, he threw his head back and laughed. Both Waide siblings looked at him. He ignored David altogether and locked eyes with Arianne. “You can’t have it both ways, sweetheart. Is it the right of a loved one to interfere, or should they stay out of your private life and let you make your own choices?”
She fought a smile, sighing in resignation. “Damn. I hate it when other people are right. Dad, David, could we have a minute?”
Zachariah looked unconvinced, but David led their father away.
“Thank you,” Gabe said. “I would have said it in front of them if I had to, but this is better. Arianne, I love you.”
She pressed a hand to her abdomen, looking stunned by the bald admission. “But I’m bossy and interfering and too stubborn for my own good. I’ll drive you crazy.”
“I’ll learn to live with it,” he vowed. “Just like you have to learn to live with me withdrawing and being moody and needing time to adjust to an idea before I can embrace it as fully as you can.”
“I don’t know.” She plopped right down on the floor as if she were too drained to stand, and leaned against a shelving unit. “I feel like someone used my heart as a Ping-Pong ball, and I’m not sure I’m cut out for any more of that. A long-distance relationship—”
“Won’t be an issue. You were right when you said I like to work alone. I set my own hours, I don’t have to put up with an obnoxious boss, and I’ve already established a solid client base. I don’t think I have the patience to start over somewhere new at the bottom. I can be happy in Mistletoe…as long as I’m with you.”
“You’re sure I’m what you want?” she asked in a small voice.
He slid down next to her, taking her hands in his. “I know I said some hurtful things to you. I was angry, and you were pushing all the wrong buttons. I doubt it will be the last fight we have. But give me a chance to get better at this. I want to redeem myself.”
Actually, it was Arianne and her stubborn caring that had already redeemed him. He wasn’t the same man he was a month ago, and he was glad for that.
The happiness spread inside, until he felt lit up with it. He grinned at her. “You have to take me back. I won’t take no for an answer. I’ll follow you to your favorite restaurants, I’ll call you on the phone, I’ll nominate you for bizarre local honors…”
She beamed at him unabashedly. “Now what kind of psycho with no sense of personal boundaries would do all that?”
“The kind I love,” he said against her lips.
“I love you, too.” And then she kissed him.
He’d been right—it was exactly like coming home.
Epilogue
I cannot believe I’m up here. Gabe felt a bit foolish sitting on the back of the convertible and waving to all and sundry. It truly was a testament to how much Arianne could talk him into—not that he minded completely. He especially liked her inventive ways of trying to cajole him into a good mood first.
At the end of the parade, people shook his hand and clapped him on the back, all wishing him a Happy Thanksgiving. Gabe acknowledged them politely, but was trying to find the short love of his life in the crowd. He was so focused on that that it took him a moment to realize that the person in his path was his father.
“Dad.” Gabe froze. “You come to the parade?”
Jeremy Sloan looked away. “Not every year. So you’re Man of the Year, huh?”
“Seems that way,” Gabe said, feeling painfully embarrassed. His father probably thought the whole thing wa
s stupid.
Jeremy grunted. “Your mother would have loved that.”
Gabe was stunned, but not sure how to respond. Thank you?
“Well, have a nice Thanksgiving.”
“You, too.” Watching his dad go, Gabe almost called him back to ask whether he had plans for dinner. But he couldn’t quite voice the question. Not yet, maybe someday soon.
“Just for the record, I want you to take note of my standing here and not offering you any advice whatsoever,” came a voice from behind him. “Even though it’s killing me.”
“Ari.” He spun around with a smile. “I was looking for you.”
“I was stuck in line at the concessions booth. You seemed sort of good-naturedly miserable during the parade and I thought this might cheer you up.” She held up a waffle cone loaded with two scoops of chocolate.
“Ice cream!” He bent to kiss the woman who understood him so well—and loved him anyway. “My hero.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4146-0
MISTLETOE HERO
Copyright © 2009 by Tanya Michna.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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*4 Seasons in Mistletoe
*4 Seasons in Mistletoe
*4 Seasons in Mistletoe
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