Destiny studied her assistant as if surprised that Genevieve was so adamant. “I’m not . . . I can’t . . .”
“Yes, you can,” Genevieve said. “You’ve been saying for months that you’ve lost your spark.”
Destiny gave her a wide-eyed look and glanced at Quino and Savy to see what they thought of this. Savy kept her face very still and noted that Quino did the same. Destiny glanced back at Genevieve.
“And you think getting back out there and meeting my readers will help?” Destiny asked.
“I know it will, and I’ll be with you every step of the way,” Genevieve said. “I won’t let you get swept up. You need to do this. Not just to help the bookstore but to help yourself as well.”
“But what if there are mean readers out there just waiting to pounce?” Destiny asked. “I mean, when you get back out there in the world, you get the lovers and the haters.”
“There won’t be,” Quino said. “And if there are, I’ll escort them from the premises myself.”
“You’ll be there?” Destiny asked in surprise.
“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I wouldn’t miss it. I’ll be your escort or your bodyguard or both.”
“All right,” Destiny said. Savy felt her hopes soar. “I’ll consider it.” And then they fell.
She glanced at Quino and he gave her a wink, letting her know he thought they’d be able to convince Destiny to do the signing. Savy felt her hopes lift again, not exactly at soaring range, but she was at least hopeful.
They finished tea and talked about other things. Savy learned that Quino was an accomplished guitar player, which did not surprise her since she had heard him belting out Christmas carols and knew he could sing.
When Destiny asked about his sister, Desi, his face got tight but he said she was fine. Savy wondered if he and Desi were having a tiff, because she hadn’t been there to help with the tree and his face had taken on the same lockdown expression then, too.
When it was time to leave, Quino and Destiny led the way and Savy and Genevieve fell into step behind them.
“I’ll do what I can to talk her into the signing,” Genevieve said so just Savy could hear her. “She doesn’t even realize how badly she needs this.”
“Thanks, that would be a huge help.”
Genevieve squeezed her arm in a gesture of understanding. Savy turned to Destiny to say good-bye, but Destiny looked past her at Genevieve.
“Did you find a copy?”
“I did,” Genevieve said. With a smile she turned and picked up a book that was sitting on the table by the door. She handed it to Destiny.
“I thought you might like a signed book,” Destiny said to Savy. She took the pen Genevieve held out to her and signed the title page. “I think you’ll like this one especially well. I know it has a special place in my heart.”
“Thank you, that’s so nice of you.” Savy took the book entitled The Keeper and glanced at the cover. She looked up and then back down in a double take. Was it? Could it be? Her jaw dropped and she held up the cover of the book next to the man. “This is extraordinary!”
“Aw, Destiny, you didn’t,” he said. He gave her an annoyed look that lacked any real heat.
“Of course I did,” she said. “You and Daisy were my cover models for that book. It’s one of my very favorites.”
“It is you!” Savy said. She kept looking from the book to him. “And Daisy. She looks amazing! Destiny, I had no idea! This is the best thing anyone has ever given me.”
“You need to set your standards a little higher,” Quino said. Destiny gave him a look and he added, “Not the story but the cover.”
“It’s the greatest cover I’ve ever seen,” Savy said, and she clutched it to her chest. Impulsively she leaned forward and kissed Destiny’s cheek. “Thank you so much, I’ll cherish it.”
They left the house with a wave and headed across the enormous lawn to the corral, where the horses waited. Savy kept looking at the book and then at the man.
“Stop it, Red,” he said.
“I can’t,” she said. “You are a cover model. I mean, I always knew you were gorgeous, but seeing you like this kind of brings it home, you know?”
He snorted. “I am not gorgeous.”
“No?” she asked. “Then why are you on the cover?”
“Because they needed a dude and his horse, and Daisy and I were available.”
They arrived at the corral and he swung the gate open. Cocoa was ready to go and he clipped her harness with a lead and led her to the waiting trailer.
“That is not it,” she said. “They wouldn’t put any old guy on a Destiny Swann novel. He had to be hot. Readers want hot guys. Too bad they let you keep your shirt on.”
“Oh, my God, are you objectifying me, Red?”
“Totally.”
“Well, quit it.”
He loaded Cocoa and went back for Daisy. Daisy was ready to go, too, and climbed in beside Cocoa without a fuss. Quino closed the trailer and double-checked the latches before signaling for Savy to follow him. He opened the passenger door to his truck and she stepped up beside him.
“You are gorgeous,” she said. “I’m not even saying that as a woman with privileged information. I’m saying that as a completely objective observer of a book cover with a total hottie on the front. A hottie who is standing right in front of me. A hottie who is also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”
He shook his head at her. “You can’t talk to me like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it makes me want to kiss you and I’m trying to respect your boundaries,” he said.
“What boundaries are those?” she asked. At the moment, she was so smitten she couldn’t remember why she had ever thought that keeping him at arm’s length was a good idea. So what if he loved Christmas? Who cared if she would, hopefully, be leaving soon? Suddenly, her entire world had been whittled down to the next few moments. Moments in which all she could think about was his mouth on hers.
“Aw, hell, Red,” he said. “You know you shouldn’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” she breathed.
“Like you want me to kiss you.”
“But I do.”
And just like that, he did. With one hand on her hip and one hand buried in her hair, he kissed her long and deep.
Savy dropped the book onto the seat behind her and latched on to him. She kissed him back with all of the desire she’d felt over the past few days. She’d missed him. She’d missed this. She didn’t know what to do about it but she knew that doing nothing was not working for her.
She slid her mouth along his and opened her lips to draw him in. Quino answered by deepening the kiss until the only sensation Savy could grasp was the feel of his mouth against hers as he wooed her with kisses that let her know he hadn’t forgotten the other night, either. Not one little bit of it.
Something sharp and wet hit Savy’s cheek. She ignored it but then felt it again. Reluctantly, she pulled back to discover that she and Quino were both covered in big fat snowflakes that clung to their clothes and hair. He even had a few on his long thick eyelashes.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “The first snow of the season.”
Quino looked up at the falling snow and then back down at her. He grinned. “See what happens when I kiss you?”
“Snow? Really?” she asked. “You’re saying our kiss made it snow?”
“Being with you always seems to change my world,” he said. He tucked a long strand of her hair behind her ear and kissed her quick. “So it seems perfectly reasonable to me.”
He leaned close and kissed her again as if he just couldn’t help himself.
A horse whinnied and a loud stomp sounded from the trailer. It interrupted the sultry haze they were wrapped in and Quino stepped back. He sucked in a breath a
nd said, “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” she said. She sounded breathless, because she was, and she smiled. “I’m not.”
With that she turned and climbed into her seat, afraid that if she didn’t she’d grab him by the front of his hideous sweater and kiss him again. Quino closed the door after her and she heard him whistling as he walked around the front of the truck. It took her a moment to identify the tune and when she did, she smiled. “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Well, the feeling was mutual.
Chapter Seventeen
FROSTING and books don’t mix,” Maisy said. She was wiping down a paperback book that had just been shellacked with dark green frosting by a toddler with a wild aim.
“Sorry about that,” Savy said. She helped Maisy unload the book cart onto the shelves in their office. Most of the books looked fine. There was a stack of cookies and several bowls of frosting that needed to be thrown out since the germ factor with toddlers was high. “I didn’t really think it through with the cookie decorating. Who knew two-year-olds had so much range with flinging the frosting?”
Maisy laughed. “It’s fine. We can always charge extra for the added buttercream smell.”
Savy grinned. She studied her friend. Maisy had hit the ground running every day for the past week. In fact, they all had. Cookie decorating, carol singing, holiday movies, even a Debbie Macomber—inspired knitting class where they learned to knit mittens while listening to the audio edition of one of her books.
Every day there was something new and wonderful to do. Was it helping? Savy had no idea. It seemed like people were buying, but when she’d walked into the office two days ago, she’d overheard Maisy on the phone saying she didn’t know if she could gather that much money by the end of the year. Savy tried not to panic. She failed. It took everything she had not to call Quino and beg him to ask Destiny to please do the bookstore signing.
She hadn’t seen Quino since Destiny’s riding lesson last week. When they’d arrived back at Shadow Pine, a class was under way and Quino was needed to assist Lanie with the students receiving equine therapy.
Savy supposed it was for the best, since his kiss at Windemere Manor had reduced her resistance to rubble, but she missed him. She learned from Sawyer, who was helping out at Shadow Pine with odd jobs as much as he was at the bookstore, that Quino was juggling a packed schedule at the stables with holiday work parties that included snowy trail rides up into the mountains, as well as sleigh rides in and around Fairdale. Now that the snow had arrived it seemed determined to stay, and they’d had several snowfalls, adding to the holiday spirit as it dipped the area in a thick coating of winter.
Even Savy with her usual dour sense of the holidays had to admit that she felt a little more bounce in her step than usual. Maybe it was her evenings spent at the ice rink. She’d taken to going once a day and had started to give impromptu lessons to a pack of kids who flocked to her when she arrived. It felt so good to have this part of herself back. She owed Quino for that. She even felt optimistic that Destiny would come around. She suspected this new level of happiness had to do with Quino, too. Every day she debated whether or not to call him and see if he had heard from Destiny, but she knew it was a lame excuse at best and obvious at worst.
If Quino had heard from Destiny, she knew he would have told her. Maybe he was over their flirtation. After all, they had slept together. It could be that there was no mystery left for him in regard to her. Perhaps he’d even found someone else at one of those office-party-horseback-riding things.
Savy frowned.
“Did the cookie do something to offend you?” Maisy asked.
Savannah looked down. She’d been picking up the extra unused sugar cookies and one in the shape of a snowman was crumbled in her fist. She opened her fingers and let it spill into the garbage bin.
“Faulty cookie construction,” she said.
“Uh-huh,” Maisy said.
A screech of car tires and a shout came from outside. Both women glanced at the windows.
“What is he doing?” A shout came from the front of the bookstore. “He is going to get himself killed!”
Savy and Maisy exchanged a glance and darted to the front of the bookstore. Jeri was standing at the front window along with three customers, one of whom was Hannah Phillips, the veterinarian, and they were watching something out on the street.
Savy glanced over the heads of the others while Maisy stepped onto a step stool for a better view. A man was running back and forth across the busy street, ducking through cars, with his arms outstretched as if trying to catch something.
“Is that Sawyer?” Maisy asked.
“Yes,” Jeri answered. “He was in here a minute ago, fixing the radiator that keeps whistling, and then he just dropped his tools and ran outside.”
They all watched as the handsome dark-haired man ran across the street again. He’d just stepped onto the curb when something flew up at him and he jumped backward.
“Oh, no,” Hannah said. “Franklin.” The note of dread in her voice was unmistakable. She stepped back from the window and shoved her armful of books at Jeri. “Hold these for me. I’ll be right back.”
Hannah ran outside, yelling, “Stop! Wait!”
Jeri dropped the books on the counter and charged to the door. “I am not missing a second of this. Maybe Sawyer will have to take his shirt off.”
“Right behind you!” Savy said.
Maisy shook her head, sending her short curls bouncing, but she followed them out, as did every customer in the shop. When they reached the porch, they heard Hannah yelling, “Don’t hurt him! He doesn’t know any better.”
She was standing on the sidewalk, wearing a long cardigan over her veterinarian scrubs. Her thick blond hair was in a fat braid that ran halfway down her back and she was holding her arms outstretched with her hands up in the universal sign for stop.
“Hurt him?” Sawyer shouted. He moved his arms over his head just as a big, rough-looking rooster flew up at him. He ducked and the rooster went right over him. “I’m trying to keep the stupid bird out of the road!”
“He’s not stupid!” Hannah said. She crouched low, pulled off her sweater, and started to make kissy noises. “Franklin, come here, boy.”
“Franklin? That creature of darkness is named Franklin?” Sawyer cried. The rooster, as if understanding he’d been insulted, began to strut toward Sawyer. “Don’t even think it, you shifty-eyed, limp-feathered ground pecker. If it weren’t for me, you’d be roadkill.”
“Franklin,” Hannah called. “Franklin, come.”
Sawyer loomed and Franklin turned and scuttled toward Hannah. She held out her arm and when he drew close she swiftly wrapped him up in her sweater and tucked him under her arm. The ladies on the porch burst into spontaneous applause.
“Is that the rooster she saved a few years ago?” Savy asked.
“Yup, that’s Franklin. She found him half-dead as a baby chick and nursed him back to life,” Maisy said. “He loves Hannah and only Hannah. She swears he’s better than having a watchdog.”
“Well, it could have been worse,” Jeri said. “With that menagerie she’s got, it could have been Matilda the goat who got loose. She butts first and asks questions later.”
They watched as Sawyer stepped around Hannah and strode up the sidewalk to the bookstore.
“Nice work, Sawyer,” Jeri called out. As an aside to those on the porch, she added, “Still, it’s too bad he didn’t have to take his shirt off.”
“Yeah,” Mrs. La Costa, a gray-haired octogenarian and one of their regulars, agreed. “Total bummer.”
Savy watched as Sawyer and Hannah bickered on their way up to the porch.
“Well, he wouldn’t have flown at you, if you hadn’t frightened him,” she said.
“Frightened him?” Sawyer stopped and turned to stare at her. “When I saw him from the w
indow, he was trying to shank a passing car with those heel spurs of his. He’s damn lucky he didn’t get run over.”
“Thank you for saving him,” Hannah said. She rested her cheek on Franklin’s crest and he nuzzled her back. “I do appreciate it, and I’m sorry he behaved badly. He’s very sensitive.”
“Sensitive?” Sawyer gaped at her. “That bird is a menace.” He pointed at Franklin, who poked his head forward and tried to peck his finger. “See?”
“He’s not,” Hannah insisted. “He’s just misunderstood.”
Sawyer clapped his palm to his forehead. He shook his head at Hannah and said, “Lady, the only thing that bird is good for is stuffing with corn bread.”
“Ah!” Hannah gasped and clutched Franklin closer. She glanced up at the porch and said, “Jeri, hold my books for me, please. I’m taking Franklin home.”
“Will do,” Jeri said. “Bye, Franklin.”
The rooster didn’t respond.
Sawyer watched Hannah stomp away. He turned around and ran a hand through his hair. As he passed Savy and Maisy on his way into the bookstore, he said, “I don’t know who’s crazier, her or her damn bird.”
The door banged shut behind him, and the women all burst into chuckles. They reentered the store and resumed what they’d been doing before the incident. Savannah wandered from the office to the store and back to the office. She couldn’t seem to get settled. The scene between Hannah and Sawyer had been a nice diversion, but now that they were back inside, the bookstore was quiet. Too quiet.
“That was the most exciting thing to happen all week,” Savy said to Maisy as she made her second pass through the office. “The drama of living in Fairdale. How have I existed without this?”
“Search me,” Maisy said. She studied Savy’s face and frowned. “Listen, I’ve got things here. You’ve worked open to close for the past three days. Go take a break, walk around downtown, soak in the holiday spirit.”
“Yeah, because I’m all about that holiday spirit,” Savy said.
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