Mia Ross - Hometown Holiday Reunion

“It is what it is.”

He shrugged, but the careless gesture wasn’t nearly enough to mask the pain that made his brown eyes look almost black. The shadows under them told her that he’d been working way too hard and worrying more than anyone should have to. He still kept his dark, wavy hair a bit too long for her taste, but she couldn’t deny that the years he’d spent up north had been good to him. More weathered than handsome, his features were an interesting combination of angles and creases that hinted at a lot of laughter.

Not recently, though, she realized sadly. Her own life had gotten pretty complicated since her father’s sudden death a few years ago, so she could relate. Thankfully, a much brighter topic popped into her head. “I just remembered you’re a new uncle. How did Sophie like her first Christmas?”

“About like you’d expect,” he responded with a chuckle. “I hunted all over for the baby doll Natalie said she’d like best, and what does my scamp of a niece do? She rips off the paper, chucks the toy away and plays with the box.”

He fished out his cell phone and opened his pictures to show Erin a photo of a laughing little girl wearing a red velvet dress, one black patent shoe and reindeer antlers.

“Oh, she’s adorable. How old is she now?”

“Ten months,” he responded, glancing at the photo before sliding his phone back into his pocket. “The way she’s moving around, she’ll be walking any day. Then her parents will really have their hands full.”

“If Sophie’s anywhere near as popular as her mother was in high school, Alex will be busy intimidating all her possible boyfriends.” Pausing, Erin gave Cam a stern look. “Maybe you can give him some lessons on that.”

“I never wasted time intimidating anyone. I flat-out told ’em that if they got outta line with my little sister, I’d make ’em sorrier than they’d ever been in their miserable lives.”

“My mistake. You threatened them.”

“Got that right.” He punctuated his response with a growl that would have been more convincing if his eyes hadn’t been twinkling in fun. “Don’t give me that look. All three of your brothers did the same thing for you.”

Shaking her head in exasperation, Erin shared her opinion on that. “You were a bunch of morons, all four of you.”

“Maybe, but we got our point across.” When she didn’t say anything, he flashed her a shameless grin. “You’re welcome.”

She couldn’t come up with a witty comeback for that one, so she let the subject drop and strolled around the apartment, assessing what kind of home it would make for Parker and her.

While it wasn’t large, it had a nice-sized living room with a bay window that overlooked Main Street. Both bedrooms were down a short hallway, on either side of a bathroom that would benefit from a good scrubbing but was otherwise acceptable. She wasn’t much of a cook, but the galley kitchen and its appliances were in decent condition, and the breakfast bar separating it from the living area would do double duty for eating and homework.

“So,” he began in a conversational tone, “I can’t help wondering why a lifelong country girl like you is suddenly interested in moving to town.”

“I’ve been renting the bottom half of the old Johnson place for the past couple of years, but they’ve been hinting at selling it so they can move to Ohio to be closer to their grandkids. When Judge Markham decided to retire in December, he gave me a nice severance and a glowing reference about the administrative work I did for him. It was a decent job, but not really my thing. I mostly stayed because he and Granddad were friends for so long, and I could work flexible hours when I needed to.”

“Because you’re a mom now,” Cam filled in with an incredulous look. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around that one.”

So was she, Erin had to admit. But only to herself. She feared that if she ever voiced the tiniest smidgen of self-doubt, it would somehow get back to Parker’s social worker and she’d lose him to the system she was so determined to rescue him from.

Eight years old, he was on the verge of being considered unadoptable, which meant a forever home was almost out of reach for the shy boy. Over the past few months, she’d made slow but steady progress with him, until he now looked her in the eye without flinching. She hated to consider what might happen to him if he was torn from the life she and her large, loving family had worked so hard to give him.

So, in typical Kinley fashion, she’d simply decided that she wasn’t going to let that happen. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about starting my own business, and with the apartment up here, this place would be perfect.”

“For what?”

He seemed genuinely interested, and her heart leaped with the excitement she always felt when she talked about the dream that had edged closer to reality over the past year. “A pet store. Not your average one, though.”

“Of course not,” he said with a chuckle. “You never do anything like anyone else.”

There was a tinge of admiration in his tone, and she couldn’t keep back a smile. “You make that sound like a good thing.”

“It is. There’s plenty of boring, predictable folks on the planet. We certainly don’t need any more.” Leaning against the counter that divided the kitchen from the living room, he said, “What’ve you got in mind?”

“All right,” she shot back, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Who are you, and what have you done with Cam Stewart?”

“Whaddya mean?”

“You’re being nice to me.”

“I’m nice.” When she gave him a wilting look, he laughed. “Okay, maybe that’s a stretch. But I can be pleasant, if the situation warrants it.”

“Meaning this one does?” He nodded, and after studying his serious expression she opted to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, it wasn’t like he could still stuff her in a locker and stand outside of it laughing his head off while she tried to bang her way free. “Well, I was planning on stocking all the usual supplies, but also some fancier things for people who like to spoil their animals. I’m going to call it Pampered Pets.”

“I like it. Pretty much sums up what you’re offering to your customers.”

“Kind of like the new Wash and Dine Snack Bar you opened next to the café,” she commented, figuring it was only fair to compliment him in return. “We’ve needed a Laundromat for a while, but you went one further and made it into a fun spot to hang out. I’ve heard lots of great things about it from folks at church.”

His chiseled jaw tightened almost reflexively, then slowly eased as if he was making a concerted effort to relax. “Good to know.”

His clipped response warned her that she’d misstepped, and she frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Course not.”

Any fool could see that he didn’t mean what he’d said, but she decided to let the matter drop. She didn’t want to start an argument with someone who had the power to help her make a stable home for Parker and get her new business off the ground. “I’d like to rent this place for three months, with an option to buy when the lease runs out. That gives me a chance to get all my ducks in a row before making a huge commitment I might end up regretting.”

“Yeah, I hear you,” he said with a wry grin. “Wish I could’ve done that with my ex-wife.”

It was Erin’s turn to gawk. “You were married?”

“For more than a year. Sherry and I were about as different as two people could be, but there was something about her.” He punctuated the very personal revelation with a rueful grin. “We both gave it our best shot, but eventually she decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. Considering the way my parents ended up, I don’t know why I thought I could make it work.”