And then Kate started to unwrap each old ornament. They all looked delicate, and he knew how much they meant to Kate, so he was hesitant to touch them. Each one was adorned in memories.
“It’s okay.” She stood and held out a blown glass ornament. “You can take it.”
“But if I drop it—” He didn’t want to be responsible for stealing away a piece of her past.
“You won’t.”
“But if I do—”
“Then we’ll clean it up and move on.”
His gaze met hers. “You’ll never speak to me again.”
She burst out laughing. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll have to do a lot worse than that.”
Like recommending the candle company be closed? He slammed the door on that thought. He refused to let the possible scenario ruin the wonderful here and now.
“Okay.” He took the ornament from her. “Just remember you said that.” He hung it on the tree, taking time to make sure it was secure.
“See? You’re doing fine.”
One by one, she unwrapped the ornaments and guided him as he hung them on the tree. There was something special about these ornaments. They had a lot of character. Some of them were even hand-painted. And there were so many that the tree was becoming quite crowded.
“Kate, I don’t know if we need any more.” When she didn’t respond, he turned to her. “Kate?”
She had unwrapped another ornament and paused to stare at it. It was a little angel with a gold pipe cleaner halo. Wes had forgotten all about it until that moment.
Kate’s gaze met his, and her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “It was you.”
He wasn’t sure what to say or do. He stood there transfixed.
Kate blinked repeatedly. “I remember now. You gave me this in school. You sat across from me in art class. I was having a really bad day. I was missing my mother, who used to do all sorts of Christmas things with me. And since it was the first holiday season without my parents, I was having a hard time.”
“I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” He’d just been a totally oblivious teenager at the time.
“Don’t be sorry. You gave me something precious. You gave me this ornament and you didn’t expect a thing in return. It was so kind, and it made me smile. But then, before I could thank you, you disappeared. And then a couple of days later, you left school.”
“My father got transferred again.” Wes looked down at the painted wooden angel in her hand. “I can’t believe you kept it all this time.”
“Why wouldn’t I? It was the perfect gift at the perfect moment. It was like a reminder that my mother was always looking down on me—that she wasn’t completely gone. She’s still in my heart.”
He glanced at the angel. “You got all of that from an ornament?”
She nodded. “I never got a chance to thank you.”
He stepped closer to her and gazed deeply into her eyes. His heart started to thump-thump, harder and faster. “You just did.”
His gaze dipped to her lips. He shouldn’t even be considering kissing her. She lived here and he lived far away in the city. But right now, they were only inches apart. And it would just be one quick kiss. Okay, maybe not that quick.
Still, he was supposed to be impartial. He had a job to do and an evaluation to prepare. His hands moved to her waist. Heat emanated through her clothes.
As she continued to stare into his eyes, he was starting to forget why kissing her was a bad idea. Right about now, it was sounding like a great idea—the best idea he’d had in a long time.
In that moment, all the reasons not to kiss her escaped him. All he could think about was pulling her close and finding out if her lips were as sweet as the powdered sugar donuts that appeared in the office break room each morning.
His head started to lower just as she tilted her head upward—
Buzz. Buzz.