The last of the unease inside him vanished. He chuckled, stroked her hair and kissed her head again. “Don’t worry, baby. I’m here to back you now.”
And—damn—that felt so good.
Eleven
Faith set up the last table inside the covered arena at the county fair grounds, and shook it to test for stability. The ice sculptures could weigh hundreds of pounds, and she didn’t want this year to be the first year a table gave out and ruined the contest for someone.
When the heavy-duty table held, Faith smiled and ran her hand over the wood her father had hand crafted for this event. But that brought a flurry of other thoughts and emotions. First her mind turned to Natalie and her curt call to Faith early that morning to tell Faith that since she was being so unreasonable, Natalie would forego judging for the greater good so that Holly would benefit.
“Martyr,” Faith muttered, running her finger over one of the many scars in the table. But she was still ashamed of herself for coming down to Natalie’s level. “That won’t happen next year...”
Faith trailed off, realizing next year was one big question mark. She may not be able to make the store profitable enough to hold onto. She may be somewhere completely different, starting over. Alone. No Taylor, no Caleb, none of the people from Holly that she’d known all her life.
No Grant.
Faith sighed and started moving methodically among the tables to double-check the extension cord connections.
Her cell rang and she smiled a little, looking forward to the sound of Grant’s voice. As she pulled it from her back pocket their night flooded back to her. He’d slowly been edging his way into her heart since he showed up in town. But last night he’d impressed the hell out of her. How open he’d been when she’d told him about Natalie. How reassuring he’d been about his feelings for her. How receptive he’d been of her emotions.
And the way he’d made love to her after... God, it had been the most beautiful night of her life. Passionate. Loving. Intense. She’d never felt as connected to another human being as she’d felt to Grant last night, looking into his eyes as he made love to her.
She looked at the screen and saw Taylor’s name. Which made her think of how Grant had been gone when she woke up this morning. And made her wonder if he’d felt it too. And that it had scared him into pulling away.
“Hey,” she answered. “I thought you were going over your books with Grant.”
“I’m headed there now, but I called because—“
“Weren’t you supposed to do that this morning?” It was the reason he’d given her when he’d texted later in the morning to tell her he couldn’t help her set up.
“No, he said he had something else to do this morning and pushed it back.”
A pang of hurt pulled hard at the center of Faith’s body. She winced and pressed a hand to her forehead. “I see.”
“No, I don’t think you do. I just figured out what he was doing.”
Now dread joined the hurt. Bu
t Taylor sounded excited, and she would never be excited about Faith getting hurt. “And?”
“Your Christmas Light Fantasia is up on YouTube. It looks incredible. It’s adorable and funny and informative. And the final result is a-freaking-mazing.”
Joy exploded through Faith’s chest and she grinned. “Really?” He’d spent the morning editing her video? “But...I didn’t get around to narrating...”
“Grant did. And he’s really good. He’s got a sexy, professional voice, yet he’s got a really straight-forward way about explaining things, and he’s funny. Must be all those interviews he does with the media all the time.”
He did media interviews? She really needed to learn more about hockey and the NHL and... She shook her head. Yeah. Maybe in her spare time.
“Wow,” she said. “That’s amazing.” She couldn’t stop smiling—even though she knew without any doubt her heart was going to shatter when he left. Which reminded her that she only had a couple of days left with him before he returned to DC to reenter hockey season.
“It is,” Taylor agreed. “But what’s really amazing—are you sitting down?”
Faith slid her butt onto the nearest table. “I am now.”
“You’ve already gotten one-hundred-and-twenty thousand views.”
Faith’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
“But it gets better.”