Stranded On Christmas Read Free Page B

said that he
loved me, but obviously he didn't mean it.” I shook my head like I
was trying to erase the memories.
    Jamie
had lied to me. He had only been with me until he met someone better.
Our relationship wasn’t meant for the long run. Why hadn’t I
heard that clock ticking in the background? The one that was counting
the minutes that we would be together. Only when the alarm sounded,
telling me that the time was up had I notice it.
    “ I
am so sorry that he hurt you. I would never break your heart like
that, I promise.” He looked like he meant it.
    I
sat up a little more. I thought about giving Gideon a kiss. Should I?
    I
leaned over towards him and kissed him. This time it was my hands in
his hair pulling him close. He was grinning from ear to ear when we
came up for air.
    I
noticed that his hands hadn't wandered, as men's hands tend to do
when they are close to a woman. He was waiting for me to take the
lead, but I really wasn't that kind of woman.
    What
if he didn't really want me? What if he changed his mind when he saw
me naked? That would break my heart, and he had promised not to do
that. I was so unsure of myself.
    “ It's
late. I think we should go to bed,” Gideon suggested.
    I
moved away from him and stood up. “I just need to step outside for
a moment.”
    His
face fell like he was disappointed. “You smoke?”
    “ No,
of course not. Pumpkin needs to go outside.”
    At
the mention of the word 'outside' Pumpkin raised his head.
    “ Don't
worry about that. I'll take him out. You stay here by the fire.”
Gideon was on his feet in seconds. “Come on, Pumpkin, let's go.”
Pumpkin followed him out of the door like he had done it a million
times before.
    I
decided to clean up the mugs in that time. I put the empty mugs back
on the tray and carried them back into the kitchen.
    The
kitchen surprised me. For one thing, it was huge. The other was it
was old-fashioned. It was filled with cupboards everywhere, floor to
ceiling. The walls (without cupboards) were painted white. The
cupboards were a soft light green color with white knobs. There was a
table in the middle that was white but the legs were decorated with
green stripes that matched the cupboards.
    It
was so perfect that it could be in a magazine, but it was just so
unusual to see something like this. I guessed that as a guy he didn't
know better or he wanted to redo the kitchen later. He had probably
just painted over the cupboards and thought that would suffice until
a woman told him otherwise.
    I
washed up the cups and dried them with an embroidered dishtowel. Had
those been here too?
    I
started opening up cupboards looking for the cups when I saw that the
cupboards were new, like brand new. I could smell the freshly cut
wood. He must have just put all of this in.
    He
had cupboard after cupboard of preserves. This room was like going
back in time. A hundred years ago this room would have been the hit.
    From
the looks of the stove you needed to light a fire to get it to heat
up food. There was still heat coming from it. It looked like
something I once saw in a museum. It was a dark copper-color, but the
oven doors were white. It had six different sized circles for placing
the pots and pans on. There was a pipe that went up to the ceiling.
It could only be for the smoke. I was surprised that something that
old still worked – and that someone wanted to use it.
    I
opened drawers to put away our spoons. Hanging up the pot he had used
to heat the milk was easy. The pots were hanging from the ceiling
from hooks. Only one hook was empty.
    “ Thank
you for cleaning up, Jessica.” I hadn't heard Gideon come in.
    “ You're
welcome. It was the least I could do after everything that you have
done for me today. Thanks for going out with Pumpkin.”
    “ I
was glad to do it.” He was staring at me. “Tell me, why did you
name him Pumpkin?”
    “ He
was born on Halloween.”
    Gideon
laughed lightly and nodded. “I guess that makes sense then. Come
on.