Page 84 of Inexplicable

“We’ll grab something on the way back to the hotel, unless you’re hungry now,” he said. “And you never have to thank me for this trip, sweetheart. I enjoyed it as much as you did. I’ve traveled around Northern Michigan but seeing it through your eyes for the first time was pretty special.”

“I’ll show you around Southern California if you come visit,” I told him.

“When I come visit,” he corrected. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of me.”

I could handle that.

“Can I come here for Christmas?” I asked. “I’ve never seen a white Christmas. I think it would be incredible.”

Brock chuckled. “Your chances of seeing one in Northern Michigan are pretty high. Yeah, you know I want you here for Christmas. I usually spend Christmas afternoon with my brothers and Sara. We eat until we can’t move, and then we take out the snowmobiles if we have a lot of snow on the ground.”

I sighed. “I’ve never spent a Christmas with people I care about. And I’d love to help cook a big meal.”

“Everybody will bring something,” he explained. “It’s Seth’s turn to cook the turkey. We can all manage to stuff a turkey and put it in the oven. Sara supervises and helps with the rest. Seth is actually a decent cook. He’ll do mashed potatoes and the basics himself. The rest of us will either buy something or make something to bring. Gage always brings the pies. He’ll get cobbler and pies from the Beachfront Café.”

My heart squeezed inside my chest.

What would it be like to spend the holidays with family and friends?

I had no idea how it felt to be with people who cared about me at the holidays or any other time of year, but it had to be pure happiness and joy.

“I’ll look forward to it,” I told him earnestly.

I’d do more than that.

I’d savor every moment of it and let that memory replace every lonely Christmas I’d spent alone.

Little by little, I was going to experience happy memories until all the loneliness of my past was completely gone and forgotten.

I smiled as Brock and I found the main path that would lead us out of the woods.

It should probably terrify me that my life was changing so profoundly, but who would actually miss the loneliness and sorrow of my past?

Not me.

I was ready to dive into a life that I could only dream of a short time ago and welcome the amazing future I was going to have with the most incredible man I’d ever met.

Chapter 23

Brock

Iloved my brothers, but I could have done without being met at my house as soon as Jenna and I had returned home.

Okay, they did bring dinner and a few perishable groceries that we needed until we could get to the store, but we were going to talk about the next week and dropping by without calling.

Sara might have put a stop to the unexpected drop-in, but she was working today.

Generally, I didn’t mind when or if my friends stopped by, but my time was short with Jenna.

Our drive back to Cherry Cove had been pretty uneventful, but I was glad that we were headed back home.

The fall weather was getting chilly, and it was time to put the bike away for the season.

We’d already devoured the pasties from the pasty shop in Traverse City, and my friends were currently gathered around Jenna, looking at her pictures from our trip.

Pasties were a thing in Michigan. The folded pastries filled with meat and vegetables were an iconic and historic food brought by Cornish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century.

Traverse City had one of the best shops for pasties in Northern Michigan, and if one of us made a run to the city, we always brought home a boatload of pasties that we could share.