Read A Christmas Home for Free Online Page B

her plate. “I like you, a lot.” She could see herself giving her
heart to him, easily.
    “I
like you a lot, too, sweetheart.” He wrapped his arms around her and she felt
him press a kiss to her hair. “Eat up, and then we’re going to have ourselves a
chat. I have to go into work for a couple hours, but then we have the afternoon
to do whatever we want.”
    “If
you need to, you can go ahead and go. I’ll be here. No, wait.” She paused.
“Instead will you take me to the resort? I don’t want to not have any way to
get anywhere.”
    “Absolutely.
If you want you could even pack up your stuff and turn in your key card. You
know, if you’re interested in maybe doing a few more sleepovers.” He shot her a
grin before letting her loose to get his own plate of food. Joining her at the
breakfast bar, he set two cinnamon buns on his plate and began to eat. “When
you’re ready come by the shop and we’ll drive back here.”
    “You
wouldn’t mind?” He shook his head. “Then I’ll do it. I have a rental at the
resort that I can use but if it’s really snowy out there I won’t drive, just so
you know. I’m happy to move around on the snowmobile but not the Jeep.” She
trusted the snowmobile more because, well, it was created for the snow. “I can
follow you home, though.” Home. When she said that word it felt right.
    “Of
course I don’t mind. I adore you, Ophelia. Of course I want you here,
sweetheart. And the shop isn’t that far from the hotel. We’ll swing by there on
the way to the resort so you know the way back. It’s ten minutes even in these
conditions. The roads will be mostly clear, and if you take your time you’ll be
just fine. Now eat up. We need to get moving, otherwise I’ll end up stuck at
work all day instead of cuddling with you.”
    “Yes
and that would make me very cranky,” she said with a grin before turning
serious. “Are you sure that people won’t get upset with me all but moving in
with you?”
    “There
might be a set of twins who are mildly upset, but I think I can smooth that out
with an extra scoop of ice cream and some assurances they are still my favorite
under-ten girls. They’re the daughters of one of our workers at the shop. He
had a heart attack a couple months ago, so I’ve been helping out by giving
their mom a break so she can do her own thing or go see him without their
boisterous natures overwhelming everyone.”
    “Ah
so you have a fan club already. I can see it.” She was smiling at that. “And
are they shifters, too? How will I know who is a shifter and who isn’t?” She
was curious. She really wanted to know how to tell who was a shifter so that
she didn’t hurt him in the process or upset his friends.
    He
shook his head. “No, they’re human. So is their father and mother. Most
shifters will tell you outright, especially now that you’re carrying some of my
scent on you. But generally you really won’t know until you start learning the
little tells each pack has. The wolves are the easiest. They tend to sniff
folks. Can’t help it, and yet it’s still creepy.”
    “I
think one of them sniffed me the first time I got a snowmobile. He said I
smelled like honey and he wanted to lick me. He was weird. Seriously weird.
Haven’t seen him since, though, so that’s a good thing,” she added with a
shrug. “He was handsome but there was nothing about him that made me want to
even get his name.”
    “That
would be a bear, likely a grizzly since we Kodiaks tend to be a little more low-key.
And we usually do not say anything about honey. The grizzlies see it as an
insider joke. We don’t find it nearly so funny. It’s old, tired and done, in
our opinion.” Scraping up the last of his eggs, he sat back to pull apart and
eat the second of his cinnamon rolls. “You also weren’t fated to meet him and
cozy up to him, only me. And yes that sounds as egotistical out loud as it did
in my head.”
    “It’s
okay. I think I really have been