Knitted Hearts - Amber Kelly Page 0,4
heavy.”
“Not at all,” I answer.
We follow her over to the vendor who made the board and axes, and the three of us pick it up and carry it across to Sonia’s apartment and put it in her living room.
Elle uses the bathroom before we head back.
“I love this space,” I tell her.
It’s a small apartment above her mom’s shop. It has one nice-sized bedroom and an open kitchen and living room.
“It’s not much,” she starts.
“It’s cozy,” I interrupt.
“I guess it is that. What about you? Are you still at your mom’s?”
I bunked on my mother’s couch for a couple of months after my wife and I split.
“No. I’m renting the silo from Dallas’s folks.”
“Really? I love that place so much. When Dallas moved in there, I thought it was the coolest,” she states.
“It is. You’ll have to come by to see it now that I’ve been renovating it. I redid the floor, and I’m adding a fireplace.”
“I’ll have to do that,” she agrees.
“I could make dinner,” I offer.
“Dinner?”
“Yeah, I mean, if you come by, just let me know you’re coming, and I’ll make enough for two.”
“You cook?”
“Yes, ma’am, I love to cook,” I admit.
“Me, not so much. I help my patients cook all day, so when I get home, I just don’t have it in me.”
“Then, it’s settled. I’ll cook for you.”
Elle returns before Sonia accepts or declines. We head back and make it just as the parade is about to start.
“Oh, I got ya!” we hear as we are looking for a spot to sit along the route.
Across the street sits an old man with a fishing pole. We look up, and dangling from his line is mistletoe, and he has it perched above Sonia’s head.
“What are you up to, Mr. Hinson?” she calls.
“Fishin’ for kisses.” He grins.
Elle looks at me and urges me forward with her eyes.
I hesitate for a moment and then decide to just go for it.
She is still focused on the old man when I press my hand into her lower back and turn her to face me.
She looks up in surprise as I come in to kiss her cheek, but she bears up on her toes and meets me, her lips planting to mine.
I bring her in closer, and we part as we are both shocked by the current that ran between us. I lean back in and softly kiss her again. I want so badly to deepen it and kiss her thoroughly, but I don’t think this is the right moment.
She blinks up at me as I let her go.
Elle gives me a fist pump behind her.
“Hey now, you stole my sugar!” Mr. Hinson complains.
“I’ll give you your sugar,” Elle says as she prances across the street and plants a kiss on the old man’s cheek.
“That’s more like it.” He grins at her.
She rejoins us, and we watch as he casts his line again. This time, it stops above Doreen’s head. Emmett keeps batting it away, but the man is persistent. She finally gives in and kisses his cheek as well.
We walk till we find Brandt, Bellamy, his mom, Ms. Elaine, and Pop Lancaster. They are running a pet adoption booth and offering free initial visits and six months of care to new owners while Ms. Elaine sells her handmade goat’s milk soaps to benefit Annie’s Heart, the charity they set up in honor of Brandt’s late wife. The girls purchase a couple of bars, and then Pop fetches us a blanket, so we can sit with them to watch the parade.
Truett is across from us, and I can see the confusion on his face as he sees me sitting with the group.
I shrug and he gallops across the street to join us just before the first float comes by.
“You ditched me. Not cool, dude.”
“I found better company,” I tease him.
“I can see that. I don’t blame you, but it still hurts, man,” he says as he takes a seat.
We watch the parade, and then everyone gathers around the large tree beside the gazebo outside town hall just as dusk settles in. We sing a couple Christmas carols before Reverend Burr says a few words about the true meaning of Christmas, reminding us all that we are celebrating more than a family holiday, but the birth of our Lord. He urges us all to be at service this Sunday to see the children’s Christmas play and to celebrate together in the house of the Lord before he says a prayer for the town.