A Paper Snowflake Christmas: A Small Town Holiday Romance Novella by Clarice Coulter

Author:Clarice Coulter [Coulter, Clarice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookLife Press
Published: 2023-12-25T00:00:00+00:00

~~~~~

Page sat at the ice cream counter, nibbling on her sandwich and waiting on Gene Fulmer to finish the transaction at the register. The brown-haired woman he was helping, besides the adorable little girl who seemed to be glued to her leg, was the only other person in the store. Hopefully, she could talk to him uninterrupted and get to the bottom of her dilemma. Or Mr. Bentley’s dilemma.

It was kind of both of their dilemma, after what had happened in the bookshop.

The door creaked shut as the lady and her daughter left and Gene turned to her with a smile.

“Back to see me already?” He tapped on the class above the chocolate chip coffee ice cream. “Or is this what you want?”

“Actually, both.” Page grinned back. “Can you make that a shake?”

“Sure can. Small, medium, or large?”

“Medium.” She crumpled her sandwich wrapper into a ball and watched him scoop out the ice cream, trying to think of how to word her question. She decided to go with the blunt route. After all, it had gotten her into the problem…might as well help get her out.

“So, you said Mr. Bentley had a son? Named Jimmy?”

Gene glanced up, eyebrows raised. “Yep. He’s twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Lives in Miami. Good kid, for the most part. Bookworm. But then again, that might be hereditary.”

He smirked as he closed the glass door to the cooler. “Why? You need a boyfriend to take home for the holidays?”

Page felt her cheeks heat up. “N-no!” She shook her head to make it extra clear. “I found a picture when I was looking around the bookstore earlier this morning. And then I asked the wrong question, and I think I upset Mr. Bentley.”

“Well, what did you ask?”

Page traced a crack in the countertop with her fingernail. “I asked if his son was coming home for Christmas. And then when he said he hadn’t come home since he moved to Miami, I mentioned that it might be a possibility to call and see if they could meet somewhere in the middle, if neither of them wanted to drive that far.”

She waited as Mr. Fulmer added a splash of milk to the container and switched on the blender for the shake. He didn’t turn off the noisy machine until the ice cream had been transformed into a smooth, milky milkshake.

He set the cut in front of her and handed her a paper-wrapped straw. “Yeah, that’s kind of a soft spot. For both of them, I think.”

“Why?” Page took a sip. The coffee ice cream was even better as a coffee milkshake.

“See, Bent’s problem is he needs something to do other than sit in that bookstore. I’ve been trying to shove a bottle lamb or five on him for a while but he says he doesn’t like the critters.” Mr. Fulmer grinned. “Neither did I when my wife insisted we get ‘em.”

Something clicked in Page’s brain. She swallowed her mouthful of milkshake quickly.

“You’re the one with the sheep!” she exclaimed before she thought about it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.