Christmas on Main Street by Joann Ross

Author:Joann Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2013-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

2

Sleigh Ride

Clint watched Ava’s mouth open, shut, open, and then shut again. He couldn’t blame her. First he showed up without warning, and now he dropped this little bombshell in her lap.

“That’s . . . good. I mean, I’m sure your dad is happy,” Ava finally responded, but her tight smile and stormy eyes told another story. “And your mom lives only a couple of hours away.”

“Yeah, all of that warm weather and sunshine was just too much to handle any longer,” Clint joked, but if Ava got it, she didn’t laugh.

“I bet.” She popped the rest of the mini candy cane into her mouth and then looked away. Clint had an odd urge to reach over, take her hand, and squeeze it, but he refrained. In truth, he’d come back to Cricket Creek to check up on his father, who’d started having heart issues but had stubbornly refused to go to a specialist. Afraid that his dad might suffer a heart attack if he didn’t change his lifestyle, Clint had decided to come back to help out at the tavern for an extended period.

He’d also contacted Noah Falcon, offering to help coach the Cricket Creek Cougars, but it wasn’t until the float turned up Maple Street that Clint started feeling as if he should consider moving back for reasons other than his father’s health. Plus, after several years of trying to make the major leagues, including a few seasons playing in the Dutch League in Europe, he’d returned to USC to coach instead. As it turned out, he enjoyed working with players. He’d hoped to someday land the head coaching job at USC, but it didn’t appear as if Jake Barnet had any intention of stepping down anytime soon. Everything seemed to be pointing in the direction of Clint coming home. The clincher, though, came when the bleachers came into view and he heard Ava’s soft intake of breath. Clint understood. He remembered that kiss as if it were yesterday.

But it wasn’t yesterday, he reminded himself. That first kiss had occurred nearly seventeen years ago, and for two years Ava Whimsy had been his girl. But soon after graduation day, everything changed.

Of course, at the tender age of eighteen, Clint had thought that everything would work out. Surely his parents would come to their senses and reunite. He would get drafted into the minor leagues and return home after becoming a baseball superstar like everyone had predicted. But Clint soon found out that life wasn’t that easy. He’d been a big fish in a small pond in Cricket Creek, and he wasn’t quite prepared for the intense competition in a Division I school and major-league baseball. Until then, Clint had sailed through life effortlessly, unprepared for the frustration of failure. As Clint continued to try making the majors, one year blended into the next, and now here he was wondering why he’d stayed away so damned long.

Clint sighed. Of course, Ava couldn’t have heard that he was moving home because he hadn’t really fully decided.

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