Ginger (Marrying Miss Kringle) by Lucy McConnell

Author:Lucy McConnell [McConnell, Lucy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pepin Publishing Company
Published: 2016-10-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The next evening, Joseph flipped on the late radio show and propped his feet up on the coffee table. Layla snuggled in by his side with a book. Timber lay in front of the couch, snoring. The wood box was full for the night, and the dinner dishes had been scrubbed and put away. The scene was peaceful and quiet, and Joseph was a ball of nerves.

Ginger had wound him up like a jack-in-the-box, only he never jumped out of the box. He just sat there, with his gears full of tension, waiting for the release. Once again, she’d gotten close to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world for them to be familiar with one another.

He couldn’t deny that walking through the front door to find her and Layla—all welcoming smiles—hadn’t done something to his heart, something irreparable. Or maybe coming home to Ginger had repaired something long broken, because he’d felt whole again.

And like a schmoe, he’d messed it up. Well, he didn’t trust the feeling entirely, and so he’d tested it, pushed her away to see if the feeling would stay. Only instead of making him feel better when she left, it only made him feel worse.

Layla planted her elbow in his side and adjusted her position. The sharp poke felt like a reprimand, as if she’d read his thoughts. If she could, she’d see that Ginger had taken center stage in his thoughts for the majority of the day.

Like this morning, when he’d set out to finish creating the bear cub out of his last stump, he’d let his mind wander and the carving had morphed into a ridiculous frosty snowman in a top hat. A product of having watched Layla and Ginger play in the snow, no doubt.

The radio static faded out and the three-chime welcome sounded. Turning up the volume, Joseph caught himself holding his breath.

After station identification, a weather report, the invitation to the construction party for the new Santa platform and background, and a few call-ins from people looking to trade a side of beef or a couple hundred pounds of salmon, Hank finally got down to the real business at hand.

“And for all of you single men out there, I thought you’d like to know that Steve Rob told me this afternoon that he asked Ginger out for Saturday night, but wouldn’t divulge his agenda. I guess after the crap Scooter’s gone through for using up Trudy’s roast beef dinner on a first date, he’s keeping his plans close to the homestead.”

Joseph nodded. Steve had more sense than Joseph would have given him credit for a week ago.

“After Steve is William Yazzie. William makes no bones about the fact that he’ll be pulling out all the stops. Remember, listeners, he’s a registered pilot with a nice little plane. Taking Ginger for a flight over Clearview could be pretty impressive.”

Joseph jerked forward, dropping his feet to the floor and smacking Timber. The dog barked awake and glared at Joseph.

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