One Enchanted Christmas: A contemporary small-town inspirational romantic novella by Melissa Tagg

Author:Melissa Tagg [Tagg, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Published: 2015-12-07T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

She shouldn’t have pushed Drew into coming here.

Maren sat on the couch in Colin Renwycke’s living room, hands twisting in her lap, while Drew perched rigid on the arm of a chair. Colin had disappeared up the stairs a minute ago. His footfalls sounded in creaks and groans in the ceiling overhead.

“Drew—”

“Don’t ask.”

“You were fighting.”

He dropped from the arm of the chair onto its cushion. “I tried to tell you it wouldn’t be pretty.”

“And what were you going to do if I hadn’t come in? Throw a punch?”

Drew’s shadowed eyes refused to meet hers.

She stood, angled around the coffee table and sidestepped a tipped over ottoman.

“Where are you going?”

She stopped at the base of the stairs. “I’m going to talk to him.”

Drew lurched to his feet. “Maren.”

Sure it was ridiculous following Colin upstairs, thinking anything she might say could soothe whatever had just happened down here. But Drew had been too riled to see what she’d seen when she walked in.

The haunted look in Colin’s eyes as Drew held him against the bookcase. As if…

As if he’d wanted his brother to go ahead and hit him. Knock him out and put him out of his misery.

“Maren,” Drew’s voice softened. “He doesn’t even remem—” He cut off his own words. And then simply shook his head, letting her go.

The second floor hallway was a series of doors, dark wood wainscoting climbing up the walls underneath stifling burgundy paint. She peeked in the first door—bathroom.

Thumping movement sounded from the second.

She lifted her fist and knocked.

“Go away, Drew.”

“It’s not Drew.”

Silence.

Then padding footsteps and the door swung open. And…

And her throat clogged. Could this really be the same man she’d met last December? The one with the model’s pose and vibrant eyes, the brilliant conversationalist who’d reeled her in with his hometown anecdotes and stories of his childhood?

His eyes were still that disarming shade of blue and probably underneath the beard there was still the sculpted jaw. He’d changed into jeans, but not out of the faded t-shirt—the one Drew had fisted in their scuffle. The circles under Colin’s eyes and the slump in his stance, the emotion lurking behind his gaze…

Drew was right.

She didn’t know Colin at all.

“Hey.” It was the only word she could get out.

“Maren, right?”

She tried not to flinch at the realization that he barely remembered her and towed her focus away to take in the room behind him. Rich, espresso-colored furniture, rumpled blue bedspread in a pile at the foot of the bed. A shelf hanging over his dresser with several comic books on display.

Oh right. He loves comic books. He’d told her that last year.

So she did know something.

“It’s all coming back.”

Colin was studying her now, and oh, in that moment, despite the glaring differences, the family resemblance was uncanny.

So like Drew. So not at all like Drew.

“We went out for dinner, didn’t we? I had this amazing ravioli. And then we went on a carriage ride and it was snowing.”

She nodded mutely.

He turned back to his room, disappeared into the closet and returned with a sweater.

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