Starlight Magic by Suzie O'Connell

Author:Suzie O'Connell [O'Connell, Suzie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Suzie O'Connell

Eight

Something had changed in the eight days since Celeste’s talk with Stephanie, and Brodie wondered what his ex had said to her in those short few minutes they’d had alone. Whatever it was, it had made a distinct impression. He hadn’t seen a trace of her reckless anger in the time since, and at the moment, she was currently singing along with the Christmas song emanating from the ski lodge’s stereo system—the song Shannon had written the day Ty had proposed, Mistletoe Kisses—as she perched precariously atop the ladder to tack the glittery tinsel garland around the windows. Even if the view out those windows weren’t hidden in darkness, it would’ve had a hard time competing with Celeste’s beauty.

It wasn’t the air of joviality about her; he’d seen plenty of that the night he and Brendan and Shannon and Ty had helped decorate her cabin and caught brief glimpses even before that. What exactly it was, he couldn’t quite pin down, but the word relaxed came to mind. Or maybe open. Rather than enclosing herself within walls of tense defensiveness and heartache, she was almost effervescent.

“You gonna finish those reports, or what?” Ainsley asked, setting a steaming cup of coffee on the table beside him. “I thought you were supposed to have dinner with Celeste after work.”

“I am.” He sat back and rolled his neck and shoulders to ease some of the ache from sitting hunched over his paperwork for too long out of them, lifted the mug toward his sister in a show of gratitude, and took a sip.

She snorted. “When? Midnight?”

“Keep it up, sprite,” he muttered, “and I’ll take your Christmas present back to the store and find the nastiest congealed cow turd in the pasture to put in your stocking.”

“You’d never do that. You love me too much.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t pay you back for being a pain in my arse.”

Ainsley draped herself around his shoulders and whispered, “I’d ask if you two had done the deed, but her bliss seems a little one-sided, so I’m thinking not.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no, we haven’t.”

“I’m surprised, considering her total lack of subtlety about her interest in you from the get-go.”

“You know this isn’t helping me get my work done, right? And since I would in fact like to have a few hours to spend with Celeste this evening, flutter off, sprite.”

She kissed his cheek and zipped around the counter, vanishing into the kitchen to finish cleaning it for the night. Brodie returned his attention to his end-of-day bookkeeping with a renewed zeal, all the more eager to get out of here after his sister’s comments. During the day, with the lodge packed with weekend skiers and snowboarders, it hadn’t been too difficult to keep his hands off Celeste, but now that they were mostly alone in the lodge, all he wanted was to gather her in his arms, absorb that light, and wrap her soul around him. He didn’t know if it was possible to immerse himself in another’s spirit, but that’s exactly what he wanted to do.

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