Read Online Christmas In Silver Bell Falls by Samantha Chase - Free Book Online Page A

kissed you right now, I wouldn’t be content to let it stop here.”
    “I…I don’t understand,” she said quietly.
    “If we kissed right now, Melanie, I would want to keep kissing you.  We wouldn’t talk.  We wouldn’t discuss it.  Hell, we wouldn’t have dinner.”  He motioned over his shoulder toward the ladder that led to his sleeping loft.  “And it would be awkward as hell climbing the ladder the way I’m feeling right now.”
    “Oh,” she sighed with a small smile.  “But you were the one who…”
    “I know.  I know.”  This time it was Josiah who moved away.  “So…I think we should stick to our original plan of meeting for dinner.”
    The sheepish look on his face was enough to melt her heart.  “Okay then.”  Taking her own step away, she moved toward the door—not that it was far to move since the space was so small.  “Then I’ll plan on seeing you in a little bit.”
    He nodded.  “Should I bring anything?  Wine?  Dessert?”
    Opening the door, Melanie chuckled.  “Just yourself.  I think everything else is covered.  It just won’t be very gourmet.  I sort of thought of this after we shopped.”
    “I’m not looking for a gourmet dinner, Melanie.  I’m just looking to spend some time with you.”
    Unable to speak because she suddenly felt very emotional, she simply nodded and walked out the door, closing it softly behind her.
     

Chapter Four
     
    Josiah walked to the kitchen to pour them each another glass of wine and saw it was after eleven.  Where had the time gone?  They’d eaten dinner and done nothing but talk for hours.  In all his life he never remembered having a date—or dating anyone—where they never seemed to have an awkward silence.
    Returning to the living room where Melanie was sitting on the sofa, he walked toward her and put their glasses on the coffee table.
    “So I was thinking,” she began, “we already know you’re going to buy this place when I leave.  So if you’re ready, I don’t see why you couldn’t start doing stuff now.”  Reaching for her glass, she looked at him.  “I could contact the attorney and start having the papers drawn up so you know I’m serious.”
    “I didn’t think you were lying to me, Melanie,” he said softly.  “Are you really so sure you’re going to go back to Raleigh at the end of those three months?”
    She nodded.  “My life is back there.  I own a home—well, a condo—there.  My dad is there.  It’s been just the two of us since my mom left.  I couldn’t just leave him.”
    Josiah reached over and took one of her hands in his.  “You don’t have to talk to me about this if you don’t want to, but I…I’d like to hear about your family.”
    She sighed.  “There’s not much to tell.  My mom left and my grandmother disowned us.  That just left my dad and me.” She shrugged.  “End of story.”
    He gave her a disapproving look and she slowly pulled her hand away and sagged against the sofa cushions.
    “Okay, fine,” she moaned and then shifted to get more comfortable.  “I don’t think my mom ever wanted to be married.  She and my dad dated all through high school, did the whole high-school-sweetheart thing and then she got pregnant with me.  They got married but…I don’t know.  From what I remember and from the things my dad has shared with me over the years, she was never happy.  She had big plans for her life after high school, like traveling and college, and because of me she couldn’t do them.”
    “I’m sure she didn’t blame you…”
    Melanie shook her head.  “No, but she did blame my dad.  They fought all the time. Looking back he says he should have seen all the signs she was going to leave, but he didn’t.  Anyway, three days before Christmas, when I was five, she told my dad she was going out to buy my Christmas presents.  They were kind of poor and lived paycheck to paycheck and so it was the first time they had the money for her