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CHAPTER 1
HANNA
“You’re welcome to stay with me as long as you need,” Sebastian said as we stood next to the elaborately decorated Christmas trees at the newly renovated Matthews Inn. Music drifted down the grand staircase from the ballroom upstairs. Guests mingled around us, drinking cocktails.
Sebastian offered me his guest room while I searched for an apartment, and it coincided with the few weeks before Christmas when he was busiest at the farm. I’d help with Ember in exchange for a room. It was a good deal if your heart wasn’t on the line. “My parents won’t be happy, but I don’t have a choice unless I want to move back in with them.”
“This is our busiest time of the year. We’ll need help in the shop,” Lori, Sebastian’s mom, said.
Sebastian’s family owned the neighboring Christmas tree farm where, over the years, his brothers had built cabins to live on the property and run the business. Sebastian was the last one to make that move.
“I’m happy to help.” I was pleased Sebastian was finally relocating closer to his family. I suspected it was because he needed more help with his daughter, Ember, whom he was raising by himself, and wanted her to spend more time with his family.
“It will be easier to watch Ember if you’re living with me,” Sebastian said to me.
My heart skipped a beat, then galloped in my chest. I longed for my best friend to see me as something more than a friend. I’d settled into the friend role a long time ago, but the idea of living together made me feel excited and panicked at the same time.
Would he finally see how I felt about him? Then I panicked for a different reason. What if he asked me to watch Ember so he could go out with another woman? It would be torture, but I couldn’t say no.
His brother, Talon, raised a brow. “A live-in nanny?”
Sebastian sighed. “She’s my friend and roommate. Don’t be a jerk.”
I’d held the role of Sebastian’s best friend since we were kids. He either never saw how I felt about him or didn’t see me in that way. I suspected it was partly both.
“Whatever you say,” Talon said.
Holly stepped forward, holding an ornament she’d hand-painted with an image of the inn, and I tuned out the conversation. Was moving in with my best friend a good idea? When he’d gotten his ex, Brandy, pregnant, I’d backed away to allow them to work it out. When she left him to raise Ember, I helped as much as I could. But my attraction to him hadn’t waned. Over the years, I’d hoped he’d finally see me as more than a friend, but maybe it was time to come to terms with the fact he never would. Maybe it was time to move on.
“Can we dance now?” Ember tugged on Sebastian’s hand.
Sebastian looked at me over her head and grinned. “We can do that.”
There was something in his eyes, a combination of sexy single dad and reliable best friend, that had my nerves going haywire.
We took the stairs to the second floor, where the guest rooms were located. Each door held a wreath, and at the end of the hallway, another tree stood in the window. Marley, who’d recently inherited the property from her grandmother, had done an amazing job decorating the inn for the holidays and restoring it to its former glory.
The music grew louder as we climbed to the third floor and entered the ballroom. Guests danced in the center of the room, and a crowd gathered around Alex, the cellist who was playing on the makeshift stage.
“He’s amazing,” Marley said.
Ireland dipped her head to say, “He was invited to play the national anthem at Madison Square Garden.”
The couples in our group paired off to dance, and I wondered what I was doing here. It was Ember who’d begged for my attendance.
Ember tugged on my hand. When my gaze met hers, she said, “You should dance with Daddy so he’s not alone.”
Tingles erupted down my spine. I shifted my gaze from her to Sebastian. “Is that so?”
He held out his hand to me, and my heart raced in my chest. “You don’t want me to be lonely, do you?”
I smiled, placing my hand in his. “We can’t have that.”
His palm felt warm against mine, and my body was tingly all over with the anticipation of being close to him. We’d gone together to a dance or two in high school, and I’d always hoped it would lead to more, that he’d feel something between us, but if he did, he never let on.
He led me into the center of the dance floor and drew me into his arms. My cheeks flushed, and I felt a little lightheaded as he pulled me close and grinned at me. “I think Ember manipulated us.”
I smiled up at him, catching the amusement in his gaze. “I think so, too.”
