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Before I can finish my protest, I’ve been nudged toward the door.
“Better hurry! You’re late! I love you.” Mom shoos me out of it like a wayward bird who’s flown inside.
“Put her in something warm please!” I call as Mom closes the door, leaving me standing on the front porch in the bitter cold of an early Kansas morning.
As Iclimb into my car, I wonder—for the hundredth time—how to navigate parenting while I’m still being babied.
Chapter 3
Sebastian
Hope has a kid.
That thought has been playing on repeat for the last few days. And it’s playing again as I sit in my office sketching the diagrams for the Yulefest lights.
Ever since Evie spilled the beans about Charly, I’ve had this compulsion to find out more about her. What I finally dragged out of Adam is that she’s not just a kid; she’s a toddler with special needs.
That’s a whole bag of stuff I have no idea what to do with.
I got Evie to show me a picture of Charly. She’s cute with these little, tiny glasses that magnify her blue eyes. Same blonde hair as Hope. Same pixie face with the same pointed chin.
I’m sure I could fall for her as fast as I fell for Hope, if I had any interest in being a dad right now. But I don’t. Which sucks because I have a lot of interest in being with Hope.
I still don’t get why she left without a word. She could have told me she had a kid. I told Evie as much, but she said the rest was Hope’s story to tell. She’d already told me more than she was supposed to.
I push away thefeelingsthat come up when I think about Hope not trusting me with her story. I know it was a jerk thing to basically tell her I wouldn’t date a single mom, but I never would have said that if she’d just told me about Charly in the first place. I think that’s what bugs me the most. We spent three weeks together, and she kept Charly a secret the whole time.
But maybe I was the only one who thought what we had was a relationship. Maybe for Hope it never became anything more than the fling it started as.
For all those reasons, I’m better off putting Hope out of my mind for good. And soon. Evie still claims that she doesn’t know Hope’s plans, but the wedding is only a month away, so the sooner I forget these feelings, the better. I’ll be able to sit in the same room with her, but on opposite sides.
I turn my attention back to my work and finish the last touches of my lights proposal. I’m the only electrician in town, but Mayor Voglmeyer is still making me take my plans to the city council for their approval before she’ll officially hire me.
For once I’m not annoyed by government bureaucracy. By the time I canofficiallystart the work I do every year, I’ll have to work overtime to get everything done on schedule. The street lighting happens on December second, and with the added Yulefest events that will require special lighting, I’m going to be racking up extra hours. Which not only means more money in my pocket, but also less time to think about Hope.
I’ll meet with the mayor and city council tomorrow, but the rest of the day today I’m committed to being on the set ofAt Home With Georgia Rose.It’s time for electrical to go in the latest cottage they’re renovating in the Little Copenhagen resort.
Business has been good since my first appearance on the show. Within days of that episode airing, my phone was ringing with people wanting me to do the electrical in the houses they’re building not only in Paradise, but as far away as Florence. I’ve had to turn jobs down, I’m so busy. I could bring in an apprentice, but I like working alone. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone electrocuting themselves because I didn’t train them right.
When I get to the Little Copenhagen, I park down the street. The set is a hive of activity with people going in and out of the trailer parked in front of the house Georgia and Evie are working on. I like watching it all. The commotion and organized chaos that will end in something old being made new again. Not just the run-down cottage in a run-down resort, but in Paradise itself.
Little farm towns like ours have been dying for decades. Even Paradise, with its booming summer tourist season, can’t keep younger people here. There aren’t enough jobs during the off-season. If not for my grandpa pressuring me to take over Sparks Electric, I wouldn’t have stayed either.
Not that I wanted to leave but staying meant giving up what I wanted to do—own my own bakery. There’s only so much room for bakeries in a small town, and Paradise already has two, not including Breakfast at Britta’s.
So, the thing I love is my hobby, while playing with electricity is my job and I get to live in Paradise. I’m happy with my life just the way it is.
But it’s cool to see Georgia living her dream. She’s built her passion for construction and design into her own home-reno show with a moneymaking side hustle marketing other brands while building her own. Not only that, but she’s the shot of adrenaline this town needed to stay alive.
Paradise has been a summer destination for at least fifty years, but mostly for people within a few hundred miles. Georgia’s show has put us on the map for people across the country. And her Yulefest idea will make Paradise a winter destination too, especially with the expansion of the ski resort just up the canyon.
Evie spots me as I approach the house, pulls her coat tighter, and waits for me to catch up. “Just in case you’re interested, I think I’ve got a reason for Hope to come back sooner rather than later… Ike wants footage of her and Carson planning the wedding. And it’s got to happen this week.”
I stop. “He wants Hope on Georgia’s show?”
Evie nods.
“That’s a huge opportunity for her—them.” I’m trying my hardest to forget Hope, but I can’t stop the buzz of excitement that shoots through me at the thought of her being herethis week.
