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CHAPTER 17
Cheyenne
Istared out the window as we entered Santa Claus population 2,400. I’d thought that Firefly Island was small, but it was twice the size of this town.
There was a large statue of, you guessed it, Santa Claus next to the welcome sign. As we drove further I saw that there wasn’t just one statue, there were several. And there was also a theme park called Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari Water Park that appeared to be smack dab in the middle of cornfields.
Seeing the unique town was a nice distraction from the letdown I’d been feeling after our visit with Wayne. I’d gotten answers, just not the ones I’d wanted. It was nice to see how much Wayne had loved my mom and still did. That had been the first time that talking to someone had made me feel closer to her. I wasn’t sure why, maybe it was because I could see that he’d kept her memory alive. It didn’t feel like he was talking about someone that he’d lost twenty years ago when he spoke about her.
I just wished he would have had more information about who my father might be. They spent a summer together wasn’t a lot to go off of.
The drive to Santa Claus had been quiet, other than me offering again if he wanted me to drive. Cash had to be so tired, although you couldn’t tell. He’d been up for well over twenty-four hours and driving for most of those. He truly was a machine.
We passed Santa’s Candy Castle, which looked exactly like the name. It was a castle with Christmas decorations on it. There were tourists taking pictures outside. “How did I not know this town existed?”
“That was pretty much my reaction the first time I came here. I think it’s a bit much, but my mom loves it, so that’s all that matters.”
“Did your mom always love Christmas?”
“It was sort of hit or miss in our house. If my dad had a good year of sales, then Christmas was good. If he didn’t, Christmas was me and my mom watching movies while he drank his Christmas dinner.”
Cash didn’t talk about his childhood that much, but when he did it wasn’t always in the best light.
“I’m sorry.” My eyes cut toward him to check in and see if he was upset talking about the subject and when I did I sucked in a short intake of breath. He was so beautiful he literally took my breath away.
The late afternoon sun was shining in through the side window, illuminating his crystal blue eyes and long dark lashes. His normally clean-shaven face had a five o’clock shadow that made my heart race like it was Mario Andretti behind the wheel of a Lamborghini. His strong jaw looked even sexier covered in stubble.
My hands itched to reach out and touch it.
“What about you?” He glanced over at me.
“Me?” I repeated because I had no clue what he was talking about. I’d gotten lost in the vortex of his sexiness. It was a hazard when spending time with Cash Malone.
I’d seen the same phenomenon happen countless times to women when he was behind the bar. They would just go into a trance while staring at him. He was like the neuralyzer in Men in Black. He zapped people’s memories. They forgot who they were, where they were, or what they were doing.
“Was Christmas big in your house?” he asked.
Oh, Christmas. Right. Duh.
“My grandparents didn’t believe in spoiling me, so I never got presents. But they would decorate the house because they had an annual holiday party. There were always multiple trees put up around the house and lights everywhere. I wasn’t allowed to attend the party until I was sixteen, but before then I used to sneak to the top of the stairs and watch all the people come in. I loved seeing all the ladies’ fancy dresses.”
“Why weren’t you allowed to go to the party?”
“My grandparents were old school and they believed that children should not be heard or seen.”
He was quiet for a moment and I figured the conversation had been dropped, but then Cash said, “Have you ever asked them why they came and took you? From what you said, it doesn’t seem like they were really kid people.”
“No. I never asked them. I think that they were just trying to have a do-over. Since my mom ran away when she was sixteen, I think they just wanted to prove to their friends that they could raise a child and not have her end up pregnant and married before she’s legally allowed to vote.
“They really only care about appearances. Once a month they paraded me around their country club under the guise of having dinner at the club, but other than that they didn’t really want anything to do with me.”
“I’m sorry. That sounds lonely.”
“It was.” I knew that my brothers thought I had had the easier time of it because my father, or I guess their father, had been an alcoholic. But the truth was, I would have done anything to have siblings to play with. Cash was right, it had been lonely. Very lonely.
That was part of why I wanted to have a big family of my own. My dream was to have a house full of kids and their friends running around. And Cash wanted the same thing. We’d spent so many nights at the bar talking about our futures. Everything we wanted out of life was the same.
He wanted to have at least three maybe four kids. I wanted to have at least two or three. He didn’t just want to get married, he wanted to have a happy marriage and only do it once. I wanted the same thing. He wanted to marry his best friend. I wanted to marry my best friend.
