Wishes at Willow Lake by Mary Manners Page A

anything?”
    “A new body.” Josie splayed a hand across her overstuffed belly, groaning. “One more sip of cider or bite of anything at all and I think I might explode. That chicken gumbo Ryder concocted was fabulous.”
    “It was.” Mason grazed a hand across her cheek, laughing softly. “And I like your body just fine.”
    “You’re playing dirty again…saying nice things when I don’t deserve them.”
    “Why don’t you deserve them?”
    “Because I was hard on you earlier, at Posts and Pages, without reason. I let you take the blame for everything, when I should have shared in it.”
    “You can share it now.” He pressed his lips to the crown of her head. “Talk to me, Josie. Let’s work this out.”
    She removed her glasses, folded them, and set them in her lap before rubbing the bridge of her nose. “When you said those things to me this morning, out of the blue, and then you tried to kiss me, I was blindsided.” She smoothed a hand through her mussed hair, still a bit damp from the snow. “But, even worse, when you walked out of the shop my heart broke a little.”
    “Just a little?”
    “OK, it cracked right in half. I cried.”
    “You didn’t.”
    “Yes, I did.” She nodded curtly. “And when I heard the shop door open, I rushed into the front room because I thought you’d come back.” She shuddered and tugged the throw to her chin. “But it wasn’t you. And then—”
    “It should have been me.” Mason shook his head and drew her even closer. The scent of his aftershave was intoxicating as his gaze, dark and full of emotion, locked with hers. “I should have been there, Josie. But I let my pride—and my hurt—get in the way again. It’s a bad habit, one I plan to break before it breaks me.”
    “I can’t blame you for not telling me how you felt…back then. We were both so young, and I never said anything to you about it either, Mason. I had feelings for you, as well. The truth is, from the first time I saw you in the library and through all the times we studied together, I wanted more. But I never imagined you could like someone as nerdy as me…a gawky bookworm with funky glasses, a mouthful of metal, and a personality about as intriguing as a cardboard box.”
    “I never saw you that way, except for maybe the cardboard box thing.” He turned her to face him, grazing a finger along her flushed cheek. “Think about it, Josie. The stock room at your shop is full of cardboard boxes. And what do you find inside them?”
    “Books…treasure.”
    “Exactly.” He tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I was the one lacking. Why would you, a beautiful girl—woman now—who devours the written word like fine chocolate candies want anything to do with a man who might as well be blind when it comes to books? Sure, I could play football and hold a conversation to challenge anyone. But, intellectually—”
    “Blind people read all the time.” She fumbled with her glasses, placed them back on her nose. “They just manage in a different way—like you learned to do.” She twined her fingers with his. “None of us is perfect. But you are one of the smartest, kindest men I know, Mason Donovan. Don’t ever forget that.”
     
    ****
     
    “No one’s driving home tonight.” Ryder had crossed the room to where Mason sat and gazed down at Josie, now soundly asleep in Mason’s arms. “This storm has packed a wallop. A full twenty-four hours of the white stuff falling, and it’s still sprinkling down like confetti. The roads are all but impassable.”
    “No end in sight, huh?” Mason shifted his weight and turned toward a wall of windows that overlooked Willow Lake and the woods beyond. He’d wished for snow only days ago and had received that wish in spades. Drifts at least a foot high covered the length of the lake’s rocky shore. “It sure is something to look at, though.”
    “Yes, it is.” Ryder settled into the armchair beside the couch as Ali approached with Rory