Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses(76)

When he showed her his playful side, he was irresistible, and she knew that if they just had enough time together, she could bring that side out more than his working side. It made her long to try. “Why are you doing this?” she asked suddenly. She couldn’t play these games. She needed to know.

“Doing what? Buying you things?”

“No. Why are you here with me today?”

He leaned away from her, righting himself. “I don’t know, honestly,” he said, looking at the floor as if the answer were there. “I just wanted to see you.”

“I won’t see you once I’m done working on your house. This…” she wagged a finger between them, “will amount to nothing.” She could see disappointment on his face. “I’m just being brutally honest.”

“Let’s not think about the future,” he said. “You and I are both here until Christmas. Why don’t we just enjoy the holiday?”

“I agree,” she said. “Let’s get Max’s presents and have fun.” She smiled. “Thank you for my scarf. It’s beautiful.” She ran her hand down it one more time.

“You’re welcome. So. What is on little Max’s list?”

“He wants a Willie Mays baseball card,” she said. “I’m not so sure I can get him one, but we could look and see.”

“Shall we take our coffees and have a look?” Nick suggested.

Abbey nodded, standing up, and he followed. As they neared the door, Nick reached around and pulled it open for her. Then, with her new scarf and her coffee to keep her warm, she headed out to the shop to find Max’s present. Nick stepped up beside her and, as she walked along the cobbled pathway to the shop, she noticed that he was walking slowly to keep her pace. She peered up at him, and he was already looking at her, a small smile on his lips.

She worried about shopping for this baseball card. It could cost a lot of money and she might have to leave the shop without buying it. While she wanted to get a good card for Max, she wasn’t going to spend upwards of a thousand dollars on something that small for her six-year-old to lose. Nick would certainly offer to pay for it because, to him, it was probably nothing. But the trouble was, Abbey didn’t want him to buy it. Every time she saw Max look at that baseball card, she wanted to remember how she’d used her own hard-earned money to buy it for him. It would have sentimental value then. She didn’t know if Nick would understand that.

When they reached the shop, Nick opened the door for her, and they walked in. Abbey approached the counter, a glass structure that had every baseball card she could imagine displayed inside it. There were so many.

“May I help you?” a stout man with thinning white hair and round glasses asked from behind the counter.

“We’re looking for a Willie Mays baseball card,” Nick explained.

The clerk pulled out two cards and set them on the counter. Abbey studied them, unsure of what qualities to look for in a collectible baseball card. She wished she had Gramps there with her. He’d know.

“How much is this one?” Abbey asked the clerk as she pointed to one that looked as though it had a portrait on the front.

“That’s a 1952 mint condition Topps card. It’s five hundred.”

She felt her cheeks heating up with the answer. Don’t try to buy it, she thought, hoping that Nick had mindreading skills to match his memory. Surprisingly, he didn’t say a thing.

“What about this one?” She pointed to a green card with three photos side by side of Willie Mays catching a ball.

“That’s also Topps, mint condition. It’s not nearly as rare. It’ll run you fifty dollars.”

“I’ll take it,” she said, digging in her purse for her credit card. Fifty dollars was still a lot of money for a baseball card, but it was a lot less than the other one.

Nick had remained very quiet the whole sale. Whenever she looked at him, he smiled sweetly at her, but he hadn’t said anything more than his original comment to the clerk. She signed the receipt and the clerk put the card into a small handled shopping bag.

As they exited the shop, Abbey turned to Nick. “I was worried you’d offer to pay for it,” she admitted.

“Yes.” He placed his hand on her back to steer her around a couple that had stopped to look in a store window. She was getting used to the feeling of his guiding hand. “I figured that, so I didn’t offer. Although,” he smiled again, sending her heart soaring, “I would have.”

“Why would you have bought it?” she asked.

“Because I make a nice amount of money and I don’t have anyone to spend it on. I like spending money on people I care about.”