Sofia nodded, tears filling her eyes. She would never want to forget her mom, despite all the pain that losing her had caused.
“And the second thing…” He met her eyes and took both of her hands. “Is that I met you. You, Emerald Hollow, starting a business here, honoring my friend’s memory how I can—that is what I want. More than anything.”
Sofia swallowed and tried to smile, but she still had a lump in her throat. “Really? You don’t want a fancy life in the city?”
“I never wanted that. I didn’tknowwhat I wanted. But now I do. And I have you to thank for that. I have no excuse for running out on you so suddenly. I can’t explain it other than to say I thought that sparing you from the onslaught of my emotional mess was the right thing to do. But I don’t believe that anymore. You are the smartest, strongest, sexiest—” He paused, and Sofia’s mind flashed to that night in the EmeraldHouse kitchen, when he’d overheard her calling him a “sexy stranger.” “Woman I’ve ever met. And you get to make your own judgments.”
A smile crept over Sofia’s face, and she clenched her bottom lip between her teeth.
Isaiah continued, “I know you don’t think you’re the best judge of character, but that’s not true. Whoever made you feel that way, that says everything negative about them, and the only thing it says about you is that you’re kind, open, and willing to find the good in your world. There’s no one I would rather see who I am than you. Even if you didn’t believe me about the amnesia and called me a malingerer that one time.”
He grinned, and Sofia barked out a laugh.So he did hear the word correctly.
After she’d let him sweat for a moment or two while she collected her thoughts, she finally spoke. “I thought you were gone forever. Then when you showed up today, with that stupid crumpled raffle ticket, of all things…” She let out a laugh and rolled her eyes, and the genuine smile that she loved so much came out for the first time since they’d sat down.
“You thought I’d forget about the dinner you owed me, Wrecker? Not in a million years.”
Sofia couldn’t help herself. She pushed back her chair, walked around the table, and plunked herself onto his lap. Before he could say anything, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Chapter Seventy-Five
ASH
Ash was nervous for the reunion of his parents. He had flown commercial back to the United States with his mom, while Holly had flown back with the reindeer, claiming to take a different flight.
He’d called his dad and warned him of what was coming. It wasn’t the type of thing you just sprang on a man. They pulled up to his dad’s cabin, and Holly and his mom followed him up to the porch.
His dad opened the door and stepped out. His eyes went to Ash first, then he turned, and they landed on Helena. He sucked in a breath. “Eleanor,” he whispered.
“Michael.”
They walked toward each other and immediately hugged. Seconds later, both burst out laughing.
“Ash told me you lost your memories. And you just got them back?”
“It’s impossible to explain, Michael. I don’t even understand it myself.”
“So you didn’t leave us all those years ago?” A kind of cautious hope sat behind his eyes, and Ash could barely watch.
“I was just going for a drive to clear my head, and I decided to walk in the woods, out toward where we’d set up that old birdhouse geocache. Remember that? Then the storm seemed like it came out of nowhere, and the next thing I knew, I was in Finland, with no memories of who I was or how I got there. The only thing I could remember was that my name was Helena, and somehow, I spoke English and Finnish.”
“Helena is the Finnish equivalent of Eleanor,” Holly said quietly.
Ash’s dad looked at Ash then Holly and back again. “You two know how crazy this sounds, right? How did she get to Finland?”
Ash was saved from lying when his mom spoke again. “Something must have happened in between. Maybe I fell and bumped my head. Probably, I got disoriented and walked out of town. Maybe I got on a bus? I’m not sure at what point I lost my memories. Somehow, I ended up in Finland.”
“With no identification? How’d you get on a plane?” Ash’s dad’s voice was filled with compassion, but his confusion was palpable.
Ash glanced at Holly and noticed her staring at his dad, a strange expression in her eyes. The next thing he knew, his dad seemed to relax.
“Well, like Ash said on the phone, some things can’t be explained. And it’s ancient history. I know Ash is glad to have you back in his life again.”
Ash let out a deep breath, wondering what kind of magic Holly had just worked on him.
“Maybe we can all have dinner. I’ll cook,” Ash offered. He realized that there wasn’t going to be a magical love-at-second-sight reunion for his parents. They both needed time to process what had happened, and he wasn’t sure how possible that was when neither had the full explanation.Will he always be suspicious of Mom’s story?
But then he glanced at Holly, and a sense of peace washed over him. As usual, her presence was calming both the situation and him. Hope flared in his chest. Maybe they could all get past it in time, with a little help from magic.
