“I really miss Noelle,” Aiden said again.
“She made stuff like this look easy, didn’t she?” He hadn’t fully appreciated that trait of hers until just then. He looked down at his watch. They needed to leave within the next minute or two if they wanted a chance of being there in time.
“Oh!” Jack said, bunching the fabric at Bailey’s stomach in his hand. “We could just use a rubber band to hold it like this! Do you know if you have one?”
Aiden jumped up and ran to a drawer in their kitchen and started rifling through it. “What about this?” he asked, holding up a hairband.
“Perfect.”
Bailey was remarkably patient as they tried with the costume once again. The hair tie worked, and the outfit looked like it might stay in place for a bit. Hopefully for long enough.
“Okay, run and get your shoes and coat on. I’ll get Bailey’s leash.”
Ten minutes later, they pulled into a parking spot at the community center and ran with Bailey and her costume to get inside. Pets dressed in all kinds of Christmas costumes and their owners were everywhere, and Jack had to work to keep Aiden and Bailey at his side while he checked in. Then someone led them to a room beside the gym to get Bailey’s costume on.
It was less easy getting the hair tie holding the costume on this time around because Bailey was so excited to be around all the people and other dogs who shared the room. But eventually, they managed to, not long before someone came in.
“Okay, listen up. You’re Dogs Group Two. I want you all to file in behind me. I will lead you through the parade route, and then you’ll be free to come back here to get anything you left behind, or you can join the folks sitting to watch the parade.”
She led them back to the gym, where everyone sat in the middle of the room while all the dogs paraded around theperimeter. Instead of looking at the other dogs, every minute that his eyes weren’t on Aiden and Bailey, they were scanning the crowd for Noelle, desperately hoping to catch even a glimpse of her.
But they made the circuit around the room, and he couldn’t see her at all. They found seats and sat down while Aiden told Bailey over and over how good she did and how proud he was of her.
Maybe Noelle was bringing her parents’ dog to the show. His mind raced with all the things he could say to her and what it would be like seeing her. He wondered if they were ever going to be able to get things back to the professional relationship they’d had before.
And he spent plenty of time cursing himself for ever letting his feelings take the driver’s seat. She was his employee, and he’d decided long ago when he first started being attracted to her that he was never going to let anything happen. And then he did and ruined everything.
He shouldn’t have been surprised, though. How could he not fall in love with her by spending time outside of the office with her? Still, he should’ve made different choices. He owned the company, so it wasn’t like he could stop being her boss.
His heart leaped when he spotted Noelle’s parents walk into the gym with their black lab, Captain, at their side, dressed as Rudolph and pulling a tiny sleigh. It took a bit for them to make their way around all four sides of the gym and to where he was sitting, but when they got close, he stood up and went to them to say hello. They said hello to Aiden and Bailey, too, and said how much they liked her costume.
“Is Noelle here?” Feelings of hope were caught in his chest.
But they both gave sad shakes of their heads. Then her mom said, “Her gran-gran had a little tan and white terrier named Daisy, and Noelle and Gran-gran used to work together on acostume and dress her up every year for this event. Daisy passed not long after Gran-gran did—this is our first Christmas without her. Between that and...” She didn’t say whatever came after the “and,” but it was clear that she meant Jack ending things earlier today. She cleared her throat. “Well, it was just too much.”
He closed his eyes for a quick moment. He'd stopped things right before an activity that was probably already so difficult for her. He didn’t want her to feel bad and wished he could go to her and comfort her without making things worse. “Is she okay?”
Her dad lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Not yet, but she will be.”
Her mom reached out and gave his hand a squeeze, looking at him like she was trying to impart something to him. Courage? Hope? Forgiveness? He wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it wasn’t a look of harsh judgment like he deserved. “It’s good to see you, Jack, Aiden, Bailey. I hope we get to see you around again soon.”
As they turned and left, he suddenly remembered their Christmas Eve plans, which also happened to be Noelle’s birthday plans. He, Aiden, and Rachel had all been invited to the big dinner and celebration. It hadn’t hit him until just now that he was ruining Rachel’s and Aiden’s Christmas Eve plans, too. And he ended things with Noelle just days before her birthday.
He’d gotten them all into quite a mess, and he had no idea how to get them out. He ran his hands over his face.
Aiden tugged on his coat. “Why is Noelle not okay?”
“It’s just been a really tough couple of days, buddy.”
He nodded like he understood. Then he said, “Well, then we should do something to make things better.”
“I know. I just wish I knew how.”
fifteen
NOELLE
Noelle rolledover in bed and looked at the clock on her phone. She really needed to get up and get ready for work. Could she call in sick? No. She’d sent an email to everyone at work—all eight of them, including Jack—to say that she was ill on Tuesday, which she never did. She loved her job too much for taking time off. But her heart hurt enough that she definitely hadn’t been well enough to go in.
