“Oh, my gosh!” she exclaimed when she’d unwrapped it. “A charm bracelet! I love it.”

“It’s not the chain kind of charm bracelet. I was actually looking for that, but the jeweler said this kind is more popular right now. He thought you’d like it better.”

“I do. Thank you. It’s beautiful.” She held it up to the light, obviously trying to see it clearly. “And the charm that’s on it is…a rose?”

“Yeah. To represent the night we met.”

“It’s perfect!” she cried and threw her arms around him.

They kissed, so hot and heavy that Axel was afraid he was about to see far more than he had the stomach for, especially when Tobias moaned and lifted her off her feet, and she wrapped her legs around his hips.

“I wish I could stay,” Axel heard Harper say.

“It would be a lot more fun to spend the night with you than my mom,” Tobias joked. “I would’ve let you come in, but even if she hadn’t just gone to bed, she’s drunk. I’d rather you not meet her when she’s like this.”

His mother didn’t sound particularly impressive…

“You know I don’t care about your mother’s, er…problems,” Harper said. “You can’t control what she does. But meeting her can wait. Axel will be gone soon. Then we won’t have to tiptoe around because there’ll be no one to upset.”

“What about Karoline?”

“She knows I’m seeing you. She’s fine with it.”

“How long will we have? How long will you be staying in Silver Springs?”

“The girls are happy here, so… I’m going to put off returning to Colorado for a few weeks, maybe even a month.”

Their foreheads came together as they talked, as if any space between them was too much, and Axel felt as though someone was driving a dagger through his heart.

“That makes me happy,” he heard Tobias say.

“I can’t wait until the holidays are over and things can get back to normal.”

“I wanted to get the girls something for Christmas, too,” Tobias said. “But I didn’t want to step on Axel’s toes. If he saw the gifts or the girls mentioned them to him… I’m not trying to make things more difficult for you—or him. I like his music as much as anyone.”

The fact that Tobias would be generous enough to say that only made Axel fear him more.

“To be honest, it’s probably better that you didn’t get the girls anything,” Harper said. “They aren’t expecting it, and…well, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just… They’re part of you, so it was hard to ignore that they’d probably enjoy a present, too.”

“I love everything about you,” she said. “And I’m so sorry about what happened in the restaurant.”