Chocolate Heart Killer: A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 14 by Kathleen Suzette (guided reading books .TXT) 📗

can’t imagine it not being deep enough.” I turned and got two travel mugs out of the cupboard.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” he said and went to the refrigerator and pulled out the creamer. He held it up, eyeing it. “You still have Christmas flavored creamer?”

I nodded. “I stocked up. My favorite peppermint mochas aren’t going to disappear with the Christmas flavored creamers. At least, not for a while anyway.”

He looked in the refrigerator again. I had four peppermint mocha creamers and three eggnog. “Smart thinking,” he said. “I hoarded some of your mother’s peppermint fudge with the idea that I’d have some for a while, but as you can imagine, it’s all gone.” He grinned.

I chuckled and poured coffee into both mugs. “Knowing you, I would imagine that’s been gone for a while.”

He looked at me sheepishly. “Okay, maybe it has been gone for a while. But I did stock up, and that means I’ve eaten an awful lot of fudge the past couple of weeks. Good intentions, you know.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

Boo wandered into the kitchen and rubbed up against Ethan’s leg. “Hey there, Boo.” He squatted down and ran a hand across Boo’s back.

“He misses you,” I said, trying to make him feel guilty. Ethan had been working longer hours recently and hadn’t had as much time as he normally did to come over and hang out.

“I miss him, too,” he said and scratched him under his chin. “I need to bring Licorice over for a play date.”

“Oh? You only miss Boo?” I turned and gave him the eye. Licorice was his own black cat and she and Boo sometimes didn’t see eye to eye on things.

He chuckled. “No, I miss my girlfriend, too,” he said straightening up, and then poured creamer into his coffee cup.

“Girlfriend? Wait a minute, Buster. I recently got a serious upgrade in relationship status.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, yes. I almost forgot. You’re my fiancée now. How could I have forgotten?”

I held my hand in front of him and wiggled my fingers, reminding him of the ring he had given me. “I can’t imagine how you could have forgotten something like that.” I had gotten a proposal and a pretty diamond ring for Christmas and I was still surprised and thrilled about it.

He took a sip of his coffee. “The payment on that ring will remind me every month.”

I chuckled and poured creamer into my cup. “You shouldn’t have bought such a nice ring. I would have been thrilled with a simple gold band with a tiny diamond chip in it.”

“A diamond chip would never do for the woman I love.” He pulled me to him and hugged me tight, almost making me spill the creamer.

I rested in his arms a moment and closed my eyes. Sometimes it was still hard for me to believe that I had someone like Ethan in my life. It felt like I had waited forever for him.

After a minute of standing there, he looked down at me. “Wait a minute, you’re not going back to sleep, are you?”

I smiled without opening my eyes. “I might be.”

He held me at arm’s length. “Wake up. We’ve got lots to do today. I don’t want to miss one minute of this day. I don’t have to work, and I’m going to make the most of it.”

I opened my eyes and laughed. “All right then, let’s get a move on. The snow isn’t going to last forever.”

“Oh I think it will,” he said as we picked up our coffees and headed for the front door.

“Oh, wait a minute, I didn’t feed Boo.” I trotted back to the kitchen and poured some dry food into his bowl and scratched his ear. “I’ll see you tonight, buddy.”

The morning air was brisk, and I pulled my knit hat down low over my ears and buttoned up my coat. I wasn’t much on the great outdoors, but I did enjoy it sometimes. This was going to be my day to enjoy it, regardless of how cold and tired I was. I was going to get to spend the day with Ethan and nothing could ruin that.

“Brrr,” Ethan said. “It’s cold out here.”

The snow crunched beneath our feet and I followed him across the street to his truck, glancing around the neighborhood. “I think we’re out of our minds for doing this.” The morning sky was still dark, and I shivered.

He chuckled, and we got into the truck. “We’re going to have fun today.” He reached over and squeezed my gloved hand.

I turned to him. “I know we are. I’ll try to keep the whining and complaining to a minimum, but I can’t make any promises.”

He chuckled and started the truck. “You can whine and complain all you want. I feel like it’s been forever since we got to do something fun together.”

“I agree,” I said and fastened my seatbelt. “When we get married, we can spend every minute together that we aren’t at work. Right now, I’ll take what I can get.”

He pulled away from the curb. “I guess that’s what we’ll have to settle for. You know, we’ll have to set a date pretty soon. How about June?”

He was right. Christmas Eve he had asked me to marry him, but we hadn’t set a date. A June wedding was nice, but I wasn’t sure that was what I wanted. There was a part of me that wanted to get married during the Halloween season. It somehow seemed fitting.

“June? I don’t know. It feels a little cliché. Everyone gets married in June. Oh, wait a minute. We can’t get married in June,” I said, thinking about it. “Amanda’s baby is going to be born in June and she will not