Page 16 of The Christmas Entanglement

"Yup."

Lumi gave her a commiserating look. Then Lumi lowered her voice. "Is he cheating?"

Clarissa shrugged. The relationship was so new. She wasn't sure. The thought had crossed her mind. "I have no idea. I didn't think so until today. He was traveling yesterday, so I just thought he was busy. He's been so great with communication thus far. So it's been weird to have so much radio silence from him."

"Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good." Lumi leaned on the bar and signaled for the bartender. He immediately came, and she said, "Two fireballs."

The two shots were placed in front of them. Lumi lifted her shot first. "Here's to finding holiday bliss that doesn't involve guys."

Nathan whimpered, clearly not liking the toast. That puppy seemed to understand English way too well. It didn't stop Clarissa from lifting her shot and clinking it with Lumi's.

After Clarissa downed the shot, she asked, "Don't tell me there's trouble in paradise?"

"This dry spell needs to end."

That surprised Clarissa. Lumi was gorgeous, funny, and smart as hell. Everything a guy should want. She knew how to have a good time. "Dry spell? What the hell is going on? You're a real catch."

"Seems like any time I think I have a chance with a guy, he's gone. Like literally, they go poof. Most of them I never see again."

Clarissa was surprised that Lumi was getting ghosted way harder than she was. Thinking about PK, she automatically thought about that weird comment PK made that first night. "Have you thought about Callum? He seems like he's always around, and I think he likes you."

"I don't know. Maybe. I never thought about him. He always seems so shy."

Chapter 10

PK

Things have been so super lonely lately. He missed talking to his girl. Even if he didn't miss her desperately, he wanted to know how Nathan was doing. He had the new phone, but his iPad had apparently taken the long way back from Chicago. He learned the hard way that he should have memorized phone numbers like he did when he was a kid. Instead, he trusted the phone to keep the number.

It’d been nearly a week, and he hadn't heard so much as a peep from her. It sucked. Sure, it didn't help that he had a new phone number, but he’d tried to reach out to her over social media and she hadn’t responded.

As he realized he was missing a major piece of his heart, his hockey play slipped. He was sinking into a funk, and he knew it. He just didn't know how to fix it before his flight back to Bourbon, Texas. He needed to pull his shit together before he got an ass chewing for not pulling his weight.

He just finished his worst practice in a long time. He almost wished he was injured again, but instead he was just being slowly heartbroken by the lack of communication with Clarissa.

He listened to the chatter about the room without inserting himself. Instead, he quietly shifted out of his workout clothes.

He didn't notice that Petey was rearing to go until he tossed a towel his way. "Come on, slowpoke. Time to go."

PK quickly got dressed, since he wasn't in the mood to get his own ride back to Petey's place. The two of them strode out of the locker room.

As they pulled out of the ice rink, PK was surprised that Petey wasn't heading towards home. It seemed like he was going in the opposite direction. Between the rush that Petey was in and now the weird way home, he was concerned. "What's the deal? Where are we going, and why the rush?"

"Christmas gift for Maddy. You know I hate leaving her when she's suffering."

Petey was super protective of his pregnant wife, not that PK could blame the guy. Petey had found his wife beaten to a pulp by a stalker the previous year.

The car ride was pretty quiet, minus the tunes that Petey liked to play. Petey would bob his head to the beat while PK would think about how he would play the drums on each Christmas song. His live performance was coming up soon, and any way he could practice was a good thing.

Petey pulled up to a jewelry store. PK appreciated the choice and figured he could get something for Clarissa and wow her for their first Christmas. Then he chided himself for thinking that way. Clarissa had cut off all contact with him, and knowing her sexy temper, she would be pissed at him for not taking the hint that she was over him. Sure he was probably to blame to for losing her number but he could see that she read the messages and choose to ignore him.

As they were looking over the different sets, PK's phone rang. Seeing that it was his best friend, he accepted the call. "'Ello."

"Your girl is going crazy. What the fuck is going on? It's not like you to ghost someone you care about."

"Me?" He was shocked that Kai would even say that. He should know better. He hadn't ghosted Clarissa. "You know I have a new number and I lost her number. It's not like you were any help in getting me her number. I did ask you to ask Alayna and you said you couldn’t do that, so I resorted to using social media. She's the one who hasn't responded."

While it was easy to replace most of his contacts, Clarissa's number remained elusive. He DM'd her with his secret account that he only shared with the people who mattered to him. He kept it ultra-private. Sure, he had official accounts, but he let his agent run those so they could keep things on brand and true to what would help with sponsorships. Hell, he didn't even have the login information for the official accounts.

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