Page 3 of A Crane Family New Year

Eli, who’d opened the door to greet her, frowned. “You should have pulled in through the gate anyway.”

“Tell me you have coffee, and all will be forgiven.”

“I have coffee.” He smiled, the handsome bastard. Dark hair, blue eyes, enough scruff to make him appear dangerous. Not to mention tall and built like a brick shithouse. He kissed Chloe’s frozen cheek.

“Hey, Chlo.” Isa was in the kitchen, washing a mug in the sink. Aric must have been sleeping. Isa’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“Hello to you, Momma.”

Isa’s eyes went to the dress bag over Chloe’s arm, and she frowned. “By the way you just missed?—”

“Breakfast,” Eli muttered, sending his wife a stern look.

“I ate, but thanks.” It was Chloe’s turn to frown. What that exchange had been about, she had no idea. She draped the garment bag onto the back of one of the dining room chairs. “Thanks for the dress loan. Sadly, I won’t be needing it tonight.”

“Why? What happened?” Concern etched onto her face, Isa scurried over while drying her hands on a dishtowel. Eli followed behind her with a cup of steaming coffee.

“I chickened out.” Chloe cupped the mug with both hands, warming her fingers. “It’s as simple as that.”

“Tell me.” Isa sagged into the chair next to Chloe’s, her shoulders slumped as she accepted what Chloe had already known: she was totally a lost cause.

After a delicious sip of hot coffee, Chloe explained, “I’ve dated a lot, and most of the time the guy is not what he seems. Right now, Hopper Fan Zero Two is perfect in my DMs. What if I meet him in person and he’s…not.” She made a face.

“So you told him no.”

“Worse. I didn’t answer him.” Ghosting someone, even an acquaintance, was so not her go-to move.

“Then there’s still time!” Isa sat up straight, invigorated by the idea of salvaging the evening. Eli busied himself in the kitchen, giving them privacy. Such a good guy. “Meeting a mysterious man on New Year’s Eve is romantic.”

“Or it could be the start of a horror movie,” Eli muttered, proving that he was listening after all.

Chloe couldn’t help laughing. He wasn’t wrong.

“Can I at least see the message thread?” Isa held out a hand for Chloe’s phone.

“No. I love you, but I’m not showing you.”

Isa pouted, which only served to make her more beautiful. Chloe, by contrast, was less exotic va-va-voom and more…cute. Plucky, in that best-friend-in-a-rom-com kind of way.

“Please?” Isa, hands folded in prayer pose, begged.

Chloe twisted her lips, reconsidering. Then she opened her phone and showed Isa the messages from three days ago.

hopperfan02: meet me for a new year’s eve party.

curlyqsue: you want to meet me?

hopperfan02: I want to meet the woman behind the photographs of my favorite city and possibly give her a kiss at midnight.

When she was done reading the exchange, Isa needlessly asked, “And you said nothing?”

“What was I supposed to say?”

“Um, how about ‘yes, please kiss me at midnight’?”

“What if he’s a toad?” Eli reentered the room and leaned on a chairback at the head of the table. “Or looks like Quasimodo.”

Isa harrumphed and waved her hand at him.

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