Page 125 of When in December

“I finally understand why you hate driving the back roads into the city now more than ever,” he said.

“What?” I asked.

“It took way to long for me to get to you.” He took a step towards me, then another until he was directly in front of me. “Then, I stopped by your parents’ house, thinking that you would be home?—”

“You went to my house?”

“And then I figured if you weren’t there, you had to be here,” he said, looking around and taking a deep breath as if it were the first one he’d managed all day. I stared, watching him take it. “Why are you here, Poppy?”

“I’m … I’m working.”

He paused. “I heard you didn’t get the job.”

“Oh. Right. I mean, that’s true. I didn’t get the job, but that doesn’t mean you had to feel sorry for me and come down here.”

“I wanted to see you.”

I swallowed hard, self-conscious under his intense scrutiny. “There’s no need to check up on me. I’m fine,” I replied a little too quickly, my voice coming out sharper than intended.

“Fine?” Aaron raised an eyebrow, unconvinced by my feeble attempt at reassurance. “You don’t seem fine,” he observed, taking a hesitant step closer to where I sat, frozen at my desk.

I felt the tension crackling in the air, uncertain of how to respond to his unexpected presence. Aaron’s gaze wasunwavering, as if he could see through my facade. With a sigh, I finally relented, dropping the pretense I had been desperately clinging to.

“What do you want me to say?” I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, the weight of his gaze making it hard to breathe. “I said I’m fine,” I repeated, trying to sound more assertive this time. But the words sounded hollow, even to my ears.

He didn’t contradict me. He knew better by now.

I swallowed, feeling a renewed wave of emotion swell behind my eyes. I swung my hand to the side. I couldn’t hold it together anymore. Again. “Goodness. Why are you here, Aaron? Why did you have to show up here now? I was going to come to you so you didn’t have to see me this way. At my lowest. If only you’d stayed home for another two hours or something.”

“You were coming to see me?”

“Yes!” That was why I was pathetic.

Aaron pressed his lips together, as if he couldn’t help the smile that I once couldn’t believe I was seeing. Even if his eyes were still sad, calculating.

“Why were you coming to see me, Snow Angel?” he asked. “Coming to yell at me again?”

“No.”

“Visit Oz maybe? I kind of figured that you would miss him.”

I snorted and shook my head.

“Then, why, homemaker?” he asked again. “Tell me.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re the one who showed up here.”

“Oh, I get it. You want me to say it.”

Say what? I couldn’t even begin to assume.

“I think I’m in love with you, Poppy Owens.”

My eyes widened.

There was no way he’d just said that. I was imagining things.

“No. You didn’t—you can’t just say that, Aaron.”

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