Page 45 of A Second Chance Christmas Kiss

“I wouldn’t have called you.”

I laughed, another round of giddiness surrounding me. “Your text would’ve woken me up. I always keep my notifications on in case Will tries to get a hold of me.”

“Oh no. I didn’t know that. I’m sorry.”

I lay on my other side and wanted to ask him where he was in his house. I imagined he was lying in his bed, but I didn’t want to think about that. I might end up saying something creepy like,What are you wearing?

Why was I thinking that?

“I really didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s okay. What did you want to talk about?”

“I don’t really know what I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to talk to you.”

I giggled.

“Did you just giggle?”

I giggled again. “Stop making me giggle.”

He laughed. “Well,Ms. Paine.”

“Why are you calling me that?”

“You told me not to call youMs. Harris.”

I scoffed and turned onto my other side. “Why don’t you just call me Mel?”

“I can do that. So,Mel, I just couldn’t quit thinking about you. I was hoping that you were thinking about me as well.”

I giggled again. “I was actually almost asleep,Mr. King.”

He grunted. “I’m sorry about that.”

“You know I’m lying. I wasn’t asleep. I may have been thinking about this guy that I was on a date with earlier.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you’ll just have to tell this guy that you’re dating someone. And this someone is due.”

“Sure.”

“I mean it. I’m serious about you.”

I couldn’t help but sober up a bit. “How serious are we?”

For a second, he hesitated. Then he said, “I’m as serious as they come, Mel. I tried to break up your wedding.”

I wasn’t sure why, but his comment sent me into giggles again. “That was the craziest day. You have no idea how much Peter resented that you showed up.”

“I’m sorry.” He sounded a bit subdued. “Did I make it hard on you?”

I sighed. “Looking back, Peter was the one who made things hard on me. He was a very punishing type of man.” I didn’t know why, but suddenly so many emotions hit me that I started to cry. I didn’t want him to hear that, so I just sucked in a breath.

“Mel?”

I didn’t respond. The pain pierced my chest and moved up into my throat.

“Mel.”

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