Page 11 of Christmas By The Shore

“... Fair enough.”

Catherine left her friend alone to get the next round of drinks and meandered through the crowd towards the bathroom. She was close enough to reach for the handle when the door swung open outwards and pushed her backward. She lost her footing and was a half-second away from hitting the disgusting, sticky floor when a pair of strong arms caught her. The wind was knocked out of her as she hit the solid chest of whichever tall man had saved her from falling flat on her butt, so all she could muster in response was a nervous laugh.

“Sorry!” said the woman who had come barreling out of the bathroom. “I didn’t know you were right there.”

“It’s fine,” Cat said as she was righted, once again steady on her feet. She glanced back and saw the man who had been looking at her from across the bar. He offered her a kindly smile and tugged on the brim of his baseball cap like it was a top hat, and he was a proper gentleman. “Thank you so much.”

“No problem.”

Now that they were closer to one another, Catherine could make out his strong jaw and striking blue eyes. She struggled to fill her lungs, but at least some of that had to have been from the impact, right?

Right?

“You have a good night,” he said, “and keep an eye out on the front door on your way out as well. It also swings both ways.”

“I—er—yeah, okay.” Before she could think of anything else to say, the man had disappeared back into the crowd. A part of her wanted to chase after him, to at least get his name so that she could thank him more formally, but the rest of herwas overriding this thought and demanding she go into the bathroom and relieve her bladder.

Oh well,she thought as she rushed through the door and into the open stall.Maybe I’ll see him again. If he comes here often, there’s no reason to think we won’t run into each other another time…

6

It wasn’t until Wednesday morning that Catherine next saw McKenzie.

After their night out, her best friend had made a vaguely threatening promise to come up with something fantastic for them to do that holiday season and then went MIA for the next thirty-six hours. Not that Catherine was complaining. She was able to get quite a lot of work done in that time; therefore, she wasn’t feeling as stressed about taking a half day on Thursday and spending the afternoon sipping hot chocolate and watching the parade with McKenzie.

Unfortunately—that was no longer the plan.

“Listen up, because we’re going to Cape May.”

McKenzie hadn’t even said so much as a “hello.” She’d simply walked into Catherine’s office, put a large to-go coffee cup on the desk before her, and announced this. To Cat’s credit, she took a moment to absorb the words and sip from her over-caffeinated latte before responding.

“What did you just say?” she asked once she was done savoring the coffee.

“You heard me.”

“But I didn’tunderstandyou,” Cat clarified. “You said we were going to Cape May, but I already told you, my parents are going to be out of town. There isn’t any reason for us to go down south for the holiday… Or did you miss that part?” She furrowed her brow. “I didn’t think you hadthatmuch to drink that night.”

“I didn’t!” she said, offended. “I remember what you told me, but I don’t care.”

“You don’t?—”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” McKenzie cut her off, “and I’ve decided the two of us are going to go to Cape May even though your parents aren’t going to be there. In fact, it’s because they are not going to be there that I’m so excited about this plan. No offense to Mr. and Mrs. Anand. You know I love them, but with them gone, that means their beach house is just sitting vacant!”

“And…?”

“And it’s a dream vacation home!” she said. “With the snow and the quaint little town, there’s no better place to spend the holidays, in my opinion, and it would be such a waste for the house to just be sitting empty while we are here in the city, where there’s only dirty slush and traffic this time of year.”

“You love the city.”

“Not as much as I love Cape May.”

Catherine looked at her dubiously. “Since when?”

“Since always.” She shrugged and took a seat across the desk. “Or maybe just since I had this brilliant idea.”

“That sounds about right.”

“But who cares where this idea came from? It’s perfect! I already called your parents and made sure they were okay with it. They said it was fine. Actually, your mom was thrilled because she had been kind of worried about leaving the house unattended for so long. Now, she doesn’t have to be concerned.”

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