Page 42 of All I Want For Christmas

Four

Blue stamped her feet in the forlorn lobby of the No-Tell, the air not much warmer than it was outside. There was no one at the desk. “Great, no one’s here.”

“The door was open. There must be someone here.” Christian leaned over the desk toward the back room. “Hello? Can you help us?”

Pulling her cell phone out of her jeans with nearly numb fingers, Blue scowled at it and shook. “I still don’t have reception. God, being cut off like this sucks.”

“Think of it as an adventure.”

All that cheerfulness must be exhausting. “Thanks, Dad.” Blue glared at him as he stood there in perfect nonchalance, clearly convinced this was all going to work out just fine.

She, on the other hand, was starting to think she might die before this was all over.

“Where the hell is the employee?” She paced and tried punching buttons on her phone again, just in case something had changed in the last sixty seconds. It hadn’t.

“Just relax, they’re just not expecting us, but someone is clearly here. I can hear the TV.”

“Did I mention I don’t have a lot of patience?”

“You’re also a little cranky, too, but it’s all part ofyourcharm.”

And he lightly punched her on the arm.

Blue blinked. He should be exactly the kind of guy that drove her insane. She could only take so much optimism. Normally she went for moody artist types who spent large quantities of time on their hair and ridiculous amounts of money for vintage band shirts and designer jeans. They also tended to disappear for a week or two at a time without warning then reappear with whiny requests for attention.

Which when put like that made her wonder what the hell she saw in them.

Christian had managed to make her smile in the midst of a really suck-ass situation and he had never once complained, or God forbid, asked if he could lay his head down in her lap for solace. Yeah, she’d had that happen before. Scary moment.

“Did we leave the Doritos in the car?” she asked, feeling the need for comfort food. Suddenly it felt like her whole concept of dating and the perfect partner had tiltedTitanic-style and was slowly starting to sink.

“Yeah. You want me to go get them?”

Oh. My. God. And he was willing to just go fetch chips for her? Without her asking or without bitching or without demanding a blow job. Blue’s face went hot and she definitely felt off-kilter. “No, no, that’s okay. I can wait five minutes. I just wish I’d eaten dinner.”

Christian was about to respond, but just then a man who looked approximately a thousand years old shuffled in through the door to the back room.

“What do we have here?” he asked them, adjusting his glasses and craning his neck to see them from his hunched over position.

“Hi,” Christian said, sticking out his hand. “How are you tonight, sir? Merry Christmas.”

The man shook Christian’s hand. “Thank you, thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too. Like those hats you’re wearing, very festive. Are you kids traveling in this weather? Doesn’t look very safe out.” He gave them a look of concern.

Blue smiled. “Unfortunately, it’s not. We had a bit of an accident and now the road is closed for travel, so we’re kind of stuck here for the night. Do you have two rooms available?”

Not that she was opposed to bunking with Christian, because she was pretty sure she wanted to screw his brains out, but he was going to have to make the first move. She did have some standards with men she’d just met who weren’t her type.

“Two rooms? Nope, can’t do it. We don’t get much business here and I’m semi-retired and well, I haven’t kept things up as good as I could have and the place needs a new roof. With all the snow, seven of the eight rooms have leaks with buckets in them. There’s only one that’s fine and it’s the one closest to the office here where my grandson did a patch on the roof.”

“You can take that,” Christian said, looking at her. “I’ll take the one with the least leaking. I don’t mind.”

Was there a pause there? Was he waiting for her to say something? Blue wasn’t sure, but she realized he wasn’t going to throw it out there in front of the old guy, and he was clearly trying to be a gentleman. Blue hadn’t been aware that those still existed, but apparently she’d been wrong. Maybe about a lot of things.

“Christian, you don’t have to take a leaky room. You can just share mine, it’s not a big deal.”

“Are you sure?” He smiled and it wasn’t a “gee, thanks” kind of smile. It was a “I’m going to ignore my bed and be in yours” kind of smile.

Perfect. “Yes. I have to warn you, I’m kind of a slob, though.”

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