Page 106 of Grumpy Darling

“Christmas—another easy one.”

“What Disney movie makes me cry?”

“What Disney movie doesn’t?”

So, perhaps I wasn’t all that good at coming up with difficult questions on the spot. I took a moment and really thought about the next one.

“Okay, if I was an animal, what would I want to be?”

“Either a butterfly or a penguin. Depends on how long it’s been since you watchedHappy Feet.”

He was better at this than I expected. But he was also proving himself wrong.

“See, you do know everything about me. I’m not surprising at all.”

“I’m sure there are some deep, dark secrets in there somewhere.” His eyes glittered. “But maybe we don’t need to share them all on our first date.”

“Perhaps the second then.”

“Perhaps,” he agreed with a shy smile.

When he smiled like that, he awakened a flurry of delicate flutters in my chest. It was almost like the butterflies within me were lightly brushing their wings against my heart. Grayson was right. There were things we held back from each other. And despite the fun and flirty banter, there was an unspoken tension underlying tonight.

I wasn’t sure exactly where our friendship stood right now, but I didn’t totally hate this place in between. It was filled with love and optimism, and it felt like anything could happen. It was kind of beautiful in its own way. And I thought I might prefer to live in this friendship no-man’s-land forever rather than risk shattering the illusion of what we could be.

I cleared my throat, trying to derail that train of thought. “How do you feel about tomorrow?” I asked. “You excited to sign?”

A solemn look entered his eyes as he shrugged. “It’ll be a weight off my chest when it’s done. But I don’t want to talk about hockey.”

“No?”

“No.” He leaned forward on the table, a spark reigniting his expression. “You brought up our second date, and I want to hear about what you’ve got planned.”

“Me?” I laughed. “Maybe I’ll ghost your texts and calls.”

“You would never. Besides, this date isn’t over yet. And there’s no way you’ll be ghosting my calls after tonight is through.”

“Oh, really. And why is that?”

A tender smile graced his lips. “Because the best is yet to come...”

Chapter 27

Grayson

As I drove Paige to the second part of our date, I was more nervous than I’d ever felt, even before big hockey games. Everything had been going well so far, but we were only partway through the evening, and there was still plenty of time for me to crash and burn.

After the restaurant, we stopped at our favorite ice-cream parlor and picked up two hot chocolates before I drove Paige out of town. A few minutes after we left Ransom, I turned off the main road onto a snow-covered dirt track.

“Where are we going?” Paige looked out the window with curiosity, but it was almost pitch-black and you could barely make out the tall trees that bordered the narrow road and towered overhead.

“You’ll see.”

Paige may have lived almost her whole life in Ransom, but I knew she’d never been out this way before. I’d only come here a few times myself with some of the guys. Matt’s grandfather owned the land, and he surrounded the whole place with large “No Trespassing” signs, but we knew it was all for show. Besides, his farm was so big there was no way he’d know we were here.

The track ended just past the edge of the woods, and a wide-open field lay before us. I pulled the truck to a stop beyond the trees, and a faint gasp escaped Paige’s lips when she saw the view. We were high up on a hill overlooking Ransom. The sun had already set, and the night sky was a deep shade of velvet blue. From our perch up high on the hillside, we could see the twinkling lights of the town below, all backlit by the moon’s subtle reflection over the fresh snow.

“It’s gorgeous,” Paige whispered, admiring the view. “How do you even know about this place?”

---