Page 48 of Meet Me on Christmas Eve

“No, your new ones won’t be. But I have a strawberry caramel swirl already in the freezer. You can try that one.” He met my eyes with a look of challenge.

I wrinkled my nose. “You’re lucky I don’t back down from a challenge. That sounds gross, but sure, bring it on. Hopefully the pure caramel will be ready to eat soon. Since I’ll need a palate cleanser.”

He smiled again, shaking his head as he dipped down to retrieve the ice cream from behind the ones I’d put in the freezer. “You’re going to be eating those words.”

“I’ll be eating something,” I mumbled. Watching as he retrieved some spoons and napkins, I tried not to think about what the hell I was doing here.

I took the spoon from his outstretched hand, careful to avoid touching his hand. “Well, let’s get this over with.”

“Prepare to have your taste buds ruined for all other ice creams,” he said, opening the cover and then handing it to me. “Ladies first.”

I took a small, careful bite and closed my eyes, careful to keep any expression off my face as I took in the odd flavor combination. When I opened my eyes, his were focused intently on my mouth.

Was he … no, he’s looking at my mouth because I’m eating. He’s looking for a reaction to what I’m tasting. With my mouth.

I took another bite, and his eyes didn’t leave my face. I didn’t miss the tiny intake of breath from him when I licked my lips after swallowing the ice cream.

“All right,” I said. He blinked a few times and made eye contact again. “This flavor is OK.”

He gasped. “JustOK?”

I smirked. “I like it, but I don’t love it.” I took another bite. “It’ll do until the real deliciousness is ready for consumption.”

“You’re hopeless,” he said, shaking his head. “Give me that.” But he didn’t take the bucket, he just stuck his spoon in the container to take some while I still held it. “It’s my favorite. It’s the perfect blend of—oh …” His voice trailed off as his hand suddenly rose to touch my chin.

It was just a small brush of his thumb, but I had to fight the urge to jump back. I didn’t want him to think I was scared of him. Or scared of … this.

“You had a bit of ice cream there,” he explained.

I couldn’t look away but just nodded.

He shifted on his feet and looked at something behind me. “Hey so, um, I didn’t get dinner earlier. I was thinking I’d just pop a pizza in the oven. Do you want some or—”

“Yes,” I said automatically. Pizza was everything. And I was desperate for a neutral topic. “Please.”

“OK, let me go down to the basement freezer real quick,” he said, pointing vaguely behind me. “Want to watch a movie?”

It sounded risky, honestly. A movie could be a perfectly platonic thing. Were we friends now? I had no idea. I thought we hated each other. But anyway, platonic. Ornot. I remembered more than one occasion when we’d watched a movie in his room at the resort when his parents were off dining with some of their fancy friends. We hadn’t spent much time watching the movie.

Then again, what else were we going to do? Sit and talk? Argue? Make out? All of those would be far worse. OK, movie it is. I can keep boundaries. We’re not dating, like before. It’ll be fine, right? It’ll be—

“Hey, it’s OK. We don’t have to,” he said gently. My eyes shifted from the vague area of the wall I’d been staring at back to his face. “Doesn’t have to be a movie. We could—”

“No, fine,” I croaked. “It’s fine. Movie, yes.”

The corners of his mouth rose just slightly, and he nodded. “OK then. I’ll go get that pizza. The TV’s in the living room, down that hall. Go pick a movie?”

I nodded, and we stared at each other for another awkward moment before my feet finally started moving toward the hallway.

Approximately two hours later, he flipped off the TV. I turned to him from my end of the couch, which was thankfully quite large, with plenty of space between us. I stretched out my legs a bit. “That was a cute movie.”

“I still can’t believe you’d never seenElf.” He shook his head.

I chuckled. “I know, and you’re not the first person to tell me that.”

He looked at me from across the couch. “But I’m the first to watch it with you.”

Ugh, why was my face heating up? We were just talking about a movie, that’s all. At least the lighting was dim. It must be the fireplace.

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