Page 49 of A Taste of Christmas Magic

Or kissed me.

He had it bad. Definitely worried now, he vaulted out of the back door of the trailer and headed through the crowd. He hadn’t gone far before he ran into Jessica.

“Rustin! Hi!” she smiled, and then her tongue moistened her already gleaming plump lower lip that had driven him crazy when he was a teenager. “How’s it going?”

“Busy. Good.” He looked over her head trying to spot Chloe. It was harder now that he was on the ground.

Jessica nodded and smiled like he’d said something fascinating. She held a Tupperware of…something and suspicion coursed through him.

“You seen Chloe?” He wanted to make it clear that his interest was definitely elsewhere though it floored him to think she might want to rekindle anything after the way she’d treated him. True, they’d been kids, and the pressure for her to perform and behave in her family had been intense in a way he couldn’t fathom as a kid. And it had been years. And Chloe loved her. Inwardly sighing, he forced himself to not bolt.

“No” Her smile faltered. “I came to see you, Rustin. I wanted to talk.”

Her voice had that Adele husk to it that had always made him feel like the only one who mattered long before he’d been a man. He cringed at what a fool he’d been. Run away with him. How had he been such an idiot? They’d been children. And why had he idealized her long after he should have matured out of a teenage crush? Thank all the gods she’d had some sense because it had taken him years to get her and her words out of his head.

“What about?” His gaze lifted again to search out Chloe. He couldn’t shake the feeling she was hiding from him.

“Do I have to have a specific topic? We used to talk for hours about nothing,” she smiled.

“Used to,” he emphasized. “C’mon, Jessica. I’m on the clock. If you’re here to warn me off Chloe, you’re too late and none of your business.”

“Chloe is my sister.”

“Cousin.”

“My parents always made that distinction. I’m not sure why, but from the first morning we found her and brought her in from the cold, she felt like mine.”

“You treated her like a doll.”

Jessica swallowed hard, and her creamy skin paled. “I want to protect her.”

“From me?” His voice was hard. “From the filthy stench of my family?” He could feel the muscle twitch in his jaw, and he could barely unclench his teeth.

“No, of course not.” Jessica flushed prettily.

“I should be beyond that. I’ve proved myself.”

“You are. You have.” The words spilled out in a torrent. “I was cruel Rustin. Overwhelmed and afraid and out of my depth, and I’ve…I’ve regretted the words I said so many years ago even as I uttered them. But this is about Chloe and that book.”

“Huh?”

“The Love Spell recipes.”

This time he did laugh. “You don’t believe in woo-woo or whatever do you?”

“Do you?” she challenged. “Chloe admitted that when she followed the recipeexactly, and you had a bite you accused her of putting a spell on you.”

He ran an unsteady hand through his hair. “Unbelievable.” He tried to gather his thoughts. “You think I’m playing with your sister—why? To get something? I already have what I want. My own restaurant. Restoring my family name and reputation. I’m taking care of my mother. I helped send both my sisters to college, and they have careers in health care—what they always wanted, and I’m helping Luke to find his way. I don’t need to play Chloe.”

“I’m not saying it’s deliberate,” Jessica muttered.

“Your sister is smart and fun and warm and funny and so full of life. She’s light to my dark, and she accepts me and my dreams and my schedule. She makes sense, and yeah, we’re new, but I’m happy. She’s happy. Life has no guarantees. Why isn’t that enough for you?”

Jessica gulped in a deep breath. “Prove it.”

“I don’t have to prove anything to you.”

But she was holding out a floral china plate with cookies artfully arranged that she’d unlocked from the Tupperware container.

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