Page 38 of Mistlefoe
Her other eye pops open too. She blinks hard. “Um. Thank you. Yes.”
I hold her tighter against me to avoid any chance of slipping again and haul her back to her feet. “Careful, it’s slippery,” I say with a chuckle.
She smacks my chest.
Still grinning, I pull away and this actually puts us in the same position as when we were about to kiss under the mistletoe. Maybe Sierra’s realized the same because her eyes catch on my mouth and my muscles tense. But then she’s stepping back and checking the ground.
“Well, hopefully I make it to the building in one piece now.” Another laugh, this time an awkward one.
“Right. Yeah.”
I hang back a pace or two to watch out for her, and also because I don’t want her to see that my face is flaming up again. Is this going to be my life now? One kiss from the woman and now every time she’s near, my face is going to give me away?
“Hey, I have something to do. You go ahead,” I mumble once we’re in the lobby.
She casts a glance over her shoulder and nods. “Sure, take your time.”
I do. I take as much time as I need to behave. It includes washing my face with freezing cold water three times and taking a walk around the whole building. By the time I make it to the marketing team, I’m no longer at risk of being pulled into the infirmary.
Richard calls out from his office. “Ah, Conor. We were waiting for you.”
We? And then I notice Sierra standing beside him, andthey’re the only ones in the office right now. She motions at me to hurry with her hand, which makes me think this must be about the event. I jog the rest of the way and stop before our boss’ desk.
“Sierra here was telling me that you guys still haven’t found a decent venue, which works out with the news I have.”
She and I exchange a glance and I say, “Oh?”
“I explained the situation to Martin and we definitely can’t set up your grandfather’s rink as a vendor in our system because it’s a conflict of interest.”
I can feel Sierra still looking at me but I don’t know how to react to this.
Richard keeps talking. “However, we found a loophole.”
My heart kicks a little, just like it does when I’m starting a morning run. Or like it did when Sierra pulled me down to kiss her.
“Yeah?” I stuff my hands in my joggers, aiming for casual disinterest and probably fooling no one.
“We can use the community contribution payment category, and it’d be well justified. I did a little research and Conrad’s Rink has been a landmark of this town’s history, even produced our very first professional hockey player here present.”
“Former,” I mutter.
“Anyway, Martin thinks it makes it extra special around the holiday, so congratulations lady and gentleman, you have found yourselves a venue.”
“Great, I’ll just use my lunch break now to talk with the owner.” I try my hardest not to smile but fail.
“You do that. And get a fair price out of him too.”
I’m not sure if he means fair to my grandfather or to the company. Although I guess the definition of fair would be both ways.
That doesn’t matter. I do my best not to vibrate with excitementas I trace my steps back to the elevator. Even if it’s a one-time thing, I’m sure this will make Gramps rethink closing down the place.
*
“No.”
My eyes bulge. Gramps stands by his desk and I do the same opposite to him, which is probably a good thing because he looks like he may wring my neck otherwise.
“What do you meanno?”
