Page 72 of A Very Snowed In New Year
“Really? That was almost kind of fun.”
“I don’t think it was fun for your dad, but he’ll be okay.”
I silence my phone as soon as I see the firstOMGGGGGGtext from my mom with three salsa-dancing-lady emojis. “Can I meet your parents now?!”
“No way.”
“Why not?!”
He smirks. “I already texted them, but I don’t want them to know I’m alone in a cabin with a hot chick. They’d panic.”
We’re both joking, but it makes me feel so good. “Because I’m so over-the-top sexy?”
“For sure. Especially in that outfit.” We just stand here smiling at each other for, like, five hours, it feels like, and then he kisses me on the lips. “I did tell them I’m with a girl I like, and my sister knows it’s you. I don’t think we’ve seen her this happy since she was twelve.”
I really can’t stop smiling. “What is the name of this brilliant sister of yours who has such great taste?”
“It’s Rory.”
I gasp. “Rory?! Like?—”
“Yes, likeGilmore Girls. Come on.” He claps his hands just once. “Let’s get this party started. We need to have our first date before the end of the year.” He starts moving one of the armchairs closer to the fireplace. “Time to make Journal Guy’s wish come true.”
If there’s such a thing as multiple emotional orgasms, then I’m having them.
TWENTY-ONE
Holden
AN ARMCHAIR TO REMEMBER
I give her my best Irish accent. “May your troubles be less and your blessin’s be more, and may nothin’ but happiness come through your front door.Sláinte.”
Her jaw drops as she clinks champagne glasses with me. “Sláinte!” Piper is sitting across my lap, in an armchair, in front of the fire. We’ve already shared the take-out sandwich I brought from the restaurant and moved on to chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. She has changed out of my sweater and into one of my plain white T-shirts. She looks so pretty in the warm glow of the firelight and this feels so right, I have to keep reminding myself we only just met in person today. “Wow. You sound exactly like Nolan.”
“I don’t know who Nolan is, but cheers.”
“Nolan Cassidy is the hottest Irishman in America! You can’t fact-check that, but it’s the truth.”
I scoff at that. “I guess we’re operating under the assumption that Brendan Gleeson isn’t in the States at the moment.”
“I don’t know who that is, but he does sound hot.”
“Exactly.”
“Why are you so good at doing an Irish accent?”
“Well, first of all, I am an actor. Secondly, I’m good at most things once I decide to be good at them. Thirdly, I decided to be good at doing an Irish accent because I studied twentieth-century Irish lit in college and I found that girls like an Irish accent. That’s it.”
I search her face, watching for some indication that she doesn’t like that I just referenced other girls in general, because in my experience, the girls I’ve been with don’t like to be reminded that there are other girls in the world that I want to like me. But she doesn’t shut down. There’s no twitching or huffing. Piper is so very unlike every other woman I’ve ever been on a first date with.
She appears, instead, to be pensive as she studies me, and maybe a little bit amazed. “This is so weird.”
“What is?”
“It’s almost like you’re a combination of all of the best men in my life… Well, except for Billy, I guess? How do you feel about ‘Tubthumping’?”
“No one’s ever gonna keep me down—I’ll tell you that much. But I haven’t added that song to any playlists or anything. Why?”
