Page 29 of A Very Merry Matchup
We stop walking and turn to face each other next to a display shaped like overly large Christmas light bulbs. “What’s that matter? You aren’t.”
“I know, but can we just pretend for one minute? What if Iwasa teacher when we met back in September? What would have happened? Come on, just play along with me here.”
I know I really shouldn’t go there, but I can’t seem to stop myself. No harm in pretending, right? “I suppose I would’vegiven you my number instead of Lucy’s. And hoped that you’d call—afteryou were done being my patient, of course.”
“Of course. And you better believe I would’ve called. I would’ve asked you out on a date as soon as I could. Then what?”
“Then...” I don’t know. He’s standing so close it’s hard to think straight. I have to tilt my head back just to look at him. The nice thing about his size is he makes a good wind buffer. That’s the only reason I’m not cold right now. Has nothing to do with the little burst of heat rippling through me because of the way he’s caressing my face with his blue-eyed gaze. “I suppose I would’ve said yes.”
“Let’s pretend we’re out on that date right now. What then?”
“Then...” When he cocks his head to the side and wets his lips, I apparently can’t stop my next words any more than I could stop my need for a photo shoot in a cute park full of Christmas lights. “I’d want you to kiss me.”
He holds his breath. Or maybe I’m holding mine. How long can two people stand out in the cold holding their breath? It’s not like we’re Navy SEALs. One of us needs to kiss something. I meandosomething. I mean... I don’t know what I mean.
I rise on my tiptoes the same moment Beau leans down.Our lips meet in a kiss as gentle and magical as a falling snowflake. Disappears just as quickly too.
Good thing, since we’re only pretending.
Weareonly pretending, right? Beau’s mouth hovers above mine. I don’t know if we’re pretending.
We are!I take a step back. Because Beau’s not a teacher. He’s a baseball player.A baseball player.I take another step back.
“Well,” I say with a shaky laugh. “Guess that answers that. Back to reality now. Where’s the truck?” I spin in a circle trying to locate the truck. Then spin again. Two spins later I still haven’t located the truck, but I can at least blame my dizziness on the spinning instead of Beau’s kiss.
When I spot the snowman with the top hat, I start walking that direction.
“Ivy—”
I walk faster. “We really need to get back and check on the dogs.”
He catches up to me in two seconds. Of course he does. He has the walking stride of a giraffe. “Just tell me one thing,” he says, jumping in front of me so I have no choice but to either stop or collide with his chest. Maybe his lips.
I scrunch my eyes shut. “No more games, Beau.”
“Just remind me again why we can’t make this real?”
It takes me a solid five seconds to remember my ownname, let alone why we can’t make this real. But once I do, I can’t spit out the reasons fast enough. “I don’t want a husband who’s gone all the time. I don’t want to be moving around all the time. I don’t want to end up like my parents. I don’t want to see our family split up. Our kids will miss you too much. I’ll miss you too much. I just want to stick to the plan, and why on earth are you smiling right now?” I ask when I finally open my eyes to see him grinning at me.
He is. He’s trying to hide it by pressing his lips together, but his dimple is out and his blue eyes are glowing more than the Christmas lights. “You can’t just sayour kidsand not expect me to smile.”
“I’m heading back to the truck now.”
“If you want to elope so we can get started sooner rather than later on making those kids, I’m not opposed to that.”
“Give me the keys. You’re walking.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Nana needs run over by a reindeer...
Beau
I kissed Ivy. Ivy kissed me. Our lips were pressed together. That’s all I can think about the entire drive back to the house. And having kids with Ivy someday. That too. But for right now, the kissing.
And here’s the thing. It hadn’t been that hard to get our lips pressed together. Sure, the kiss only lasted a few seconds, and sure, Ivy acted like everything about it was pretend.
But the kiss wasn’t pretend. It happened. Let Ivy say all she wants about this perfect plan of hers, but I know one thing—she likes me. A lot. She’s just too stubborn to admitit. Which is fine. I can work with stubborn. I don’t mind stubborn. Stubborn and I are good friends.
