Page 15 of The Mistletoe Bluff
Maya looked me dead in the eye. “No.”
I scrubbed a hand across my face. “It’s embarrassing.”
A devious light filled her eyes. “Now youmusttell me.”
I adjusted my grip on the steering wheel, trying not to cringe. She’d never let me live this down.
“I…saw you in that field taking pictures. I pulled over and parked next to your car, thinking I would say hi since I was back in Meridel and hadn’t seen you since—” I cut myself off, realizing she probably didn’t want to be reminded of that day. “Anyway, I was going to say hello, but realized that was probably weird and decided to leave instead.”
Something flashed in her eyes but I wasn't sure what it was.
“When I turned to go, I slipped on a patch of ice and your car caught my fall. The metal button on my coat got stuck between me and the door and…well you saw the result.” I winced. “It truly was an accident.”
“Why on earth would you stop to say hi to me?” she asked, her brows lowered in genuine confusion.
Blast. What do I say to keep her from suspecting my feelings for her?
“I, uh, thought I saw a bug?”
I fought the urge to smack my forehead at such a ridiculous response.
Maya blinked. “You thought you saw a bug…across a field…in the middle of winter.”
Since I had already committed to this absurd excuse, I was forced to go with it. “Stranger things have happened. Didn’t want you to get attacked by the bug.”
It was obvious that she didn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth—with the way she cocked an eyebrow and pursed her lips, but she didn’t fight back and fell silent instead.
I sighed. Someday I would tell her how I felt—maybe—but for now it was best that she didn’t know. What would she think if I said those words, if she knew I fancied her? What would she think if I told her that when I said, “feeling is mutual,” I actually meant that Imorethan liked her? Would she never want to see me again? Or would she…return my feelings? Maybe even give me a chance?
No, Maya had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with me. She’d never return my feelings.
Maya twiddled her thumbs in her lap. “So, you’re notpurposelytrying to ruin my life then?”
I swallowed my unease and looked at her as I stopped at a stop light. “Is that what you think about me?”
She shrugged. A minute later, I pulled up next to the apartment building she had directed me to. Maya wasted no time throwing herself out of my car, her boots slipping over the ice. I barely managed to skim my fingers across her wrist, trying to stop her before she was out of reach.
“Maya.”
She froze, her back to me.
“I swear to you, I never meant to hurt…Betsy. It was never my intention toruin your life. I apologize if I ever made you feel that way.”
She looked over her shoulder at me. For a moment, I thought she had taken my apology to heart, her eyes softening, but then they shuttered, and she shook her head.
“Goodbye, Oliver.”
Then she slammed the door, leaving me, and the weird fluttering of my heart at our brief touch, behind.
Maya
Please tell me you love me,” I pleaded to Elsie over the phone.
I didn’t even bother eating dinner—not with the knots making a home in my stomach courtesy of Oliver—before plopping face-first onto my bed and calling my best friend.
Elsie’s light laugh filtered through the phone. “That sounds like a trap.” I groaned and she laughed again. “What’s up, Maya?”
My face was still pressed into a pillow, the lavender scent of the calming spray I used on it trying, and failing, to soothe the jagged edges where my anxiety was poking out.
