Page 101 of Mistletoe Season
He shifts gears, back into cheerful. “Mom’s looking forward to your book signing,” he says, signaling that the subject is closed.
“She’s coming? That’s nice,” I say. I’m glad some people are coming—it’s the ultimate humiliation to do a book event and have no bodies there—but I also don’t want a huge crowd.
“Everyone’s coming,” he says.
“Everyone?” I squeak.
“Hometown girl makes good, remember?”
His phone dings with a text. He checks it. “I’m gonna have to cut this short.”
“Oh.” I sound disappointed. How pathetic is that?
It’s a girlfriend, of course. Carwyn Davies isn’t married—if that had happened, I would have heard about it—but he’s got to have a girlfriend. He’s too gorgeous, too nice, too... everything not to have one.
“I promised Mom I’d help Dad get the tree up,” he says.
“Oh, I thought you had a girlfriend waiting for you,” I say lightly.
He’s suddenly serious again. “There’s no one in my life, Hailey.”
“There should be,” I blurt. Great. Now I’m sure my face is as red as Santa’s suit.
“I had a couple of almosts, but in the end they never felt right.” He smiles. “Maybe, down the road...”
I’m imagining the way he’s looking at me, I’m sure of it. “You’ll run out of gas right in front of her house,” I quip lightly. A perfect meet-cute.
“Or find her next door,” he says, just as lightly. “What about you?” he asks. “You have to have someone.”
I shrug. “I thought I did. It turned out to be a mistletoe mistake.”
He half smiles at that. “Mistletoe mistake, huh? I can remember one of those.”
“You can?”
“You weremyfirst mistletoe mistake,” he says.
“Me! No way.”
He shakes his head and gives a rueful smile. “Talk about deflating a guy’s ego. You couldn’t get away from me fast enough.”
“I had onion breath,” I protest. “And it was all so embarrassing. I mean, honestly, Sam calls over the hottest guy in town and says, ‘Kiss my sister.’ I thought I’d die.”
“Hottest guy in town, huh?”
Speaking of, can my face get any hotter? “You know you are,” I say, disgusted over betraying myself.
He grins. “Did you have a crush on me?”
“Oh, who didn’t?” I say irritably.
He starts his car. “This is interesting stuff. We need to continue this conversation.”
“No, we don’t,” I mutter. I’ve humiliated myself enough for one day.
“I know you’re gonna be busy,” he says when we get back to my car, “but I hope you won’t be too busy for your neighbor.”
Carwyn Davies wants to hang out. Okay, am I dreaming this? “I might be able to fit you in,” I say with a smile.
