Page 114 of Mistletoe Season
“We can find a way to work this out,” he says finally.
Can we? He’s the principal at the local high school, for crying out loud. And his family’s here. His dad.
“I can come to New York during spring break. Maybe you can come out for the summer.”
“And what if this gets serious?” Oh, crud. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. It’s too early to say things like that out loud.
“We’ll work it out,” he says, but now theuh-ohis looming over us like a giant Grinch.
The clock starts to chime. It’s midnight. Now I know how Cinderella felt. The ball is over.
Nine
Her heart sank. Was this one small thing going to tear them apart, just when they’d finally found each other?
—Hailey Fairchild,What the Heart Needs
“Let’s get you home,” says Carwyn.
Home to my parents’ house, or home to New York?
Have I just blown it big-time?
No, I can’t have. Real heroes keep trying until they win their woman.
He doesn’t say anything on the ride home, and I have no idea what to say. On the front porch, he kisses me again, but it doesn’t feel the same as those other kisses.
***
“Happy New Year! Did you have a great New Year’s Eve?” Mom asks when I drag myself into the kitchen the next morning.
I’m glad it’s only the two of us. I’d hate to announce to the whole family that I’m about to mess up my love life again. I shake my head.
Her smile falls. “What happened?”
“I don’t think this is going to work,” I say, and my lower lip begins to wobble.
“Why not?”
“He can’t leave here.”
“So you’d come back to Cascade. That sounds like a good thing.” Mom studies me. “Why wouldn’t you?”
I hate to say it. It sounds foolish, but it’s how I feel. “I don’t belong here anymore.”
Her brows furrow. “Why on earth not? I don’t understand.”
How do I explain something I’m having a hard time explaining to myself? “I’ve moved on. I belong in New York.”
“Why?”
“Because my publisher is there. My friends, my life.”
“You can have a life here too,” Mom says gently.
“I have no past in New York.”
Actually, I do. I have three love fails.
