Page 34 of The Holiday Hate-Off
“Look. I’m not going to sleep with you,” she continues. “That’s a horrible idea, even if you have the whole thingplanned out, and you’re…you know.” She waves a hand at me as if the answer should be obvious.
My body heats up as if she’d cast an invisible spell. “Even if I’m what?”
A tiny crease appears between her eyebrows. “You know what you look like. Your stunt yesterday made that perfectly obvious. You knew women would whip open their wallets.”
I can’t help but smile. “And do you know whatyoulook like, Lucy Taylor?”
She blushes. “Twenty-one or maybe twenty-two?”
I did say that at the café, didn’t I? I realize now that it’s not her appearance that made me think she was that young. It’s her new soul quality. Life hasn’t stopped surprising Lucy yet. She’s not jaded like I am. Life ceased to surprise me a long, long time ago. I lost joy in the little things even earlier than that.
I cross my arms. “It’s not like I have a thing for younger women. I was trying to?—”
“Be condescending?”
“Kind of like finishing someone else’s sentences,” I respond pointedly.
She shifts her weight from one foot to the other. “Are we done here? Because it feels an awful lot like we’re done here. Eileen’s probably worried about me. She definitely should be.”
“If she were worried about you, she’d be in here. She may not be friendly with Nonna right now, but she knows us. She babysat for my sister. She was friendly with my mother.” Someone should give me a medal, because I managed to say those last words without sounding bitter. “She knows you’re safe with me.”
She gasps, and then her lips flatten into a taut line. “You’re trying to remind me again that I’m not from around here. That I don’t get it. That I’llneverbe a Hidie.”
I smile, shaking my head. “No, but it’s not the curse you think it is. Consider yourself lucky. It’s not so easy to get out ofthis place. It has a gravitational pull that should be studied by NASA. I’m convinced that’s the real reason the Wi-Fi sucks.”
“Idon’tconsider myself lucky,” she says fiercely. “It’s not fair that you don’t value this town but you get to have it.”
“And it’s not fair that I don’t want this town but can’t escape it. Life isn’t fair, and it never will be. That’s a certainty.”
“And the other certainty we can count on is that you’ll take any possible opportunity to be condescending.”
I sigh, suddenly tired. It’s this season. All the forced merriment wears me out. And it’s also her, so tempting and infuriating and out of reach. “That’s not what I meant. I just wanted you to know you’d be safe with me, and even if we don’t see eye to eye personally, I find you very attractive. Stunning, actually.”
Her lips part, and for a moment, I think she takes it as the very genuine compliment it is. I knew she was beautiful the first time I saw her, but Rachelle had just broken up with me, and I didn’t fully register her beauty. My pride had been bruised, my ego fractured. But I’d felt the full force of her beauty like a smack with a wooden spoon last night.
Lucy quickly composes herself. “You’d say anything to get your way.”
“There you go, making assumptions again.”
She studies me, her gaze moving over me in a way I can feel. It’s as if her hands are tracing me and trying to decide whether I’m worthy. Finally, she says, “You think you’re the first man I’ve ever come across who’s obsessed with the idea of being my first? That’s why I’m going to sleep with someone who doesn’t know. I’m sick of it being some big thing. It’snota big thing. It’s just something that happened because I had too much going on in my life, and now every guy who finds out acts like it’s a huge deal. Either he gets obsessed with beingtheguy, or he acts like I waited this long because I wanted to give it up to my soulmate. It’s bullshit.”
“I’m definitely not worried you’ll think I’m your soulmate,” I say wryly. “And I know better than to think physical attraction has nothing to do with emotional attraction.”
She groans. “Of course you’d say that. Of course you’dthinkthat. What I’m telling you is no. Just no. It needs to be?—”
“I know some of those guys out there,” I say, waving at the door. My blood is hot, pounding through my veins, in my ears. I’m upset. Angry, even, but not at her. “They’d talk about you. Spread rumors. I wouldn’t stand for that.”
“Why do you care?” She gives me an incredulous look. “The only reason people were talking about me before tonight was because of what happened at the coffee shop four months ago. And that wasyourfault.”
“Not yours for questioning my sexual prowess in front of my neighbors?”
I already know I shouldn’t have said it, but there’s no taking it back now.
“We’re done here,” she seethes. “You’redefinitelydone here. It’s time for you to leave. And you know what?” Her hand, which had fallen to her side, returns to her hip. I watch it, wishing things had gone down differently.
“What’s that, Lucia?” I say, not meaning to call her that, but it fits. She’s too fiery to be a mere Lucy.
Her gaze burns into me. “You’re banned from Love at First Sip, effective immediately. I’m sure Eileen will back me up.”
