Page 5 of Knotty, Nice, & Holiday Lights
If I’d gotten some more sleep, I’d probably have realized that right away.
I let out a sigh. “I’m really sorry, Will.” I use his name on purpose, something I learned in business. Create a connection by being personal. “I’m not making a very good first impression, and I’m going to be staying here a while.”
He smiles at me for the first time since we exited the B&B, those blue eyes sparkling. “You have nothing to apologize for, Isabelle.”
“Please, call me Izzy.” I do my best to smile back, but I doubt mine is anywhere near as gorgeous as his.
“Izzy,” he repeats like he’s trying it on for size. “Beautiful.”
He holds my gaze for a long time, but I feel no discomfort. In fact, I find myself leaning a bit closer over the two suitcases set on the ground between us.
“I’ll take these,” he says suddenly, breaking our connection and pulling the handles up from the two cases. He gestures with his head to my laptop bag. “Can you get that one?”
“Oh, yeah.”
After taking my laptop and purse out of my car, I close everything up and lock the doors, then follow Will back into the B&B, where almost immediately I mourn the loss of that mouth-watering vanilla scent of his.
I try my best not to frown as I follow Will upstairs after he grabs a key from behind the front desk. We stop outside a beautiful mahogany door with a golden plate on it, etched with a black 2 in a flourished script.
“Here we are,” he says, almost like singing it, as he puts the key in the lock and turns the knob along with it. He peers at me beside him. “We still use old school keys, but…”
When he opens the door to my room, I can’t hold in my gasp.
The room is all cream and white with black and brown accents, classic four-poster bed frame with canopy top, the dressers and nightstands matching black wood. There’s a big TV on a stand across from the foot of the bed, and a huge window at the back of the room, dressed with curtains. In front of the window is a small, round table with two brown leather chairs, a standing lamp behind each of them.
“Your bathroom is here,” Will says after rolling my suitcases into the room and stepping to the door beside the bed. He opens it, and I follow automatically, standing beside him and peering through the door.
The room is a delicate mix of cream and white, like the main colors of the bedroom. A toilet, a standing shower, and—oh, fuck yes—a whirlpool tub!
As I gape at everything around me, I notice two things. One, I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut since I’ve arrived here, and two, Will is very, very warm. His body heat radiates off him like he’s an area heater beside me. The ease that overtakes me is something foreign, like his heat wants to wrap around my body, seep into my bones, warm me to my core.
I look up at his face, and he’s peering down at me. He’s clean-shaven, and that jaw is angular and chiseled, but it looks so soft to the touch that my fingers twitch.
I want to grope a complete stranger’s face.
What the flying fuck is wrong with me?
“So, do you have family in town, Izzy?”
My eyelids flutter what must be a million times as my brain fights to register his question. When it finally does, I utter, “Nope.”
He blinks, his brown brows rising a touch. “Oh. It’s just that you booked through Thanksgiving…”
Oh boy. “Yeah.” I frown a bit. “I needed time away from my fam this year, and a friend suggested this would be a great place to do that.”
A strange look crosses his super-hot face, those blue eyes squinting a bit before he places the room key in my hand, backs up a few steps, then makes his way to the door.
“Well, welcome to The Cozy Crescent. If you need anything at all, I’m right downstairs. I’ll probably be in the kitchen.” He scans the room, then looks back at me with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, so unlike the bright and happy expressions he’d shared before now.
“I’ll leave you to unpack.”
And he’s gone, closing the door behind him.
Well, that was… weird.
I don’t know what I said to upset him, but as I move the suitcase with my clothing in it to the bed and unzip it, a strange emptiness forms in my chest.
At first, I ignore it, unpacking and putting my things away in the dressers and closet, but it isn’t long before that feeling grows unbearable. And I recognize the sensation as loneliness.
