Page 134 of Holiday Friend Zones
“It’s snowing pretty bad.Might want to have Luke drive you home in his truck,” Brooks says.
Why don’t they go have sex and leave us out of it?
“I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, call me if you need me,” Lottie calls as the door shuts the door to the back behind them.
Silence falls.
Luke’s hand slides into view, picking up a pair of scissors and a sheet of paper.“Just cut it out?”
“Yeah.”
For a minute, the only sound is the snip of scissors and the rustle of paper.I figure that’s how the whole night will go.
Then his scissors clatter to the table.“This is boring.”He pulls out his phone and thumbs through it.“Your favorite song stillExtraordinary Merry Christmas?”
A smile sneaks across my face.“Yeah.”
It’s been my favorite since I was ten.Every year when our moms baked cookies, Luke and I got roped into helping, and I’d put that song on repeat.He’d always complain that if he had to listen to that song one more time, he’d go crazy.
“You told me once you’d never play it again.”
“It’s grown on me over the years.”He shrugs, then goes back to cutting.
The beat works its way into my hips, and despite myself, I feel lighter.This is what people mean when they talk about the magic of Christmas.The warmth spreads in your chest and makes it hard not to be happy.
“Want something to drink?”I head for the fridge.“Tea?Hot cocoa?”
He shakes his head.“Nah, water’s good.Did you eat dinner?”
“No.I thought this would take less time.”
My phone dings with a text from Mom saying she’s going to stay at my aunt’s in Hickory because of the weather.
“Is it really that bad outside?”I peek out the back window.
“It was coming down pretty good when we got here.”Luke steps in behind me, his chest brushing my back, his breath warm against the side of my neck.“It’s so pretty when it snows.”
Goose bumps rise along my skin.
“Until you have to drive in it.My car’s not made for this weather.”I turn and he’s still right there.
“I’ll drive you home.”
It would be so easy to tilt my chin up, close the space, and kiss him again.But that would only make everything more complicated.
“I’ll be fine.”I sidestep him and gather the supplies.
He lets it drop.
“What do you want for Christmas?”he asks a bit later, taking the plastic off from around the new paint sets.
“Excuse me?”
He chuckles and slides up on the counter next to me.“What do you want for Christmas?”
“I think I’m a little old to sit on Santa’s lap or send a letter up to the North Pole.”
