Page 9 of Christmas in July

CHAPTER 5

THEODORE

Idon’t give up that easily.

I’m not sure what kind of man she thinks I am, but I’m not weak. I don’t scare easily. I don’t walk away so quickly from a woman after making a special connection. Because I hardly ever connect withanyonelike this, and it means something to me.

Standing at the car rental kiosk with my carry-on suitcase in Minneapolis, I wait for Leilani to approach. We split up after disembarking from the plane, and I headed directly here. She was delayed, I assume, by collecting luggage.

When I see her approaching in her orange sundress, looking tired as she drags her bags behind her, I grin.

“Fancy meeting you here,” I say lightly as she approaches, and she rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

“Hello, again, Theodore,” she says softly. Then she turns to Suzy, the lady behind the desk. “I would like a rental car please.”

“Of course, I can help you with that. Can you give me your reservation number?” Suzy asks.

“Uh, I don’t have a reservation number,” Leilani says. “Just any old car will do.”

“Well, I’m afraid we are quite low on vehicles at the moment,” Suzy says with a frown. “They’ve all been booked up well in advance, you see. There is one car available, but I’m not sure you would want that one—someone just dropped off a Lamborghini Huracan, but it costs around $1300 a day.”

“Thirteen hundred a day?” Leilani says with wide eyes. “Well, that’s insane. I’d rather just take an Uber. But I guess it would cost a lot, too.”

“You could just come with me for free,” I suggest to her with a sly smile, dangling my car keys in front of her face. “I can be your Uber driver for the night. Besides, you’ve had too much wine and shouldn’t be driving.”

She sighs with exasperation. “Did you plan this, Theo? Did you wait here expecting me to fail, ready to take advantage of this opportunity?”

“No, on the contrary my dear. You didnotplan this, and that’s why you don’t have a practical car reserved. So you’re at the mercy of what’s available. You shouldalwaysbook your rental car way ahead of time, to avoid this very situation. Am I right, Suzy?”

“Absolutely right, sir,” Suzy says with a nod.

Leilani is glaring daggers at me, but she looks so adorable when she’s annoyed, and I can’t help smiling at her. And feeling grateful that I’ll get a chance to spend more time with her. “So, you’ll come with me, right?” I ask, hopefully, tossing my car keys into the air and catching them.

“I guess I don’t have many options,” she says with a groan.

I spin the car keys around my index finger with delight. “I think I could teach you a thing or two about traveling, little lady, and how to avoid this kind of situation in the future. You should definitely ride with me.”

“Stop saying ‘ride with me’ like this is some kind of a rap song,” she responds with annoyance poking her finger against my chest. “You’ve won—stop gloating.”

At that moment, my phone rings, and I nearly jump out of my skin. It must be my boss, calling to let me know what she thought of my article.

Reaching into my blazer pocket, I retrieve my cell phone and answer at once. “Hello, Henrietta,” I say hopefully. “Did you like it?”

“Theodore Townsend!” the woman nearly screams with frustration. “How many times must I tell you? You need to visit more attractions that would appeal to thegeneral public.Not just single men.”

“Well, I am a single man, Henrietta.”

“Most of our readers don’t travel alone. They go with their significant others, their friends or families. Most people go to Hawaii for acouples’experience, on their honeymoons. Where’s the romance, boy? Where’s the humanity? I don’t want to read about geology ever again. Goddammit! Everything you write is like: hey, I went to Hawaii, I saw a really big rock! It’s the biggest rock if you measure it in this particularway. I went to Nepal, I saw another really big rock! I measured the rock, to make sure it was really big, and it was. I went to Pakistan, and Tanzania, and I saw some more really big rocks! I measured them, too! Where’s the originality?”

I frown, rubbing the creases on my forehead as a headache starts to form. “Mount Everest, K2, and Kilimanjaro are really big rocks, Henrietta.”

“So, I’ve heard, young man! But I don’t need a dick-measuring contest of the world’s biggest boners. I need more from you. More than just mountains and landscapes. I need to hear about thepeople and the culture. Thefeelings. Can you try to dig a little bit deeper for me? Snowflake Creek is all about family, community, small town charm and holiday spirit—I would have sent one of my writers with a wife and kids, but they were all busy. I really need you to knock this one out of the park for me. At leastpretendyou like humans as much as you like rocks? Can you do that?”

“Sure, Henrietta. I’ll try my best,” I say quietly, disappointed that she didn’t enjoy my Hawaii article. I really did think it was some good writing.

“No morerocks,kid. No more rocks!”

“Well, I did minor in geology…”

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