Page 19 of Three Days of Holiday

She laid her open palm on my chest but didn’t push me away. Her fingers tightened as if she was trying to feel past the material of my shirt. A bitter chilly wind blew past us, but I didn’t shiver as the surrounding air heated with a certain charge. It electrified what I felt near her.

“Of course not,” she finally said, her words breathy.

“Then kiss me again and prove it.” Some men liked to fight with fire, but I walked right into a burning building.

The sky held a cloudy haze, blocking out the sun, but her eyes twinkled a certain way as she glared at me. It was all the confirmation I needed. She’d kiss me to prove she felt nothing for me, but she’d lose.

“Where?” she asked, her hand still on my chest.

I grabbed on to her shoulders, bringing her closer. Close enough, my lips trailed against her ear as I whispered into it. “Right here.”

She pulled back in shock. “In a parking lot?”

I made a clicking noise, the same one my grandmother used to make when I was about to get myself in trouble.

Holly sniffled from the cold. She hadn’t stopped to put on a coat either. “A parking lot, really?”

A quick wink was my only response.

She stomped her foot against the dark concrete. “Fine.”

I finally got her to agree, and I didn’t plan to waste a second. My fingers tightened around Holly’s shoulder and I brought her closer, our lips less than a mere inch from one another.

She pushed her hand and the red folder with her information between our two faces. “Wait.”

“What?” I asked, irritated to be interrupted.

She lowered the folder an inch to answer. “No tongue.”

Both sides of my lips tipped up at that until I wore the largest grin. It was so wide it hurt my cheeks. “Oh babe, there’s going to be tongue.”

And then I kissed her.

She tasted like summer sun even though we were surrounded by December chill. She was everything bright and comforting, like coming home to my favorite place.

My tongue pushed past her teeth, and finally Holly kissed me back. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and the folder cut into the back of my head. She relaxed into me, letting me do most of the work to keep her standing on two feet.

Everything was going marvelously until from onesecond to the next someone tore my body backward. I stumbled across the hard concrete, doing my best not to lose my balance and fall on my ass.

Hope screamed. “Hale, no!”

7

HOLLY

Hale used his forearm to push Will against the back door of Hope’s white car. It caused the vehicle to shake from his force, and Will grunted when his back hit.

“Did you touch my sister?” Hale screamed in Will’s face, spittle hitting him on the cheek.

Will looked like he wanted to throw a punch or take Hale on in a fight. His face said he held back from tearing him apart piece by piece. “Obviously.”

I pulled on Hale’s arm, but it did nothing to get him to budge. “Hale, don’t!”

We were drawing a crowd. The doors to the convention center opened and closed over and over as more people flooded outside to see who was causing the commotion.

“He didn’t mean it,” I said, trying to insert my body between the two of them.

Will widened his eyes in my direction. “Oh, I definitely meant it.”

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