Page 14 of A Holly Jilly Christmas

Case wants me to tease him?

“I have two older sisters,” he continues, clearly seeing the disbelief on my face. “Being teased feels like home. Now you know three things about me.”

I’ve learned way more than three things in the last few minutes. The biggest thing I’ve learned is that I have really NO idea who Case is, but he’s certainly not the man I thought.

“Your turn. What fun facts do I need to know about you, Jillian?”

I cut my waffle into squares while riffling through my mental archive for “fun facts” I can share with the stranger across the table—the one with the gorgeous smile and dimples. Let’s see—we could start with my stupid crush on him, or maybe I could share my fear he’s going to somehow ruin my chances of getting a promotion.

“I’ll help you out—you don’t put syrup on your waffles.”

My waffle is now cut complete into squares right along the lines.

“That’s fun fact number one: I like my waffles plain. Or with just butter. In every square.”

“Of course. Why else do waffles have squares, if not to hold things?”

“Exactly.”

Case nods thoughtfully, then pushes both his butter containers my way. “Have mine.”

Be still my heart. The man just gave up his butter for me.

“Thank you.”

“You don’t want to know what havoc butter wreaks on my system.”

Never mind. The man gave up his butter for his bowels.

As far as this little trip goes, it seems about par for the course.

CHAPTER 5

I don’t sleep well in general. Nighttime is when my anxious thoughts come out to play. But I especially don’t sleep well while traveling. Kind of makes my current role at Brightmark inconvenient. Despite this, I do love to travel. I figure if I’m not sleeping well anyway, why not sleep a little worse in a strange bed?

A strange and very comfortable bed.

I stretch, then spread out and swish my arms around the silky sheets, like I’m making a snow angel. Whatever thread count these are, it’s heavenly. I could just stay in here all day.

Especially considering my already bad sleep was much worse knowing Case was in a bedroom just a few walls away. I stayed up half the night putting together a presentation on Sheet Cake for David, hoping I’d exhaust myself into sleeping. It did not work.

A loud knock on the door makes me do an embarrassing little scream.

“Jillian? Are you up?”

“No!”

“Can I come in?”

Can Case come IN? As in, come into my current bedroom? Where I’m in bed?

That sounds like a terrible idea, says most of me. The kind of thing that leads to nothing but trouble.

Another part of me, the one powered by my stubborn crush says, I love trouble.

“I have breakfast,” Case says, his voice sing-song-y. He sounds utterly ridiculous, and I find myself smiling big. “And coffee.”

“Fine. Come in. You had me at coffee.”

---