Page 11 of All I Want For Christmas Is You

“How does he know that?” She said it to herself, but apparently, it was loud enough for him to hear.

“It’s got the same lipstick stain on the rim as when I left to go pick up Jess.” It was his turn in line, so he placed his order.

Wait a minute. “How would you know?”

Jessa rolled her eyes. “Oh, my dad’s a total charmer.”

Disappointment slammed her. She didn’t realize how much her little crush had done to lift her spirits until it crashed and burned. Playboys were so not her thing. “I don’t like charming men.” She said it loud enough to turn heads from other tables, but Beau just grinned.

Now, she felt like an idiot. She really needed to focus on her work and not on some dude passing through Merry Falls. God, she’d actually thought he was vulnerable, that their souls were reaching out to each other. She closed her eyes to steep in her embarrassment.

Get a life, girl. He’s a stranger passing through, and he noticed the lonely woman who kept checking him out. Maybe he was looking for a hookup, something to do when he wasn’t with his daughter.

Well, you’re barking up the wrong tree, buddy. She’d never had a hookup in her life. It just wasn’t her thing. Mostly, because she got too emotionally involved.

“Women love him,” Jessa said. “All growing up, my friends wanted to come to my house—and believe me, I know it was because of my dad because I grew up in the boonies. And their moms.” She rolled her eyes. “When they dropped their kids off, they’d always come inside, hoping to see him. They all tried to out-flirt each other at my volleyball games.”

“A real heartbreaker, huh?”

“No, it’s not that. Honestly, he’s oblivious to all the attention. He’s an engineer, you know? Always lost in his own thoughts. Once, I kept trying to ask his advice about this guy I was dating, and he wasn’t answering. I go, ‘Dad. Dad.’ And he, like, jerks to attention, and I said, ‘I’m talking to you. What are you doing?’ He goes, ‘Thinking deep thoughts.’ I cracked up because it’s so true. He’s not the guy who’s wondering what he’s going to have for dinner or what kind of plans he’s got for the weekend. He’s thinking about embedding sensors and optimizing material flow. But since he doesn’t talk about that stuff, you just think he’s this mysterious guy. My friend said it best. She said, ‘Every woman wants to be the one he notices.’ Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s rich. And handsome.”

“I don’t like handsome men.” Margot practically shouted it, and when he and his daughter laughed, she had to smile at her outburst. Okay, fine. Maybe he wasn’t a playboy, and maybe he wasn’t hitting on her, but she didn’t want to be like those other women, drawn to a handsome, mysterious man who didn’t talk much.

Because red flag: mysterious only means he doesn’t communicate.

Which his daughter just said is the case.

“I’m the same way,” Jessa said. “I watched my mom and my sister date all the gorgeous men with big muscles, but they always wound up getting hurt. And I mean, you can’t get more perfect than my mom and sister. They’re beautiful, tall, fun, smart—super successful. If they could get cheated on, then I don’t stand a chance. I have no interest in going down that same path.”

“I don’t know if it works like that.” Was Beau a cheater? If so… Whoa. She’d misread him entirely. “My ex cheated on me, and it didn’t have anything to do with his looks or muscles.” She waved her hand. “I’ve got a whole theory about it, but you don’t need to hear it when you’re hanging out with your dad for Christmas.”

“No, actually, I want to hear it.”

“Are you sure? It’s Christmas. We’re supposed to be wrapping presents and drinking egg nog.”

“I hate egg nog.”

“Yeah, me, too.” Though she’d made it every year for their annual tree trimming.

“So, come on. Tell me.”

“Okay, well, keep in mind, I’m in no way blaming your sister or mom for men cheating on them—I’ve never even met them—but I think we’re drawn to people based on our childhood wounds.”

Jessa set her chin on her palm. “Explain.”

Margot loved this girl’s intensity. “Let me put it this way. Did your mom and sister have trust issues? Daddy issues?”

“Yes. Absolutely. My dad was hardly involved in my sister’s life, and my grandfather was a real piece of work.”

“Right, so see, if your mom couldn’t get her dad’s attention, then maybe she went after men with a similar nature, trying to get from them what she couldn’t get from her dad.”

“That makes sense.”

“And the important piece in this theory of mine is that we shouldn’t be looking at the men who cheat on us. We should be looking at ourselves.”

“So, if we understand how we’re wired, we can stop going after the kind of man who’d cheat?”

“Exactly. Instead of being bitter and deciding all good-looking men are bad, it’s a better use of our time to look inside ourselves and make the kinds of changes that will enable us to find good, healthy relationships.”

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