Page 33 of Christmas at Hart's Ridge

“Yeah, we had a thing. Nothing serious. It was before I met Michael.” She looked down at the ring on her hand and smiled.

I studied her. Nora was nothing like the women I had seen fawning over Luke at Goat’s Tavern. She was pretty, sure. Beautiful, even, with her dark hair and blue eyes. And there was an easy confidence to her that was appealing. But she didn’t serve sex up on a platter. It was much more subtle than that with Nora.

In a weird way, it gave me hope.

I had assumed that the women I normally saw around Luke exemplified his type. The “ideal” he was attracted to. Those women? I was never going to be them. I didn’t know how. But maybe he didn’t have a type, after all. Maybe being myself was enough.

“The thing is,” Suzie said carefully, “Luke is used to women falling all over him. And these women all know what to expect from him. They know he’s not in it for the long term. But someone who hasn’t been around for the last ten years might not know that. He might lead her on without even realizing it.”

With a sickening lurch, I realized that even while I was beginning to hope that something really was happening between Luke and me, these women had drawn the opposite conclusion. They didn’t think there was any way Luke could be interested in me. Not for real.

Even worse than their assumptions about me was their assumption abouthim. I hated it with a passion I normally reserved for tutus, the bane of my dance career. Luke got around, for sure, but he wasn’t careless. He wouldn’t pretend to feel something he didn’t. And it wasn’t like he had made me promises. I was going back to New York after the holidays, anyway.

Why did even the thought of that feel like I swallowed a lead brick?

“It’s okay if you have a crush on him,” Kate said gently. “Everyone does.”

Great. Everyone knew little Bethany Albright had a crush on Luke Buchanan, her best friend’s older brother. Ugh.

But then Luke and Emma returned. I watched as he glanced around the room, clearly looking for something. Someone, I realized, as his eyes met mine and a jolt of electricity passed between us.Me.

I tilted my chin, meeting all that galling sympathy head on. “Luke is your friend?”

They nodded, all three of them.

“Then act like it,” I snapped. Before they could reply, I stomped away.

Suzie, Nora, and Kate had one thing wrong anyway. I was well aware of Luke’s reputation with women.

I just didn’t care.

Chapter 12

Luke

Bethanydidn’tsaymuchon the drive back to her place. I covered her silence by informing her of all the repairs and updates I had planned for theNutcrackerset. It was a lot of work, so it kept my mouth busy until we were outside the town center, with nothing but dirt road stretched before us and brown fields on either side.

So I talked and she listened—or so I assumed—her gaze pinned on the view out the window, of those brown fields and the mountains that rose up behind them. Occasionally she nodded or made a humming sound in response to something I said.

I stole little glances at her out of the corner of my eye while I drove. Something was on her mind. She didn’t seem upset, just pensive. I suspected it might have something to do with the way Suzie, Kate, and Nora had cornered her in the theater. I knew all three of those women well. They were good people, so I wasn’t worried that the interaction had been less than friendly. But I also knew that those women loved to stick their noses where they didn’t belong.

“Emma had an idea that we could use real trees in the setting,” I said. “One big Christmas tree for the opening scene at Clara’s house, and then a few more undecorated pines for when they’re in the Nutcracker’s world. It will make the whole theater smell like Christmas and we can auction off the Christmas tree after the performance. She’s working out the details with North Star Tree Farm.”

Bethany nodded, still focused on the window. I couldn’t tell if that meant she liked the idea, or Emma had already filled her in, or both.

It was a good idea, in my opinion. Emma was always finding creative ways to support local businesses and bring in more money. She was the youngest mayor Hart’s Ridge had ever had, but she was also the best. And the thing was, I wasn’t even surprised. She had always been full of harebrained ideas that somehow worked perfectly.

That skill had made her the default ringleader of our friend group. When Eli arrested her dad a decade ago, she stopped talking to him, but she also stopped talking to me. That had hurt, a lot. Eli and Emma made up a couple years ago, so I let all that go. But sometimes I still think about it. And the fact that she had never apologized.

But right now I was focused on Bethany.

“The staircase is my first priority. I don’t want you or any of the kids on it until I get it structurally sound.” That thing wasn’t safe for anybody. It probably wasn’t last year, either, and it had only gotten worse since then.

She murmured something unintelligible that might have been assent.

That wasn’t enough for me. “Promise me, Red.”

She finally peeled her eyes from the window and looked at me. “You haven’t kissed me today.”

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