Page 32 of My Holiday Hookup Road Trip

“Nah, the moral of the story is that Jonesy needs a nice girl to settle down with so he’ll come do landscaping with me full time.” He shoots me a speculative glance. “Is the woman you drove home with from around here? Think I could fix them up?”

“Fuck you. No,” I growl. So much for my good mood.

“I guess Darby was right,” he drawls. “Interesting thingsdidhappen on your road trip.”

I shrug, pretending the question doesn’t actually hurt me to answer. “She’s not here with me now, is she?”

Just then, thebing-bongof the doorbell echoes through the house, and my mom calls, “Could one of you boys grab that?”

Gabe leaps to his feet. “If this were a Hallmark movie, that’d be her here to surprise you.”

“We weren’t Hallmark appropriate,” I mutter, which causes Gabe to shoot me aNice job, playerface as he disappears into the front hallway.

A moment later, he shouts, “Hey Seb, is your road trip woman a cute blonde with a green bow in her hair?”

No. Fucking. Way.

Heart pounding, I race to the entryway and skid to a stop when Gabe throws open the door to reveal the woman I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

FIFTEEN

Birdy

This seemed like a better idea on the two-hour drive here.

“Hi.” I wave awkwardly and search Sebastian’s shocked expression for some sign that this isn’t the worst mistake I’ve ever made.

His mouth has been hanging open, and he shuts it with a snap. I still have no idea what he’s thinking and wish like hell he’d say something to put me out of my misery.

“You didn’t call first,” he finally says, and his voice is weird and distant, and I may never recover from the embarrassment of this moment, especially when the good-looking guy who answered the door leans against the adjacent wall with a shit-eating grin.

“Are you gonna invite her in, Seb?”

Sebastian jolts into action. “God, yes. Come in.” He grabs my hand and pulls me inside, his eyes fixed on mine and a million questions on his face.

“Hi. I’m Gabe,” the other guy says, loping over to me with his hand outstretched. “And you are…”

“Youare leaving,” Sebastian growls, putting his body between me and Gabe, who ambles away with a laugh, leaving us alone. Sebastian’s still not saying anything, so I guess it’s up to me to go first.

“You broke me,” I announce.

His brows meet over the bridge of his nose. “What do you mean?”

I’m sure there are better places to have this conversation than the open foyer of his parents’ house, but I can’t seem to move from where his gaze has me pinned.

“I mean,” I say, “that I got home yesterday and read your note, and I was so glad to have that little scrap of your handwriting. And it occurred to me that the rest of you wasright here.”

“Waiting for you,” he agrees, the beginnings of a smile touching his lips.

“And then I looked around and realized that my apartment doesn’t have a Christmas tree,” I tell him hotly. “I don’t even have any hot chocolate mix, and… and I think you turned me into a Christmas girl!” I throw my arms up in disgust.

His sweet smile gets bigger. “Oh yeah?” He steps nearer, and I lower my hands to rest on his shoulders.

“Yeah.” My heart’s throbbing as I slide my fingers along his neck until they’re tangled in his hair. “And it sounded like you were going to be someplace with, like,extrahot chocolate. Enough to spare. So I thought maybe—mmpff.”

He’s kissing me. And he tastes so good, so exciting and familiar at the same time that I don’t stop, not even when a child’s piercing voice says, “Uncle Seb’s kissing a girl!”

Eventually I do try to pull away, flustered by the audience we seem to have gathered, but Sebastian murmurs, “Nuh-uh. Not yet,” and pulls me tighter against his chest. “I thought you never wanted to see me again, so I need another seco—is that a Rudolph sweatshirt?”

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