“Uh, yeah sure.” Packing up my bag, I have to rush to catch up with him. On the library steps, I reach out, gripping his arm to pull him back around to face me. “Preston, stop, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, Clara, just leave it. Let’s get out of the cold.” His smile doesn’t reach his sad eyes.
“No, I don’t think it’s nothing. Talk to me.” I gently press, the gnawing feeling in my gut warning me.
His fists bunch at his side as he draws in a deep breath. The icy air details his slow shaky exhale. “I know you think I’m a dumb jock. That I sleep around with all those leggy blondes you so poetically brought up. But I’ll let you in on a little secret, I don’t.”
“So last night?”
“Yeah, last night.” He pauses, bright blue eyes bore into mine. “Look, I know what we agreed to when we got here. But last night voided that agreement if you ask me. But you didn’t, you ran and made it perfectly clear how you feel.”
“I…uh…no.” My thoughts come out fumbled. My mind whirls with the what ifs between us. “Preston, I…”
“I get it. Really, it’s okay. You’re not interested in a guy like me.”
This can’t seriously be happening. Since when does a guy like Preston openly pour his feelings out to a girl like me? But that’s the issue, my brain’s divided us onto two different lines that don’t intersect. Yet here we are. Jocks and bookworms aren’t supposed to be together. Are they? Not sure when that idea took hold of me, but that’s sure not how it’s playing out here. He’s turned my lines into squiggles and they’re all over the page.
He pulls out my hold, slogging through the snow down the sidewalk back toward Damion’s house even though the truck is clearly parked on the curb. Flinging my bag in the truck’s bed, I run after him, but snow isn’t the only thing on the sidewalk. My feet hit a patch of ice right behind Preston, they slip out from under me straight into his heels. A high-pitched squeak rips from my lungs as I brace for impact, but it doesn’t come.
Instead, strong arms cradle my body awkwardly inches from the cold ground. My eyes spring open staring straight into Preston’s beautiful baby blues. “You just couldn’t let me have the last word, huh?” His smile lights up his face as he pulls me flush against his warm chest and stands us up.
His eyes search my face dipping to my lips, but a heartbeat later his tight steading hold gives. It’s now or never, reaching up on my tip toes I cling to his jacket pulling him back into me, our lips only a breath apart.
“Well, you wouldn’t let a girl think for two seconds before you stormed off, what else was I supposed to do,” I whisper before my lips collide with his silencing any further protest. This infuriating man has gotten under my skin and wormed his way quickly into my heart.
The coldness seeps out of my body as he holds me close. The far-off sounds of Christmas carolers drown out the ringing in my ears as big white clumps of snow begin to fall again. Pulling away, I take a deep breath and take in our surroundings. We look like the centerpiece for a snow globe, and it makes me smile.
“I love that look on your face.” He holds my cheek and looks down at me.
“What look?”
“Happiness.” He kisses my nose and interlocks our gloved fingers pulling me back toward the truck. “Let’s get back before the roads get any worse.”
ChapterEleven
“When is everyone supposed to get here?” Natalie bustles around the kitchen, working on ten different things trying to get tonight’s Christmas Eve dinner put together. The kids have been banished to the living room, constantly supplied with new cookies and hot chocolate. They’re distracted, but also extremely hopped up on sugar and by the sounds of it, having a fun time with Preston wrapping presents for their parents.
“My parents said they’d be here around six but knowing them they’ll be here at four.” She drops the potato she’s peeling and looks at me like a deer in headlights.
“What?”
“Crap, Clara I forgot they’re staying with us because they didn’t want to have to drive home in the dark with all this snow. And then you brought Preston home and I didn’t think about what that would mean for sleeping arrangements. Oh my god, what are we going to do?” She’s spinning.
“Nat, calm down.” The look she shoots me would be intimidating if she wasn’t wearing a frilly pink Santa apron and had flour stuck to the tip of her nose. “I’ll go clean up my room and pack up my stuff. I’ll pull the sheets, remake the bed, and stock the bathroom with fresh towels. I’ll just move my stuff into the office with Preston and it’ll be fine.”
“But Damion…”
“Damion can take a chill pill. It’s not like we’re going to go at it with a house full of family. Even if the office does make for a nice noise buffer.” I wink and skip off to do as I promised.
* * *
The chimes of the doorbell sound as we’re all seated around the fireplace, “Are we expecting anyone else?” Damion asks Natalie.
“No, maybe it’s the neighborhood carolers. They haven’t made it by yet.” The kids jump up and rush for the front door to find out. The rest of us following close behind to enjoy the neighborhood festivities. Maverick pulls the door open, and Charlie lets out an ear-piercing screech. Jax and Maggie stand on the porch covered in snow and surrounded by luggage.
“Surprise!” They chime in unison.
The chaos of arms is a blur until everyone’s gotten their hugs in and we shuffle them inside out of the cold.