His eyes just about pop from his head, dangling on slinky springs. “You couldn’t have, because Jade isn’t paying me.”
“Don’t lie to me. I saw you in the store buying a gift.”
“Oh…” He deflates, but before he admits guilt, he shrugs. “That was an entirely different conversation. I wasn’t speaking to Jade.”
“Don’t believe you.”
“Then call Jade when you get off the boat,” he says, now with his chest puffing out because he dodged a bullet, or so he thinks.
Maybe I did jump the gun, and he was talking about something else. Fine. I’ll give him the benefit of doubt. But I’m not letting him off so easily.
Shaking my finger at him, I pronounce, “I’ll check with Jade first thing, and if you’re lying…”
“Cross my heart and hope not to die.” Now, his grin slides easily over his heartbreaker face. “Let’s get hiking boots on you. The ship’s about to dock and everyone on an excursion has to meet at the theater to get organized.”
“Which excursion exactly are we going on?” I ask, because I’m not sure if Jade signed us up or this is one of Jordan’s improvisations.
“Told you, spooky lava tubes.” Jordan so easily leads me back to my room like a sheep to the slaughter.
I change my fashionable flats for clunky hiking boots, put on insect repellant and sunscreen, and take his hand.
Pathetic.
Merry Christmas to me, ho, ho, ho.
* * *
There is absolutely no one at the entrance to the lava tubes. No fancy visitor center, no gift shop, just a sign, a bathroom building, and a small parking area.
A flock of wild chickens squawk and flutter as we cross the road. After descending a set of steep, moss-covered stairs, Jordan and I shine our lights and slip inside one of the lava tubes. We duck under a ledge of rocks with tree roots hanging from above.
The entrance to the cave gapes like a yawning mouth covered with moss, ferns, and slippery rocks. It’s damp and eerie, and I wonder what monsters roam the caverns below.
“Why aren’t there any other people on this trip?” I shiver briefly, thinking about the boys from that Thai soccer team who were stuck inside a cave for weeks.
“Who else can say they spent Christmas Day in a cave but us?”
“Right, it’s not like I didn’t notice how you kept me from calling Jade.” I shake his cell phone which is on flashlight mode to see if he has any reception.
“Jade will be so jealous of us.” He points the beam of his flashlight and it bounces off strangely liquid-looking formations of hardened lava.
“I can’t see why she’d want to trade places with us.” I slap at a mosquito. “I bet she and Aiden are sipping champagne on her dad’s rooftop bar overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.”
“How utterly ordinary and expected,” Jordan says. “I’ll tell you what. We make it to the end of the cave, and I’ll give you your present.”
“You got little ol’ moi a present?” I blink at him like a Southern belle.
“If you were spying on me, you already know what it is.” He squeezes my hand, and we slither into the main lava tube.
Sparkles of silver and flecks of gold patches are mixed in with the smooth black of the glistening lava tube, but as we walk farther in, it gets so dark, I can barely see my feet.
I’m awed by the beauty of what I can see, but my heart is also thumping at how deathly quiet it is.
“Guess nobody else is lurking in here,” I say just to hear my voice.
“You never know what lurks in the dark.” Jordan loops his arms around me and presses me against a cold, hard wall.
“Are you calling mistletoe?” I ask, a little breathlessly, because face it, being alone with this hunky Loki-look-alike is stirring up all sorts of troubling mating impulses.
