“I didn’t even know Alex’s cousin—you—were a hockey player until this morning when Maggie said something about the charity event,” she continued, but then paused, before adding, “You know what? I don’t need to defend myself to you. Our meeting was coincidental. And it was you who didn’t want to share any personal information with me.” She folded her arms across her chest and gave me a pointed look.
That was true. But I hadn’t thought her having a boyfriend would be kept secret as well.
“You didn’t think that telling me you had a boyfriend would be a good thing for me to know?”
“I didn’t know you were going to kiss me,” she exclaimed. “I thought I was just thanking you for saving my life—or at least, saving me from a severe injury.”
“I wasn’t planning to kiss you,” I argued.
“Then why did you?”
I ran a hand through my hair. She wanted to know why I had kissed her. Well, there were a few reasons I could give her, but none of them seemed like the right answer.
It could have been because of those guys who had been about to blow my cover.
It could have been that I had enjoyed her company more than anyone else I could remember.
It could have been that I thought she was beautiful and was very attracted to her.
It could have been because I thought I would never see her again.
Or…or it could have simply been because I wanted to kissher.
“I don’t know,” I finally said, not wanting to voice any of my thoughts. “But I do know that you kissed me back.”
Her cheeks flushed, and I saw her visibly swallow. A moment passed before she said, “We were under the mistletoe.” As if that was a good enough reason for her to have kissed me back.
“True,” I agreed. “But you could have given me a quick peck and pushed me away.” I wasn’t sure why I was acting like a jerk, pushing her on the topic of our kiss. Probably because I wanted to know that our kiss had meant something to her. Because it had meant something to me.
She broke our eye contact and then gave me a haughty look. “You practically had me in a vise grip.”
I scoffed at her exaggeration. Two could play this game. “You were practically climbing me.”
Her mouth fell open at my remark. “I was not.”
“And I didn’t have you in a vise grip,” I countered.
She pursed her lips. “Fine. I kissed you back,” she huffed. “I’m going to check in to my room now.”
“Wait.” I reached out, placing my hand on her arm to stop her. “Does Alex know about the kiss?”
A guilty expression crossed her features. “No.” She looked around us to make sure we were still alone. “He doesn’t know about our afternoon together.”
“Why not?”
She threw her hands up in the air, and it was the first sign of the woman I’d met a week and a half ago, her hands always moving animatedly when she talked. “I don’t know.” Her hand moved as if to brush hair away from her face, something I’d watched her do several times when we’d been together, like she wasn’t used to her hair being slicked back. She folded her arms again as if she were trying to keep them from moving while she talked. “I guess I just figured I’d never see you again.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think I’d see you again either.”
Our eyes locked, and as the silence swirled around us, I had the same urge I’d had last time we’d been this close. I wanted to pull her into my arms to make sure she was real, to make sure that kiss had been as good as I remembered it being.
Instead, I broke our eye contact and turned my head to the side. “I won’t say anything to Alex.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice quiet. “Plus, there’s not really anything to tell, right? We were just two strangers who found ourselves under the mistletoe and fulfilled a Christmas tradition.”
My jaw clenched at her flippant perception of our time together, and I worked to loosen it. “Right.”
She gave me a small smile. “So, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing each other a lot this week.”
