“And thetree?”
“Chopped, dropped, and propped in the living room. Covered in bows, bulbs, and balls.” That, was a completelie.
“Well.” He sounded impressed. “I standcorrected.”
“Yes, you do. I have Christmas spirit oozing from the top of my nog to the bottom of mymistletoes.”
“Tree and everything,” he said with a chuckle again. I liked the sound of it. “You know one of my favorite Christmasmemories?”
“No.”
“When I was a kid, I would lie under the Christmas tree and stare up at the lights in theboughs.”
“Okay?”
The old guy shifted at his table so he was in my line of vision again. He jabbed his finger in and out of hisear.
I did not want to know what kind of sex move he thought thatwas.
“This year, I’m going to make a new memory,” Ryder said. “I’m going to lie you down under that tree, DelaneyReed.”
The old man made even faster finger-in-ear motions. He lookedalarmed.
“And then I’m going to do to you, what I do with all the gifts I’ve been waiting too longfor.”
I didn’t make a sound, my heart pounding too hard to do anything but listen to hiswords.
“I’m going to unwrap youslowly…”
“Officer Reed!” the old guy shouted. “Turn off thebutton.”
He shoved his finger through the “ok” sign he was making. I suddenly realized what all those dirty signals reallymeant.
“…and when I have you there, shivering and bare beneathme…”
“Speaker!” The old guy thrust his finger frantically in and out of hisear.
“…I’m going to put mymouth…”
“Wait!” I yelped and dropped the phone like it was made of bees. It clattered across the table and landed on thefloor.
Every person in the diner looked atme.
Inexplicably, the one person who hadn’t heard my outburst—Ryder—was still talking. But by whatever luck was left to me, the speaker had clicked off while I was fumbling with thephone.
There was a pause, just a second ortwo.
Bathin was shaking with laughter. All eyes were on me, waiting to see how I was going to play this. I opened my mouth, closedit.
Yeah, I had nothing. I waved, though it kind of looked like frantic jazzhands.
Bathin bent in half to try to catch hisbreath.
Jerk.
The old guy nodded. “All right then. Let’s all get back to our nice quiet meals, folks.” He buckled down to his mashed potatoes andstuffing.
That seemed to be the signal everyone was waiting for. They all turned back to their own mealstoo.
