He was my Secret Santa, and if I were to guess, I’d say he’d been spending a small part of his inheritance on me.
I wanted to chase after him, but I was completely carless and stranded. That’s when I realized how tenuous my connection to him was.
I didn’t have his phone number.
I didn’t know where he lived.
I didn’t even know his last name. He was just hot, hunky, dreamy Easton to me.
But I knew I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to see him again. I wasn’t surewhatto do.
It was so cold out, the first decision I made was to head inside. There was no way I was going back to work today. I was too torn up over everything.
Tugging his coat tighter around me, I tried to hold tears back, then headed upstairs to theotherman in my life while I tried to figure out what to do next. Snowball would be willing to console me in the best way he knew how. By sitting on my lap, purring and drooling.
As soon as my kitty was settled in and a glass of wine was sitting by my side, I pulled out my phone and called my sister.
“Melinda, I have a big problem and I need your help.”
Just like Melinda suggested, I’d gone to the line-dancing lesson that night. But Easton hadn’t shown.
It took all my bravery to walk into the Bear Den on my own. Especially wearing the flashy cowgirl boots Easton had bought for me.
I’d been broken-hearted throughout the whole line-dancing lesson, but also proud for putting myself out there and doing something new.
I hardly slept that night thinking of him, and then he wasn’t at work the next day.
Aemon was too proper and refused to hand out his phone number. But I managed to weasel it out of Peter, who happened to have it.
But when I called Easton, it just went straight to a voicemail box that chirpily announced it was too full to accept new messages.
I tried texting, explainingeverythingto him, but all I got back was a wall of silence.
And then it was Christmas Eve.
My flight was leaving later today, and I’d had to book an Uber because my car still wasn’t fixed. But I kept looking out the window at the steel gray clouds in the sky, wondering if a storm was going to come before my ride did.
A booming knock on my door startled me as I was finishing my hair. One-half was curled and the other half was completely straight.
“Oh, if that’s the Uber, they’re at least an hour early,” I muttered to myself as I went to answer the door.
When I swung it open, it wasn’t an Uber driver.
It was the most handsome man I’d ever seen.
“Easton,” his name slipped off my lips like butter, and I flew into his arms.
He had no choice but to hug me back.
I settled into his warm embrace, clutching him tightly as though he might disappear again.
After a few minutes, he gently pushed me back and quietly said, “Hi.”
“You’re a hard man to track down.” My pulse was flying, heart pitter-pattering like mad.
He shrugged. “Naw. I’m always around.”
He glanced over my head into my apartment, then settled a serious gaze on me, rumbling. “Violet, I need to tell you something. Things don’t need to be weird between us, but you need to keep the gifts. It’s okay that you’re in love with someone else. I appreciate you being forthright about it. I’ll back off after this. Uh, your car’s fixed. It’s in the driveway. And I’d already bought the final few gifts for you, so you’ll just have to deal with that. Donate them if you don’t want them. They’re on the passenger seat. But don’t worry. I’m not going to go all stalkeron your cute ass. I’m man enough to know when to walk away. I won’t get between you and the man you want.”
