“Oh, dear. Am I interrupting something?” Mrs. Briggs asks.
Amanda stares at me for a hot second before pushing herself up to sitting. “Dane told me not to play thehop up the stairs with your eyes closedgame, and I didn’t listen. Just making sure he can handle me.”
Mrs. Briggs smiles at both of us. “I think he’s handling you just fine. I forgot to give you a little gift to go with your dress yesterday. Given how fast the wedding’s happening, I didn’t know if you’d have time to find your something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.” She pulls a small gift box out of her handbag. “This should cover it all. And I’ll let you two get back to ... your game.”
“Mrs. B., you didn’t have to do that.” Amanda’s fully on her feet now, taking the package and hugging the older woman. “I’ll return it in pristine form, I promise.”
“No, no, this one’s yours to keep. Except the borrowed thing, andonlybecause it’s not borrowed if you keep it. You’ll know what’s borrowed. You just promise me you’ll be happy. The way your love story is bringing some peace to Tinsel ... bah. Now you’ve made me tear up. Just be happy. Both of you.”
She swipes at her eyes, hugs Amanda quickly once more, and then retreats back around the house.
Amanda looks at me.
I look at the package in her hands.
“Oh my god,” she whispers as she pulls out what looks very much like the red velvet pouch that Mrs. Briggs has carried with her in every Jingle Bell parade where she’s played Mrs. Claus for as long as I can remember.
Inside, she finds a blue satin snowflake, an old tin cookie cutter in the shape of a Christmas tree, and a small new ornament that saysour first Christmas.
To the best of my knowledge, Mrs. Briggs has never let anyone else carry her red velvet Mrs. Claus pouch.
It’s clearly what’s borrowed here.
But it’s still huge.
We might be playing with fire.
All the way around.
And I’m not ready to stop.
Chapter 20
Amanda
I never thought I could be an overthinker until I opened my big fat mouth in a moment of panic and got myself a fake fiancé.
Now, I’m overthinking everything.
Did Dane mean it when he said he had a crush on me in high school? Does Lorelei know? What would’ve happened last night if Mrs. Briggs hadn’t dropped off that gift? Was he kissing me because he knew she was coming and we needed to get caught looking like a couple madly in love?
Or was he kissing me for the same reason I was kissing him?
I like him.
I like him more with every minute we spend together. And we’re breaking up in two days, and we haven’t talked about how, and I want to kiss him again, but instead, I’m staring at the dresses I packed and thinking that neither one of them will work for the anniversary party that starts in an hour.
“Quit overthinking,” I whisper to myself.
I close my eyes, mix up which dress is where in my mind, and I get ready to point when a voice behind me says, “The red one.”
The other thing I’m overthinking about?
How after Mrs. Briggs left last night, Dane quietly said something about taking Chili out, and that was that.
No discussion about the kiss. Nothing else about what we’re both hoping to get out of this. And today, he was on his computer when I got up.
“Work problem” was all he said.
