My heart almost stopped beating. What was he doing?
“That sounds dramatic,” I said, not-so-subtly urging him to drop it.
Harvey curled his fingers inward and glanced between us. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you had your hands full.”
Smoke curled from Zack’s nostrils. “If anybody hurt them–”
“I get it,” Harvey said flatly. “Big brother is watching.”
Joon tugged Harvey’s jacket and pointed. “He’s not our brother, he’s our cousin.”
Could they be any more embarrassing? I urged him back to Zack’s side and started dragging Harvey away. “Okay, it was great to see you, but we need to get going.”
May dropped out of Zack's arms and reached for me. “Can’t we go with you, Shelby?”
“Don’t you want to see the horsies?” I asked, hurrying through the forest.
“Horsies,” The little cousins bolted for the sleighs.
Zack grunted and took off after them. “I said no running.”
Finally, I could return to my date, assuming my family hadn’t scared him off. “Sorry about them," I said.
“It seems troublemaking runs in the family,” he said dryly.
“Kinda, yeah.” What would be a good distraction or segue back to romance?
Harvey let out a breath. “Is there anywhere around here we could get a stiff drink?”
Was I boring him to the point he’d rather get drunk than deal with me and my family? I flexed my fingers. “They have a cocktail lounge in the red tent if you need it.”
“I was kidding.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets, ambling along the path, probably looking for an escape beyond the lit street. “Did you really need consoling, like your cousin said?”
“I…had a rough week.” I rubbed my cheek on the fluffy hood liner. Harvey had already apologized to me. There was no need to rub salt in the wound. “But besides my overbearing family, I’d say today has been totally uplifting. Magical, even.”
“Glad to hear it," he said flatly.
So, he didn’t feel the same? Although he’d always been less forthcoming with his feelings. We wandered through the shop kiosks with their acorn owl ornaments, got some apple cider donuts, and chatted under twinkling lights and the stars.
Harvey eyed the cocktail lounge in the red tent as we passed. “Can we go in?”
I stuck my hands in my pockets. “Oh, sure. I’ve never seen it.”
Frowning, he tilted his head. “Don’t you come here every year?”
“Yeah, but I’m not big on drinking. Not that I think it’s bad. I mean, you can do it. Although a bar wouldn’t exactly be my ideal first or second date. If you’re even thinking…of that.” Oh, Santa save me, I was going to start rambling. “I just like talking to you fully present, like we have been. And part of my ‘thing’ is when I go to my headspace, I want to be around people who can be responsible. It’s a safety thing. But I’m not the boss of anybody, and hanging out with me isn’t like babysitting, so if you want to relax–”
“Where is a good place, then?” Harvey held the tent flap open, ushering me inside.
“To drink?”
He shook his head. “To relax. For our second date. Assuming I pass the test.”
“Oh.” I brightened. He wanted a second date already, even after meeting my family? I skipped by his side. “Anywhere else, really. The zoo, the park, museums, restaurants, movies…”
“Does it have to be Little-person-friendly?” he asked delicately.
“What do you mean?”
