“Absolutely enormous ones. Huge. He could kill me with one blow of his mighty paw, but he’s the sweetest cat to ever live, so he refrains.”
“Pictures?”
They engaged in the ritual of mutually admiring each other’s cats, and she thought they were both sincere about it. It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by a beautiful goof like Bigfoot—who radiated a sunny absence of thought—and Fiona was a certified cutie. Mira especially loved the thin white stripe that ran down her chin like a spilled drop of milk.
“So Fiona likes my podcast, huh?”
“We both did,” Wade said. “We started withChristmas in Connecticut, obviously, and then moved on to—”
“Santa, we need you!” another elf called out. “We’re about to open the gates!”
“Rain check,” Mira said with a smile. “You can give me your review later.”
Standing so close to him and tilting her face up to look him in the eyes was having a definite effect on her. She felt like a sunflower turning towards the sun. The rest of the day wasn’t going to have much going for it, so she should soak up these last few seconds of Wade time while she had the chance.
“It’ll be a good one,” Wade said. “Five stars.”
If she stayed like this any longer, she was going to kiss him. She wanted to do it. Maybe a frenzied day in the Christmas Village, a mediocre lunch, a lot of daydreaming, and an irritating morning meeting made for an unconventional first date, but the time together was what mattered, right? Not what they’d been doing. And she felt as swoony now as she ever had when a guy had walked her to her front door.
But there was a big difference. If a date walked her to her front door and she felt like this, she could invite him inside.
She couldn’t invite Wade anywhere right now. He was about to take center stage in a whole bunch of holiday memories, and she was about to get stuck with a malfunctioning carol-oke machine.
Maybe ... tonight? Or would it still be better to just wait until the holidays were over and everything with her parents was settled, so she’d have peace of mind? That was certainly what she’d been thinking last night, but looking up at him like this, it was hard to remember why she’d been so sure that waiting was the smart decision.
She was all set to make the dumb decision instead, and the only thing that stopped her was that she wasn’t sure she wanteda whole Christmas Village’s worth of coworkers to share in their first kiss. She forced herself to take a step back.
“Great,” Mira said. Her voice was coming out all squeaky again. “I ... look forward to it!”
She hurried off before she could risk hearing him laugh at her, but even with her ears involuntarily pricked up for any indication of that, she didn’t catch even a suppressed chuckle. Then she remembered how he had blushed with her earlier, and she felt better. Maybe they were both a little awkward on the dating front.
“Oh my God, do you and Santa have athing?” Becky-the-elf said to her.
Mira had never expected a seventeen-year-old girl carrying a ton of plastic candy canes to ask her about her love life, but that was the kind of thing that happened in the Christmas Village. The overall youth of the seasonal employees made her feel like she was back in high school.
But that wasn’t always a bad thing. It was kind of nice, for a few seconds, to feel like she was back in the giddy, fizzy, anticipation-filled days of being young and in the middle of one hell of a crush.
“Nothing’s happening,” Mira said. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “Not yet, anyway.”
“But it will?” Becky didn’t even wait to see if Mira would nod. “Good for you! He’s cute in a dad kind of way. Once you get the beard off, he’s like ... farmer’s market hot. Your generation says that, right?”
Farmer’s market hot. Mira had never heard that exact combination of words before, but itwaseasy to picture walking hand-in-hand with Wade through a farmer’s market. He wouldn’t complain about getting up early on a Saturday or her lingering over the scented candle and goat’s milk soap booths—he struck her as a guy who took life as it came and enjoyed whatit had to offer. He would probably volunteer to carry her tote for her. What would he like to look at? As much fun as he was to fantasize about, she didn’t actually know him that well yet.
She wanted to.
Before the kids could come flooding in and get the day kicked off, Mira pulled out her phone—thankful once again that the Galadriel costume at least came with pockets—and opened her Notes app.
What do you like to get at farmer’s markets?she wrote.
As busy as she was going to be today, she didn’t want to count on her carol-oke rattled brain to remember a random question like that. If she thought of anything else she wanted to ask Wade when theyfinallygot some uninterrupted time together, she would add it to the list. It was practical. It was elegant. It was the answer to the surprisingly relevant question of What Would Galadriel Do, if she was too busy ruling her sliver of Middle-Earth to go on a date.
Also, fine, she was losing her mind a little bit. But the holidays did that to you sometimes.
Mira steeled herself and picked up the carol-oke microphone. To start the day off on the right note, the mic instantly let out a high-pitched whine of feedback.
“Fantastic,” she said. “Off to a good start.”
Chapter Seven
