“Pay her.”
“With what?”
“Figure it out. But you’re not going anywhere without this woman.”
Breck sighed. “I’ll try,” he managed weakly.
“That’s giving it the ol’ college try.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Get the girl,” Jeb insisted.
“Bye.”
Breck ran his hand down his face, then leaned down to pull the form out of his backpack sitting by his feet. He’d carried the paper around with him, not even sure why. He’d even pulled it out to look at her signature. She had big, loopy handwriting with a fat Y-tail. For a short time, he’d studied handwriting. It came inhandy—pun intended—when he did a stint as a gypsy during a carnival to earn some extra cash one summer. Her large Y-tail meant that she needed a friend.
He tapped his fingers on his knees like a nervous drummer boy before finally dialing the number. She picked up on the second ring, and he stammered through the hello. “I’m the owner of theChristmas Magicchannel. We met the other day.”
“Of course.” Her tone was reserved. “Is there a problem with the video or something?”
“No. No. I, uh, wanted to let you know that it posted and is getting a lot of views. You’d said you wanted to show it to your family, and you can now, because it’s up.” He scrubbed his free hand down his side of his pant leg to wipe the moisture away, then switched the phone to the other hand and wiped the moisture off that one too. If only he could swipe away all the extra words running out of his mouth.
“Thanks. I’ll be sure to send them the link.”
“Great. That’s really great.” He pressed his lips shut before he said the wordgreatagain.
“Yep. It’s great.”
Was she teasing him? It kind of sounded like it. He hoped so.
“Is there anything else?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I, uh, I’d like to offer you a job.”
“A job?”
“As my assistant. See, my friend Jeb thinks that the reason the video did so well is because you were in it.”
There was a blank space where his jumbled announcement hung in the air. Finally, she said, “I don’t understand.”
“Well, you’re really pretty and you did a great job of including the crowd and stuff.”
“You think I’m pretty?” she asked in the same tone he’d used to ask if she thought he was cute.
Holy Rudolph! Shewasteasing him. He leaned back in the chair and grinned. “You have to know you’re gorgeous.”
“Oh, so it’s gorgeous now?”
“Always.”
“Well, in that case …” She laughed off the rest of her sentence, leaving him wondering what she was going to say.
His chest practically bulged with a sense of accomplishment for having brought out the melodious, bell-like sound. “So you’ll do it?”
She sighed. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not in a good place right now. I don’t think it’s a good time for me to commit to … you.” She paused as if holding her breath.
Was holding her breath a good sign or a bad sign? She could be worried that she’d hurt his feelings. His shoulders caved in, and his chest deflated. He hated pity. Some girls were too nice to tell him he was a magic geek, and while they thought he was nice, they didn’t want to be tied up with him. “I understand. I hope you have a Merry Christmas.”
