“Uh-huh. The Mistake on the Lake.”
“I’m from Plain, just outside of Columbus.”
His lips twitched at the corner. “It sounds like we were always meant to be neighbors.”
I refused to dignify that one with a response, instead smiling to myself while we continued perusing the tree lot. Ten minutes later, I had nearly given up on finding my tree when we came across a blue spruce.
“That’s the one,” I told them.
I knew it in my bones. It was . . . all wrong, and yet so incredibly beautiful.A beautiful mess. Austin’s words had stuck with me for days. It had taken me a while to wrap my head around the idea of finding beauty in something messy, two concepts that until now had always worked in opposition, from my perspective at least. But I was starting to see what he might have been talking about.
“Really?” Killan asked, arching a brow. He had every reason to doubt my choice. It was one of the scrawnier trees on the lot, buried behind the rest. “It’s a little . . .”
“Beautiful,” Austin finished. We both circled the tree, eventually meeting in the middle on the opposite side. “I think it’s a great choice.”
“I know it’s a little lumpy in the middle and bare around the top, but—”
“It’s perfect.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Killian slip away. “It’s not perfect,” I told him.
“It is because you chose it.”
Sweet baby Jesus in the manger. Take me now.
My face flamed.Thiswas the Austin I had flirted with in the laundry room all those months ago.Thiswas the Austin who had starred in my dreams—and more than a few wide-awake fantasies—as of late. Apparently, all it had taken was abroken foot and some Christmas lights to break him out of the protective shell he had so carefully constructed for himself.
And he was going to kiss me. He was going to kiss me now.
“Janelle,” he said in a half whisper, half groan. His warm, minty breath fanned my cheeks. I planted my hands lightly on his chest and leaned up on my toes, a difficult feat when you only had one foot to work with.
And then, just as our lips barely touched—
“Okay, I just got off the phone with Nora,” Leighton said.
Fate intervened.That bitch.
We quickly broke apart. Killian bounded over to Leighton, relieving her of the tray full of to-go cups in her hands. “Thanks, killjoy.”
“What about Nora?” I asked, attempting to ignore the fact that she had just interrupted me from sucking face with the Santa next door.
“She and Bowie are going to meet us back at your place for drinks and tree decorating.”
“Sounds good to me.” I directed her attention toward my newly acquired blue spruce. “Meet Bruce.”
She shook her head, a small laugh escaping from her lips. “Bruce the spruce? Cute.”
Together, the four of us loaded the tree into the back of Killian’s SUV. I had another doctor’s appointment on the twentieth, but until then, I was still begrudgingly riding shotgun. A passenger princess I was not.
Pillow princess, on the other hand . . .
“Austin, you’re coming back to Nellie’s place to help us decorate, right?”
Austin’s eyes found mine from the other side of the car, the question in them clear as day. “Only if Nellie wants me to.”
“Of course I do,” I said much too quickly.
His eyes lit up. My cheeks warmed when I realized how that sounded. “I mean, of course you’re welcome to come.”
