Jay laughed. And then he laughed some more. “Um, no. We spend enough time together here. I’m pretty sure she and her husband lounge around watching movies all day and eating. If I came, Uncle Reece would have to put pants on.”
“And… that’s more about your relatives than I wanted to know.”
While they’d talked, Jay had moved closer to her, but he came to a sudden awareness of it and stepped back. She hated how often he did that.
“What are your plans?” he asked.
Rebecca wrinkled her nose. She’d have to make an appearance at Grandma’s, but at some point, she always ducked out. Usually, Ian did too, and the two of them would go do something fun together. But not this year. He and Winnie were on a ski trip with her family and wouldn’t even be there. “Just family stuff.”
“Hmm.”
And there was the open invitation for them to do something together. But he didn’t say anything and neither did she. Maybe he was hoping she wouldn’t ask. The big chicken won out again.
***
Jay ducked into the storage closet for another string of white lights and edged his way back to the offending strand, which had given up at some point in the evening. Being a Christmas Eve wedding, the guest list was smaller, and everyone seemed to be having a good time.
He still thought the bride and groom were insane, but, all in all, it was a much happier event than he’d overseen in a while.
His eyes searched for Rebecca, as they always did. And it always gave him a twinge of pain. She was so lovely and so good with the guests. He realized he’d been holding the two ends of the Christmas lights for a full minute without putting them together. Back to work. Back to work. The mantra played in his head like a broken record and he reacted accordingly, moving on to check other things.
If it was bad luck to ignore mistletoe, Jay was going to be unlucky for a long time. It was hanging everywhere at this wedding. There was one guest who had decided to lurk underneath it, sipping his drink. So far, he wasn’t having much luck. The female guests who passed by gave him a wide berth. Poor man. He seemed more on the socially awkward side, rather than patently creepy.
Jay leaned against the wall next to him. “The dancing’s about to start. The lady in the green dress over there has been tapping her heels, looking bored. I’d maybe start by asking her.”
The guy shrugged. “I’m not much of a dancer.”
“Won’t matter. Slow dancing is easy. Keep your hands where they should be, and escort her back to her seat when you’re done. You’ll be fine.”
“Okay, maybe.” He pushed himself off the doorframe and went to put his drink down. Jay hoped he was right about this guy and he hadn’t just ruined some poor lady’s evening.
Rebecca walked over, raising one eyebrow. She glanced up at the sprig of mistletoe over Jay’s head. “Hoping to entrap some innocent bystander?”
“Innocent bystander? You walked right up to me.” The flirty response came out naturally, and he immediately wished he could retract it. Rebecca’s face flushed red and she smiled. His arms itched to wrap around her waist and give the mistletoe magic a good try. Instead, he walked off calling out, “I need to check on dessert.”
They were working. He was her boss. He’d promised. He puffed out a frustrated breath of air and resisted the urge to look back at her.
The orchestra started up and Jay stopped to watch the dance floor fill up. The mistletoe lurker was taking the woman in the green dress around in a slow circle. He hadn’t been kidding about his lack of coordination, but they both looked happy. Jay could at least feel good about that.
***
The cleanup/takedown crew was in full swing, all clearly motivated to get home, though the holiday pay had to be nice. Rebecca went into the storage room where she’d tucked away her purse and coat.
Rain pounded on the window, and she was glad the bride had opted for an indoor reception. There was nothing else to do but drive home and curl up on her couch with a Christmas movie and some popcorn. It would be nice to get some quiet time after being surrounded by strangers all day. Oh, and she’d promised to call her friend, Erin, in Tokyo, where she was teaching English. It was already Christmas day there and she’d be missing her family. They could commiserate about the lack of romance in their lives. So, she had plans. Sort of.
Jay had told her to go. She should go already.
A kind older man held up his umbrella for her as she stepped outside, and he walked her to her car, exclaiming how nice the wedding had been. She thanked him and closed her car door, taking a minute to peel off her coat before putting on her seatbelt.
A white sedan pulled in across from her and Rebecca strained her eyes through the rain plunking against her windshield. It looked like … Felicity. Itwasher. She caught sight of Rebecca and beamed, walking over to the driver’s side of Rebecca’s car. She had a red gift bag tucked under one arm to protect it from the rain.
Rebecca lowered her window. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
Felicity shrugged, looking self-conscious. “I had a gift for Jay and I forgot to bring it to work yesterday. I thought I’d catch him after the wedding…” She trailed off, probably realizing how odd that sounded. “I—Well, I actually bought this a long time ago and never had a chance to give it to him. It’s not like I went out and got him something special this year.”
“Right.” Rebecca had no idea how to respond. Felicity seemed very intent on not appearing interested in Jay, while obviously being extremely interested. And the policy didn’t say they couldn’t have a relationship, just that it had to be disclosed to Marlise and kept after hours. What she didn’t know was if Jay reciprocated any of the interest. Knowing him, he’d be very careful about keeping something like that from getting back to Clarissa.
“Well, good luck. I hope he likes it.” Rebecca watched Felicity pick her way around the puddles in the parking lot, and then she drove home, blasting Christmas music the whole way.
