A jigsaw puzzle of Mia and Wanda?
I stop in my tracks, my chest tightening. “This isn’t just a list. This is…” The words catch in my throat. My throat feels gravelly and tight. “This is like a story of how you got to know her.”
Isla smiles brightly, all sunshine and cheer, like she was the night she swept into my world after my teammates bid on her services. “Well, I like to give gifts that matter. That say I listened and paid attention. You’re the same.”
“I am?”
She shoots me a look that saysyou know you are.“The train? The sleigh? The coffee mug with Christmas lights? The band playing my favorite songs? We’re birds of a feather.”
“If that’s the case, I’m a very manly bird,” I reply.
“Of course you are.”
“And that species of bird isn’t easy to know either.” I repeat her words from the other night as we turn onto Main Street.
“That’s not fair. In this case, Iameasy to know. You know I like giving gifts. I was prepared and excited. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment.”
For a weird second, I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life for this too.
Right in the middle of the street outside A Likely Story, I stop in my tracks, tug on the lapel of her coat, and hold her face. “Give me a kiss right now, Christmas girlfriend.”
Subtly, she offers me her mouth, and I take and I take and I take—kissing her in the middle of the day, in the middle of downtown, for everyone to see.
Because even if this is temporary, I want her to know how it feels to not have to hide. To show the world how you feel about somebody. I feel so damn much for her I barely know what to do with the pressure in my chest when I’m near her. With the thud of my heart. With the peace and the calm I feel when we’re together.
I kiss her for longer than I’d planned. Drinking her in. Savoring her. Sweeping my lips across hers.
Until I finally break it. And right when I do—there’s cheering.
I turn around and—holy shit. I scan up and down the street. It’s like the whole town is here.
Mayor Bumblefritz is at the end of the block, megaphone to her mouth, saying, “People of Evergreen Falls, it looks like we’ve got the first romance to come out of the competition! Our two coaches—let’s give it up for Isla Marlowe and Rowan Bishop!”
Phones flash. Eloise grins from a few feet away, snapping photos. JJ whistles. Oliver and Aurora are filming. Someone yells, “Finally!”
“You two had ‘holiday romance’ written all over you,” JJ says. “Oliver and I were betting on how long it would take.”
Oliver grins. “Not long at all.” He doesn’t sound mad. He turns to Aurora, “Right, love?”
She gives him a quick kiss. “Sometimes you just need a little nudge.”
“The competition must have been your nudge,” Phillipa puts in, “since you two were lovebirds the night you came to the diner.”
Right. She served us that night. We danced then, too, as The Mistle Bros played. My god, she’s right. I’m not even sure what to say, and I have media training. I speak to the press after games. But nothing’s prepared me for being the center of attention like this.
But Isla is a problem solver. She squeezes my arm, reassuring me, and says, “It’s the magic of this town.”
I’m grateful she said something. I don’t want to look like a deer in headlights.
People snap more photos.
“It’s to promote the competition,” Eloise says, lowering her phone. “We’ll put it on the town’s socials. A little romance always helps sell it.”
“A little romance makes everything better,” Aurora adds.
Isla laughs, bright and sunny, but I hear it—a bit of performance in her voice, along with a tightness in her grip on my hand.
