“Is it me? Or do our truths sound sort of depressing?”
She turned her head to him, and he held her gaze. “Which truth is the most depressing?”
His gaze moved to her lips. “Tough choice. But one of them sort of leaped out at me.” The fire crackled, and it felt like a spark shot right through him. Was she thinking what he was thinking? Was she thinking about a kiss? Maybe more? Was she thinking that this sharing between them had ignited something, and here they were, two lonely people during the Christmas season, a cold wind and heavy rain outside, tucked in a beautiful house with nothing to stop them? With an attraction that clearly seemed to be brewing between them? He felt all that pretty intensely. Where was mistletoe when you needed it? It was across the room, but still…
He felt her shift, and so did he. He turned his body toward her, could feel the energy between them, could feel it practically thrumming, and then…andthen—
The moment was stabbed through the heart by the piercing ring of her phone. Not that the ring was anything but ordinary, but it sure felt like a blow right to his chest. Amy seemed not to know what to do. She was still looking at him, her eyes wide, the firelight sparkling in her eyes. “That’s my phone,” she said, as if he didn’t realize.
“I guessed.”
“I’ll let it roll to voicemail.”
“Great.”
But she didn’t move, her gaze firmly locked on his, almost as if she thought if she didn’t turn around, then the phone wasn’t really there. It worked for a minute—the phone quit ringing.
Amy let out a sigh of relief, and then gave him a sheepish smile. “It’s that mom thing. I always fear if I don’t pick up, the worst—”
The phone began to ring again. Harrison felt all the giddiness, thislittle Christmas miracle, begin to bleed out of him. Amy didn’t hesitate this time. She turned away from him and grabbed her phone. “Hello?”
Whatever the person said on the other end of the line caused Amy to slump. “It’s okay, baby,” she said.
And that’s a wrap, Harrison thought. He gestured at her glass. She shook her head. He picked up her glass and his and managed to get up without looking too lame. The moment was lost to them.
“Don’t say that, Ethan. Of course you are. You’re the brightest, smartest boy I know…Of course I mean it…What? Where is Dad? Oh, I see. But…Ethan. You’re being too hard on yourself. Remember the things we talked about? First, take a deep breath. Now, let’s talk about what’s probably going on,” she said, her voice fading as she moved through the house, on the way back to her room.
Harrison sighed. He hated when highly charged moments got busted up. He hated it when he was on a streak, feeling as confident and invincible as a man could feel, only to have a bad putt push him back into doubt.
He glanced back toward the living room and noticed the damn mistletoe hanging from the archway, taunting him.
What he didn’t hate, he realized, was being here with Amy. This was turning out to be just the boost he needed.
9
This was exactly how one-night stands and potentially great love stories were ended before they even began: family interference.
Not that Amy thought she and Harrison were a great love story, but she really liked him, and she wanted to know him, and she was, surprisingly, very keen on kissing him. He was a handsome man. She was secretly thrilled to know that all her parts seemed to notice and perked up at the prospect.
So of course her family had interrupted at the worst possible moment.
Poor Ethan. She didn’t know what she’d done to produce such an anxious, sensitive kid, but there he was. He’d called, very nearly in tears, because Jonah had erased the Minecraft world Ethan had built on Ryan’s computer. Amy couldn’t even begin to understand the intricacies of Minecraft and the worlds they created, but when she asked Ethan why Jonah would do that, Ethan said he claimed it was an accident.
It probably was an accident. Jonah had never shown any desire to hurt Ethan, but he just happened to be at the clumsy, self-centered stage, where his inability to think beyond his nose resulted in poor decisions, and his big body was always knocking into something and breaking it.She didn’t blame Jonah, she blamed Ryan. Where was he in all this? Why did she have to field the distraught, I-lost-my-Minecraft-world call?
When Ethan paused to take a breath, Amy asked, “Hey, where’s your dad?”
Ethan sniffed. “He and Jonah went to get burgers.”
“Oh. You didn’t want to go?”
“No, Mom, I have to start over! Do you know how long it’s going to take me? I’ve been working on that world foryears.”
“Well, look on the bright side,” she tried. “You can build an even better world now.”
Ethan sighed wearily. “You don’t get it.”
No, she didn’t get it. As Ethan went on about how hard it was to re-create a world, and how Jonah didn’t seemreallysorry, Amy plotted Ryan’s death by a pack of jackals.
