Page 69 of 10 Things I Hate About Mistletoe

“But why do you need to give me up to do that?”

Anthony didn’t have a good answer and Delilah shook her head. “You know what? I figured out why you’ve never been in love. There’s no room left to let anyone else in.”

“Delilah, stop.” He reached for her but she shook him off.

“You’re a coward, Anthony Russo. You chased me. You made me think this was going to be something amazing and now, you’re running scared.” Delilah dashed at her eyes and he wanted to hold her, to tell her he was sorry, but she didn’t want that from him. “Give me my keys.”

“They’re in the ignition.”

“Good.” Delilah rounded the car and climbed inside. Anthony barely got the passenger door closed behind him before she took off, gunning it for home.

Anthony buckled his seat belt, his mind racing. Normally he was the voice of reason in their friend group, but he’d messed up big-time, not just with Pike, but Delilah, too. While he was normally good under pressure, he’d never experienced anything like this and had no way of knowing how to navigate it.

“Lila,” he tried, but she cut him off.

“Don’t call me that. That’s over now.”

“Come on. Now who’s blowing things out of proportion?”

“You don’t get it. You are this tall, gorgeous, perfect specimen of manhood. You probably got picked first for every sport, girls fell all over themselves to go out with you. I have only ever been two people’s first choice. Holly’s and then yours. At least, I thought I was, but it turns out I’m not.”

The catch in her voice made Anthony sick to his stomach because he was the cause of her pain.

“Delilah, I’m not picking him over you. I just don’t want to throw away almost thirty years of friendship.”

She didn’t respond, just took the left onto the main road into Mistletoe and Anthony grabbed the oh-shit handle in response.

“Can you slow down a bit?” he asked.

“No, because as soon as I get home, I can get the hell away from you.”

Anthony didn’t know what to say to make any of this better, so he kept his mouth shut until she pulled into her driveway.

“Delilah, can we please talk about this?”

“What’s there to say?” Delilah got out of the car and went around to release Leia from the back seat. “Be sure to lock it after you get your stuff out.”

Anthony opened the door and stood up, calling after her, “I don’t want this to be the end.”

“I guess we don’t always get what we want.”

Chapter Nineteen

Miss Gill, are you alright?”

Delilah looked up from her sub notes and caught several of the kids watching her. “What do you mean?”

“You seem cranky?” Megan said.

“If I do, I apologize. I’m still recovering from the holiday weekend.”

This launched the kids into a rapid discussion about how it went by too fast and they couldn’t wait until Christmas break. Normally, Delilah would be in the thick of their conversation, laughing at their stories and cracking jokes, but Megan wasn’t wrong about her being cranky. She wanted to go home and crawl into bed, but at least being in the classroom distracted her from thinking about Anthony.

The bell rang and she dismissed them, wishing them a nice day. It was the last period and Delilah packed up her notes for the day, stapling them together before sliding them into the pocket at the front of the sub binder. She turned off the lights and closed the door, went into the hallway and weaved her way through the sea of middle schoolers. The smell of too much cologne and perfume combined with the sour stench of body odor made her stomach turn. While she loved teaching this age, Delilah wished their parents paid attention to their hygiene.

She dropped the binder at the front office and exited the side door toward her car. A few students called out to her and she waved, but she wasn’t going to stop for anyone. The minute she climbed into her car, she pressed the button and the ignition came to life. Delilah’s car connected to her phone and it started going off, alerting her to multiple phone messages. She pulled her phone out of her purse and checked her messages. The first several were texts from Holly and she tapped her name, scrolling through.

You and Merry were wrong!