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“Claire?” Melody asked, breaking through her thoughts. “Are you alright?”

Claire blinked. Get a hold of yourself.

She pulled on a smile and nodded. “Yeah, of course,” she responded too chipperly. “I didn’t know Liam had a girlfriend. That’s…swell.”

Swell? Any other word would have been better than swell.

“Well, he kinda does,” Melody said, staring down at her phone again. “Aunt Tasha said he’s been dating a girl on and off over the last few years. She thinks that maybe something happened between them to make him stress out more.”

Oh. So they weren’t dating then. The tightness in her stomach eased but only slightly. Still, she would hang onto the discomfort, if only to remind herself that she wanted no more baggage than she already had this time of year.

Honestly, it didn’t matter if he had a girlfriend or not. She was done thinking about him. Instead, she focused on the décor, the market, and Melody, who raised her phone again, beaming at what she read.

Alright, it was time to do some prying. “So who are you messaging?” she asked again.

Melody glanced up, a residual smile on her lips. “I already told you. Just a friend.”

Claire wasn’t buying it. “From Colorado or England?”

“Um, England. Hey, do you want to grab some of those cookies we saw on the way in? They smelled so good.”

Claire followed her past the rest of the stalls, allowing a moment to pass before she continued. “You do know that the more you try to sidestep my questions about your friend, the more I’m going to press until you answer me.”

Melody looked over at her, her mouth open as she clearly attempted to respond, then she pursed her lips and sighed. “Fine. He’s just an old friend of mine. His parents are good friends with Aunt Tasha.”

Ah, it was a he, then. “So what’s his name?”

“Dean,” Melody replied, her gaze taking on a look as starry-eyed as Ariel looking up at the statue of Prince Eric she’d thieved. “You remember me talking about him.”

She ended her words in a statement, but Claire struggled to place the name. Honestly, Melody had had so many male “friends” in her life that there was no way Claire could keep up with them all.

“Anyway,” Melody continued as they approached Ben’s Cookies, “we met my first time in England when I was ten. Since then, we’ve seen each other every time I’ve come over. It’s not that big of a deal.”

She ended in a shrug, but Claire saw right past her fake flippancy. “So you’ll be seeing him this trip, then?”

She whispered a warning for her spirits to keep up, to be prepared for Melody’s typical enthusiastic self, who jumped from person to person regardless of anyone’s feelings but her own.

Melody shook her head. “No. Well, yes. He was supposed to spend Christmas with his family in Scotland, but they had to cancel because the dates were double booked or something. Anyway, he’ll be going with his family the day after Christmas, so they’ll be at Aunt Tasha’s for her Christmas Eve party.”

“Oh, that’ll be fun,” Claire responded. That was much better than she’d expected. She thought Melody was going to ditch Claire for the guy.

“Yeah, it’ll be good to see him,” Melody agreed, staring down at her phone. “Even if it is just for a little bit.” Her smile faded somewhat, then she faced forward. “Ready for those cookies?”

Just as Melody could read Claire, Claire could read Melody, and Melody was clearly not happy with only seeing this Dean guy once during her trip.

“Did he ask to see you before Christmas Eve?” Claire asked as they entered the small shop, a variety of cookies placed behind a glass display shelf.

Melody nodded, keeping her eyes trained on the sweets. “Yeah, he asked if I could go with him to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It’s this huge carnival thing with rides and food and stuff. It’s, like, the best Christmas Fair in all of London.”

Claire cringed. The fair sounded a bit too much for her own taste—especially when compared to the market she’d been to with Liam last night. But then, that made perfect sense for Melody to love it.

“Dean also had some extra tickets to see the Nutcracker tonight since his mom’s a patron there,” Melody continued. “But I told him I was busy.”

She sent an easy smile to Claire, then asked the cashier for three dark chocolate cookies. Claire smiled in return, though it failed to raise her heart that had steadily declined until it rested in the pit of her stomach.

Melody was trying hard—that much was obvious—and Claire appreciated it. But then, what sort of friend would Claire be if she didn’t at least encourage Melody to meet up with this guy she obviously had a thing for?

After purchasing a couple milk chocolate chip cookies herself, Claire followed Melody from the store, stepping into the cold air once again.