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“We just want you to be careful with Calvin. He left you once. Who’s to say he won’t leave you again?” Ivy’s rhetorical question settles like a wet blanket over the top of me.
Because not only do I have to consider that with Calvin but also, though I don’t like thinking about it, with Gabe.
I grimace. “I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing. But weren’t we talking about how I need to get back out there? And then Calvin showed up. Maybe it’s serendipity.”
“Maybe.” Ivy doesn’t sound convinced. “Someone else also showed up just as we were talking about you getting back in the game.” She wiggles her eyebrows. “Gabe.”
Jack snorts from next to Ivy. “Gabe and Beth? Come on. No way.”
I do my best to look not guilty, but Jack points at me.
“Wait. Seriously? You and Gabe?” His eyes are wide with shock.
“No. Not me and Gabe. We’ve never been . . . we didn’t . . . we aren’t dating.”
“But you want to date him?” Jack sounds incredulous.
“No.”
“Beth,” Ivy scolds. “Be honest.”
“Fine. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. We had a little moment today.”
“A little moment.” Ivy studies me. “What kind of a moment?”
“We, uh, were getting a Christmas tree for Elena, and he told me he wants a chance with me.”
Ivy whoops. “I knew it!”
“I don’t believe this.” Jack shakes his head. “Since when does Gabe have a thing for you?”
“Since before he got famous,” I admit. “But then he left for Nashburg, even though he knew how I felt about the musician lifestyle. And that was that. But now—” I shrug. “I don’t know exactly.”
Jack and Ivy exchange another look.
“For now, Gabe and I are working on the Christmas Dash. That’s all. In fact,” I continue, ignoring them and letting my eyes sweep over the bins of materials piled high in the center of the room, “I’m trying to come up with another stop, and I’m wondering if I should have people come here.”
“I thought you hated it in here.” Ivy waves her arm around. “With the smell and the sweat stains and the potential for disease.”
“I’m not going to send people here here.” I shiver at the thought. “I’m not a monster.”
Jack chuckles. “You know, a lot of people like wrestling, Beth.”
“Good for them. I am not one of them.”
“So what then?” Ivy asks.
“The sledding hill on the backside of the high school,” I say, the wheels in my head spinning. “We can have people upload pics and videos, completing different challenges for different point values.”
“Nice,” Jack says with a nod.
I pull out my phone and fire off a text to Gabe. Only because he’s my co-chair for the Dash and I want to get his opinion on my idea before I do anything more with it, like spend time crafting the clue. Not because I’m anxious to have an excuse to text him.
Beth
What if we send people to the sledding hill at the high school after their stop at Felipe’s
This is Beth, by the way. In case you deleted my number.
