Mistletoe Magic (Evergreen Lake: Under the Mistletoe)

Chapter 19

nineteen

HOLLY

It had been four hours since that kiss and I swear my lips were still tingling. Not just my lips either. My whole body felt like it had come alive for the first time in years.

After Nick, I didn’t want anything. I didn’t think I’d ever want anyone again. I was happy with it just being me and Noelle. At least, I thought I was. Maybe content was what we were. I didn't think we were missing out on anything until we ended up stuck in a snowstorm with a man who hated Christmas.

Noelle was curled up on the couch watching a movie, and Chris still hadn’t reappeared. I didn’t know what had happened. One minute he was kissing me making my toes curl, the next, he’d morphed back into the Grinch and stomped around like a bear with a sore head, acting like I was in his way. Maybe we were. He said we were welcome as long as we wanted, but after kissing me maybe he regretted it and wanted me gone. If that was the case, I wish he’d just come out and say it instead of leaving me here wondering what the hell I did wrong .

“I’m just going downstairs for a minute,” I told Noelle who didn’t even look up.

I shrugged on my coat and stuffed my feet into my boots before carefully heading down the stairs. The storm may have passed, but it was still as cold as a witch’s tit and the stairs were slippery.

By the time I made it to the door of Chris’s workshop my heart was pounding in my chest, and I could hear the blood roaring through my veins. Nerves made me jittery, and I felt lightheaded.

“Pull it together,” I told myself, taking a deep breath and reaching for the door handle.

Pushing it open, I stepped inside.

Everything was quiet and dark. Carefully, I rounded the table in the back and stepped into the workshop area.

There in the middle of the shop, lifted up on a hoist, was the most beautiful red and gold sleigh I’d ever seen. It was truly a work of art, and I could tell someone had spent hours working on making sure every single detail was perfect.

Standing beneath it, in his grease-covered, once blue coveralls, was a man wielding a torch and spanner swearing like a sailor.

“What did that sleigh ever do to you?” I risked asking as I stepped out of the shadows and into the middle of the room.

“Shit!” Chris swore, spinning toward me flashing the torch directly in my eyes.

I lifted my hand to block the light and stepped to the side. “Am I interrupting?” I asked as I moved toward where he was working.

“It’s fine.”

It might have been, but Chris certainly wasn’t. From the moment this sleigh was mentioned he’d become cranky and miserable .

“Can I help?” I offered.

“Can you hold this?” Chris replied, holding out the torch.

When I reached for it, his fingers brushed mine, sending a zap of something I didn’t quite understand racing through my body. With every nerve ending awakened, I stood beside Chris while he pointed to where he wanted me to focus the light.

For a few minutes we stood in silence, me holding the torch and Chris tinkering with something. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it wasn’t exactly nice either. It was more a weird, awkward silence that annoyed me.

“Do you know what’s wrong with it?” I dared to ask after a while because from what I could see, he had no idea. I mean, I was no mechanic, but the fact he was checking every bolt and tugging on every wire had me believing that he was still looking for what was causing the problem.

“It’s a piece of shit, that’s the problem.” Chris snorted as he tightened another bolt.

Another few minutes went by, and Chris grunted and pointed, and we continued to work in silence. My mind was spinning. I couldn’t imagine what Santa’s sleigh had done to him to put him in such a foul mood. Being around him when he was like this was not someplace I wanted to be, and unless he pulled his head out of his ass soon, he could hold his own damn torch and grunt at the empty workshop. He might have saved my ass this week, but I wasn’t about to put up with his bullshit.

When another long list of cuss words flew from his mouth, I lowered the torch and set it on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Chris snapped, turning to face me.

“Going upstairs.”

“You’re not going to help?” The surprise in his voice caught me off-guard. I wasn’t even sure he knew I was still there. It wasn’t like he was chatting away to me and making me want to stay .

“Not while you’re like this.”

“Like what?”

“Snapping. Grouchy. Rude.”

“I’m not …” he started to defend himself but quickly deflated.

“You are, Chris, and you know it. I don’t know what happened in your past because you haven’t told me, but taking it out on Santa’s sleigh, a symbol that brings joy and hope and makes people believe in magic, isn't someone I want to be around.”

I’d stood my ground. I felt like shit, but still, I’d stood my ground.

I should’ve been worried I’d push him too far and he’d tell us to get out, but we’d figure something out. I had no intention of staying somewhere we weren’t wanted. Not today or any other day.

I watched as Chris’s shoulders sagged and the fight went out of him. It was like the moment he knew he’d been called out for being an ass and he was choosing to let it go. At least, I hoped that's what it was because even though he was acting like the Christmas Grinch with a pine cone up his butt, I still couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized, pressing a button on the hoist and lowering the sleigh slowly back to the ground.

“Wanna tell me what happened?”

“Not really.”

“You don’t have to. But if you want to talk about it, I’m a pretty good listener,” I offered softly.

The sleigh came to a stop on the workshop floor, and I moved over to it, peering inside. The details inside were just as meticulous as those on the outside. The bench seating looked comfy, and if you threw in some warm blankets, a few cushions, and a mug of hot chocolate it would be the perfect Christmas memory to make.

“I hate that sleigh,” Chris grumbled, and I stepped back and looked at him.

“No you don’t,” I countered.

“Yeah, I really do.” Chris sighed heavily as I climbed into the sleigh and sat on the hard wooden seat. “Get out. Please.”

I looked at Chris and the pain was written all over his face. There really was something painful about it.

“I was engaged,” he started as I climbed out and moved away.

At his words, I felt my chest tighten.

“We were supposed to be getting married. We had it all planned out. Kids. House. White picket fence. Dog. Everything. The whole shebang. I wanted to give her everything. And I would’ve. I might only be a grease monkey, but I would’ve moved heaven and earth to give her everything she ever wanted.”

Chris dropped onto a low stool and hung his head between his legs. I believed every word he said. He’d proven how far he’d go to make someone happy, I’d seen it firsthand how he was with Noelle. And she was someone he’d never met before. She was just a girl he was helping, and he’d gone out of his way to put a smile on her face and make sure despite everything working against her, she had a Christmas to remember.

“What happened?” I asked, the words catching in my throat.

Even though I asked, I wasn’t really sure I wanted to know. I mean, I had a pretty good idea of how it ended, but the bit in the middle, based on the way Chris was acting, was filled with pain and the last thing I wanted to do was force him to relive that.

“She cheated. ”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what more I could say to that.

“I’d been asked to fix the sleigh, that sleigh, and they’d brought it to the workshop. I had to go pick up some parts, and when I came back, I found my ex blowing my best friend. Right there in the back of the sleigh.”

“No!”

I didn’t mean my outburst but surely that couldn’t be true. It was too far-fetched. Who’d do that? I couldn’t work out which part was worse. The fact she cheated or that she cheated with his best friend. Then there was the whole sleigh being brought into it.

“Yep. Down on her knees gagging on his cock.”

Chris tossed the rag he’d been wiping his hands on down onto the floor and stared at me.

“That’s why you hate Christmas,” I stated, everything starting to make sense. Why he didn’t have a tree. Why he retreated into his apartment like the Grinch staying away from everyone and everything that reminded him of that moment.

“I don’t hate Christmas …”

“Come on, Chris …”

“I don't. Not really. But I do hate this fucking sleigh. If I could set fire to it …” he drifted off and walked over to a toolbox, pulling out something I didn’t recognize.

“Well, she’s an idiot,” I declared. I hadn’t known Chris for a long time, but I didn't need to. Not to know he was a good guy. He’d shown me that from the moment I met him. “But I think she did you a favor.”

“What?” Now it was Chris’s turn to be shocked.

“I really do. I think she did you a favor. If she was going to cheat, I’m glad she did it before you slid that ring on her finger and called her your wife. That ring changes everything. So instead of hating her for it, maybe be thankful you dodged that bullet. ”

“That's … different,” Chris replied as he mulled over my words.

There was a lump in my throat. There was a question on the tip of my tongue that I was dying to ask, but I wasn’t sure how he’d take it. Or what his answer would be. Or worse still, how much his answer would hurt me.

“Umm …” I fidgeted with my fingers, looking everywhere but at the man in front of me.

“What is it?”

“It’s … it’s nothing,” I dodged, chickening out. It would drive me crazy not knowing, but that was better than the alternative.

“Nuh-uh. I know that face. There’s something you’re dying to say, so come on. Spit it out.”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

As I took a step back, Chris set down whatever weird contraption he was holding and came to stand right in front of me. When he took my hands in his, I shivered. I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t want to go there. But when he lifted my chin with his fingers and locked his eyes with mine, I froze like a deer caught in the headlights. I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Holly …”

“Chris …”

“Ask me what it is you want to ask me.” His words were a direct command, but I didn’t feel like I was being pushed. Or maybe I did, and I just liked it from him.

“Do you still … do you still …” I couldn't get it out.

“Do I still what?”

I squeezed my eyes closed and willed the strength to rip off the band-aid. “Doyoustillloveher?” I blurted out in a hurry.

“Do I still love her?” Chris repeated slowly, and I nodded, embarrassed.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s none of my business. Please forget I even asked.” I tried to move away, but Chris’s grip on my hand tightened.

“No, Holly. I don’t love her anymore, and looking back, I’m not sure I ever really did. Not properly anyway.”

“Oh.”

“Shayna and I, we never made sense. I can see it now. At the time I thought she was it for me, but now, now things are … clearer.”

“Clearer how?”

“We had fun together, and I would’ve married her, and I would’ve done my damndest to make it work, but there was always something missing. It’s probably what drove her into the arms of someone else. She just … she just … worked it out before I did.”

“What was missing?”

“The butterflies.”

“Butterflies?”

“Yeah, Holly. Butterflies.” A crooked grin spread across Chris’s face, and I couldn’t keep up.

His hands found my hips, holding me in place. “I’m going to kiss you now, Holly. So if you don’t want me to, you're going to have to say it.”

There was something incredibly sexy about the dominance in Chris’s voice. This was a man who’d seen me at my worst, and he still wanted to kiss me. And I had no intention of stopping him.

“Do it then,” I dared him. “And make it count.”

As his fingers threaded through my hair, he tilted my head to the side, holding me where he wanted me. “Sweetheart, be careful what you wish for.”