Page 73 of Love on Tour
She didn’t know what he was going to say and wasn’t sure she wanted to. On the one hand, he might say something like, “If things were different and I wasn’t already seeing Cait . . .”
On the other, he might say, “I get the feeling you have a bit of a crush on me, and as flattered as I am, you need to know I don’t feel the same way.” She didn’t want to risk hearing either, so she interrupted him.
“Thanks for being my knight in shining armor. I’ll see you soon?”
“You’re welcome. And I hope so.”
Christine turned away and started walking toward the store while she could still hold her head high. She turned back and caught him watching her.
CHRISTINE HAD A WONDERFULThanksgiving with her parents before returning to Nashville for the short time before Christmas break. Her mother was savvy enough on social media to know what was going on, but Christine downplayed it, knowing it would accomplish nothing other than worrying her.
Christine kept up with Matt’s Thanksgiving activities on socials. He’d posted a few photos with family. She learned something about his personal life through photos of his parents cooking a turkey, his niece and nephew climbing on his lap, and his family playing flag football. The way he posed for photos by embracing his younger relatives made her think he liked kids. She tucked that morsel into the back of her heart. And he was apparently an avid fly fisherman. A photo of him wearing waders in a stream with the caption “Doesn’t get any better” surprised her. She realized she didn’t know much about him personally. She also knew he’d returned to Nashville thanks to his post of a sunset taken from a plane. He wrote, “Heading home.”
She hoped to run into him. She made sure she had makeup on and looked her best every time she went anywhere—the mall, Target, Starbucks, or Publix. No more sweats and oversized shirts. She calculated the odds to figure out where he might be, knowing exactly how ridiculous that seemed. Two weeks later, she still hadn’t seen him.
She confessed to Julianna one night while chatting on the phone. “I want to run into him so badly, but it isn’t happening. It’s a small town. How hard can it be?”
“Call him and say you want to get together for coffee.”
“And what would be my reason?”
“To wish him a Merry Christmas? Duh. It’s coffee. You’re not asking him to get naked.”
“Is that an option?”
“It would be in my book. But I know you, and as long as Cait’s in the picture, you won’t do it.”
“Ugh. I hate my moral standards sometimes.”
“Yeah, they are a tad annoying.”
“What do I say?” Christine asked.
“Ask if he’s finished his shopping yet. Maybe you’ll get a hint of where he’ll be doing it and when,” Julianna said.
“Okay. Maybe.”
“No maybe. Just freaking do it.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Let me know how it goes.”
Christine hit theENDbutton and decided to practice what she was going to say. It came in the form of, “Hi, Matt. It’s Christine. I, um, just, you know, wanted to say Happy Christmas. I mean, Merry Christmas.”Geez, Christine. How hard is it to say “Merry Christmas”?
Christine heard giggling and realized her phone hadn’t hung up . . . again. She put it back to her ear. “You’re still there, aren’t you?”
“Happy Christmas? Seriously?”
“My damn phone. I think something’s wrong when I hitEND. It hasn’t been hanging up like it should.”
“Maybe Santa will bring you a new phone for Christmas.”
“I need one. Austin heard me singing the other day.”
“That’s ugly. You can’t sing worth a damn.”
“I know. And now, so does he.”
