Page 27 of Christmas In Love

“Well, hi everyone,” he said, though it sounded more like a question. Natalie had a lot of questions too. Namely, how long would he be in town? Because she couldn’t keep her heart under lock and key much longer with him looking and acting as he had been. Especially not after that conversation with April. Natalie had a feeling her emotions would be more than a little volatile for the next little bit.

Case in point: she was currently regretting not asking Cade to come with her on this date, even after their last few conversations hadn’t ended the greatest. She should have asked him to come as a friend. Spending the evening with him would have been much better than whatever guy April had scrounged up. She didn’t even have to meet her blind date to know that. No offense to him, but he wasn’t Cade Davis.

“Hey, Cade, where’ve you been?” Glorious April stepped in with a perfectly normal question that saved Natalie from asking a completely un-normal one. Like, ‘can I go out with you tonight instead?’

Oh crap, her face was getting warm already.

“Over at my parents,” he said to April, not meeting Natalie’s eyes. “They have various activities planned all holiday, so I spend a lot of my time over there. I’m going back in just a second.”

“Oh? Why not just stay there?”

“Their basement flooded the day I got here, so someone needed to sleep somewhere else.”

Still, he wasn’t looking at Natalie.

“That’s too bad. Is the clean-up going okay?”

“Yeah, but now it’s looking like they need to change the drywall in addition to the carpets. They’re giving them a bit longer to dry out to be sure, though. What are you guys up to tonight?”

Finally, he looked at her, only to immediately look away. Natalie experienced just the briefest moment of frustration before his gaze zeroed in on her again. And this time it didn’t leave. As she watched, his gaze slid from her head to her shoes, then back up again. Instead of feeling violated, like whenever some smarmy guy would do something like that, she felt warm all over. And kinda like doing a little dance.

Ugh.Shebroke up withhim. And for good reason. Why was he making her feel all sorts of… giddy… now?

“We have our double date,” April responded, oblivious to Natalie and Cade’s stare-down.

If Beth’s little giggle behind her was any indication, though,shecertainly noticed.

“I think that’s them now,” April added.

This time, she was right. The door jingled, yet again, and two men walked in.

A quick perusal told Natalie a lot. Both grinned and walked with that self-confident swagger that generally meant the man was more cocky than confident.

They had a long night ahead of them.

She glanced at Cade, who’d crossed his arms and seemed to be sizing up the new guys with a scowl. This bothered Natalie for some reason, so she smiled with enthusiasm that was usually April’s territory.

“Hi! I’m Natalie and this is April. I’m assuming you guys are our dates for tonight?”

Both men looked at her and one, in particular, checked her out from head to toe. She felt suddenly squeamish and dropped her smile.

“Hey Natalie, I’m Kyle. That’s Carter, but you don’t need to worry about him.” Her date jerked his thumb toward his friend, grinning as if he was hilarious.

No one laughed.

“Nice to meet you, Kyle.” She glanced at Cade. Should she introduce him? Judging by the way he was looking at the newcomers, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. The best thing would be to just get the date over with. “Should we head out?”

“Sure,” Kyle said. The guys turned back to the door, and Natalie leaned over the check-in counter to grab her purse and coat.

Beth caught her eye as she straightened. With a raise of her eyebrows and an incredibly impressive whisper, she jerked her thumb toward Cade. “I think he’s much cuter than those guys.”

Natalie smiled tightly at her and followed April out the door.

Me too, Beth. Me too.

Chapter 9

Cade

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