Page 48 of Jingle Bell Jilt
“I know, but Dean’s at a disadvantage. He can’t nurse Roman back to sleep like you can.”
The crying gets louder. “Okay, I’ll be expecting your call.” The wailing stops and all I hear is the heaves that come after a good hard cry. I’m intimately acquainted with those heaves. “I’m glad you had a Merry Christmas, Shay.”
“Thanks, Mags.”
“Merry Christmas, Shay,” I hear Dean shout in the background.
“Tell Dean Merry Christmas back.”
“I will. Now go get that rebound.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
SHAY
Ipull into the driveway of my former rental property and drop my head onto the steering wheel.
Why does no one tell you that Disney World by yourself is not the happiest place on earth? It sucks to see all those happy couples and families together enjoying each other’s company. There’s no better way to feel completely alone than sitting next to complete strangers on Pirates.
I hear a power tool through my rolled-up window and look over to see Evan in his garage.
I climb out of BR and trudge over to Evan’s garage. “Hey, what are you working on?” I push through the garage screen door, only then noticing a man leaning against the tool bench lining one length of the wall.
The guy eyes me and flicks up his brows.
Evan looks up and smiles at me. “Oh, hey, Shay. This is my friend, Darrin. He came over to take a look at the kitchen and bathrooms. He does custom cabinetry.” Evan motions to me with a dusty hand full of sandpaper. “Darrin, this is Shay.”
Darrin gives Evan a knowing look before tossing me a bro nod. “Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too.” Although with the way he’s watching me, I’m not sure it really is.
He pushes off the counter. “Okay. I’ll send you a bid in the next few weeks. Do you think we might be able to trade some of it out for that chair? My mom would love it.”
Evan chuckles. “Yeah, I’m sure we can come to some agreement.” He puts the sandpaper down and brushes his hand off on his apron before he holds it out to shake. “Thanks for coming over. I know you guys take this whole week off for the holidays.”
“No problem. It’s nice to catch up. I had no idea you weren’t going home for Christmas. We could have had you over—”
Evan shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. I had a great Christmas,” his gaze flicks over and holds mine.
I pull my lip between my teeth. Did he enjoy it as much as I did? I don’t remember a Christmas I’ve enjoyed more than this one.
“I’ll talk to you later,” Darrin waves. “Nice to meet you, Shay.”
I nod. “Yeah.” I watch him until he shuts himself inside a silver truck parked across the street. I turn back to Evan. “What are you making?”
“A chair.”
Duh, Shay. Wasn’t that part of the conversation just now? But Darrin left me flustered. I feel like he knows things about me that I don’t know he knows. Whatever, it made sense in my head.
“What about you?” Evan runs the sandpaper in a long stroke down the grain of the wood. “I thought you were spending the day at Disney.”
I shrug. “It’s not very fun when you’re by yourself.”
He nods. “Yeah, I get that.” He pauses for a minute. “You know, you don’t have to go by yourself. I already met with the flood people—,” he pauses. Is he offering to come with me? I feel like I can’t read his body language. Or read between the lines or whatever this is.
“I can go with you if you want.” There’s a vulnerable look in his eyes that, I’m not going to lie, is super attractive. Nathan was never vulnerable. Or if he was, he never showed it.
“Really? Do you think they would transfer Nathan’s ticket to you?” I bite my lip. “I can totally pretend to cry if I need to.”
