Page 81 of Holly versus Mr. Ivy
Sometimes being short sucked. “Can you see a booth selling lotion and soap?” I asked Rhett. With his height, he might be able to get us to our destination faster.
“I think so. Four booths up on the left side.”
I looped my arm through Rhett’s, angling myself slightly behind him so he could mow a path. “Lead the way.”
After way too many bumps jolting my sore hand, we finally made it to the lotion booth. Rhett dropped my arm, taking aWe’re just friendsstep away from me.
I blew out a breath, excited to get a small break from the crowds. Wood shelves sat on top of tables that formed a U-shape inside the tent. Dozens of soaps, body washes, and lotions lined the displays. I asked Rhett to pick up a few testers, allowing me to sniff which smelled the best.
He held a floral one up to my nose. I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not. “What do you think? Too strong?”
He leaned down, taking a big whiff of the open bottle. He winced, then choked. “Definitely too strong,” he sputtered. “It smells like my grandma, and trust me, that isnota good thing.”
I laughed, and he put the bottle back. Picking up the next scent, a nectarine and honeydew mixture, he held that one up to me.
I wrinkled my nose. “Still too strong. What do they put in these things? Whatever happened to subtlety?”
Like the way his woodsy cologne was gentle enough you had to be pretty close to Rhett to smell it?
“My mom likes their peony and vanilla scents the best. I’ll probably just get those again for her because you’re right, the rest of these are a bit much.”
Rhett got my card out of my coat pocket and paid for Mom’s bottles, and we each took a fortifying breath before joining the press of people, which had somehow increased in the few minutes we’d stepped inside the booth. Looping my arm through Rhett’s again, I suctioned myself to his side like a barnacle to a boat as we tried to check out the other booths. There were too many people blocking my view. Each step we took was barely a baby step as we navigated through the crowd.
This wasn’t like when I was growing up. We’d had room to move, to breathe without ingesting a dozen other people’s breaths at the same time. People who needed Santa to bring them a toothbrush and breath mints.
“Rhett.”
He continued weaving around people.
“Rhett,” I shouted, tugging on his arm.
He turned his head over his shoulder. “Yeah?”
“I’m ready to go.”
He nodded. “Yeah, this place is packed. Once we get to the end of the street, we’ll go down two more blocks and circle back to my truck.”
We hadn’t eaten yet and hardly saw any of the booths. I was disappointed the festival had morphed from our town tradition into this chaotic affair. Finally, people weren’t pressed into me on all sides and I could breathe again.
“I think all of Connecticut came out for this,” I complained.
Rhett guided us away from the city square to a side street. “It’s never been so busy. They must have marketed it to more towns surrounding the area or something.”
“I’m bummed. If it’s like this every year, I don’t want to come back.” Which really sucked because it was tradition. If we didn’t return next year, it wouldn’t feel like Christmas.
“We’ll need to find a small town no one else knows about and crash their Christmas festival.”
I easily pictured Rhett, in his business suit, side swept blond hair, chiseled chest, and gorgeous smile, charming every woman in a new small town. Give him a family restaurant that was in trouble and there you’d have a Hallmark movie plot in real life. I hissed, because that would make me the girlfriend back home in the city who got dumped.
Yeah, there would be no other festivities unless we went together.
“What’s wrong? Why are you hissing?” Rhett asked with furrowed brows.
He’d heard that? “How about we find someplace to eat for now?” I was too embarrassed to tell him he had the potential to be a Hallmark heartthrob.
“I’ll let you pick where we go since you have such high standards, your highness.”
I dramatically flicked my hair over my shoulder. “That’s me. The high maintenance princess.”
