Page 7 of Mistletoe Love Match
“It’s a good thing we ran into you. We needed to speak with you both before you left,” Louise added.
Calliope stuffed the panties into the pocket of her skirt. “Is something wrong?”
Ralph and Louise shared another curious look.
Were their gooses cooked? Had the pair figured out what they were doing in that closet?
“Actually, something might be very right,” Ralph offered up.
Maybe their luck was changing.
“Alec, dear?” Louise said, watching him closely.
Shit!Did he still have Calliope on his face?
“Yes?” he answered, then fake coughed into his elbow and rubbed his chin on the sleeve of his scrubs. It wasn’t the smoothest of moves. Calliope pressing her lips into a hard line to keep from laughing clued him in on that. But what was he supposed to do? Ask for Calliope to give him another once-over with a wad of toilet paper?
“Have you decided if you’re going to stay in Colorado, like your brother? We’re excited he’ll be able to continue volunteering here,” Louise dropped like a bomb.
What the fuck?
He’d like to think that Louise was wrong, but the woman was as sharp as a tack. She wouldn’t mix up something like that, would she?
“Nothing is definitive,” he answered, going for the vaguest response possible. He had to get ahold of Anders to find out what the hell the man had told Louise Dagby—that he hadn’t shared with him.
He and Anders didn’t keep anything from each other.
Scratch that. He’d kept his Calliope situation from his brother.
Maybe they did have secrets.
“And Callista asked if I’d be a reference for her,” Ralph added, addressing Calliope.
“For what?” his pantyless partner pressed.
“She’s looking into open teaching positions in the area. I’d be happy to write a recommendation for you as well. We’ve been so lucky to have such gifted teachers volunteering in our childcare rooms.”
Now it was Calliope’s turn to look like the Dagbys had just hurled a Frosty-the-Snowman-sized snowball at her face.
“Callista wants to teach in Denver?” she repeated.
This was news to him—and clearly to her, too.
Holy shit!Could Anders and Callista have their own secret that went beyond making googly eyes at each other?
“It would be such a gift to have you all here, wouldn’t it, Louise?” Ralph continued. “We’re so fond of Libby and Erasmus and, of course, Sebastian, too. I’m sure they’d be delighted to have you close by as well.”
Calliope parted her lips, but nothing came out.
At least he wasn’t the only one who’d gotten bamboozled by Kringle lookalikes.
“No, don’t tell us now,” Ralph said excitedly and waved them off. “Louise and I will text you tomorrow. Your answer can be a Christmas surprise,” he finished, then added a heartyho, ho, ho.
“And we’ll take those off your hands,” Louise said, relieving them of their toilet paper. The woman glanced at the ceiling. “And now you’ve got to kiss.”
Kiss?
He was still reeling from the Anders and Callista revelations—and now these people wanted him to kiss Calliope? Was there some Christmas delirium going around that made everyone lose their minds? He shared a perplexed look with his supply closet companion.
