Page 29 of Christmas in Comets Valley
“Yeah… the two of you met for dinner on a Friday night, but neither of you wanted to go home, so you stayed out until Sunday evening when you had no choice but to go back.”
“Yup,” she said with a reminiscent smile. “I bet he didn’t tell you about the part about me breaking his heart at the end of our date though, did he?”
“What?” My mouth went slack-jawed. That was news to me.
She nodded. “When he dropped me off at my apartment Sunday evening, I expected him to walk me to the front door and tell me he wanted to do this same thing again the next weekend. You could see why I was caught off guard when instead of asking me on another date, he asked me to move in with him…”
I lifted a brow, urging her to continue.
“We’d known each other for forty-eight hours, yet he knew he wanted to make a life together.” She took a long sip from her mug. “It terrified me, so I told him I’d call him, but I didn’t. Not until the next Friday when I went on a date with Gill Mullins and realized I made a mistake.”
“How’d you get him back?”
“That was the simple part.” She smirked. My father glanced up from his article and gave her a knowing smile. “I lied and told Gill I was going to the restroom, but instead, I went to the kitchen and asked to borrow their phone. Your dad picked me up from the restaurant fifteen minutes later, and… well, you know the rest.”
The thought of Aera going on a date with another man back in Los Angeles made a twinge of jealousy spark in my chest.
“What I’m getting at here is that if she’s the one for you, she’ll find her way back. Just give her some time.”
Taking a deep breath, I replayed the last few weeks in my head with my mom’s words at the forefront of my brain.
Just give her some time.
“I have to change first, but I’m going to head back to Juliet’s and wait until she gets home.”
“Be sure to give Mr. Whiskers our love.” Setting her mug in the sink, Mom placed a gentle hand on my shoulder before sauntering into the living room and curling up in the chair with my father.
* * *
Back at Juliet’s,my breath caught in my lungs when I walked into her kitchen to find a takeout napkin with Aera’s phone number scribbled on it. But it was the small heart under her name that did me in.
A number of emotions as I fell back onto the couch and opened my phone to plug her into my contacts. If I called her now, would she answer? More importantly, if she did, what would I say when she picked up?
“What do you say, Mr. Whiskers? Do we call her or let it be?” I tilted my head in question at the orange tabby sitting next to me. Ignoring me, he hopped off the couch and staggered away.
I take it that was his version of a no?
A few minutes passed of me staring at Aera’s name with my thumb hovering over the “call” button when a frantic cluster of knocks sounding at the door startled me.
Throwing my phone onto the couch beside me, I rose to my feet and walked over to the front door, where the frenzied knocking had yet to cease.
Jesus, the only person who would be this immodest with their household etiquette would be my sister.
Grasping the doorknob, I whipped open the door. “Juliet, seriously. Did you forget how to use your ke—”
Only the woman on my doorstep wasn’t my sister.
Instead, the most breathtaking woman I’d ever seen with her jet-black hair and the darkest brown eyes, was staring up at me with labored breaths.
“You’re not my sister.” Shock coated my voice as I swept my eyes over the woman standing before me.
She was here. She came back.
“My flight got canceled.”
“You drove.”
“I know,” she panted, and the corners of her lips curled upward. Unbridled anticipation roared so vigorously in the space between us I could hardly process what was happening.
