Page 22 of Christmas in Comets Valley
Warmth settled into me as I stepped deeper into the room, scanning my eyes across the crowd for my friends. But much to my surprise, in my direct line of sight, there was a lanky, black-haired woman double fisting two shots who had stolen all of my attention.
A smile crawled over my expression as I watched Aera throw back both shots and slam the glasses down onto the table before triumphantly pumping her fists into the air.
Standing there wordless, my heart pounded against the walls of my chest as our eyes locked from across the room. But before I could form another thought, she was beelining through groups of people heading straight toward me.
I hardly had time to brace myself before she threw her arms around my neck and squeezed me like we hadn’t seen each other in years. “You’re here.” Shock coated my voice as I pulled her tighter against my chest.
At some point on my flight back from Seattle, I’d come to terms with the reality that I’d never be seeing Aera again. She hadn’t called or texted, so it didn’t seem far off to assume she was already halfway back to Los Angeles by then.
Yet here she was, wrapped around me like she’d never left.
“My flight got canceled.”
“You drove here.”
“I know.” She grinned, ungluing herself from me.
Taking my hand in hers, Aera dragged me across the room to her hangout spot. Thankfully, her drinking partner, Calliope, was too engulfed in a conversation with the guys at the next table to notice I was crashing their fun.
“You’re also drunk.”
“I know that too,” she crooned, tossing back a giant gulp of beer from one of the glasses on the table. “We should dance!”
“I do not dance…” I trailed off, standing firm in my place while she swayed her hips to the music.
“Oh, come on, you’re telling me you’ve never gone dancing at a club before?”
“Once,” I replied truthfully. “I usually stayed so late at the office that by the time I left, the only thing I wanted was a deluxe cheeseburger and my bed.”
“I thought you were unemployed.” She knotted her brows together.
“Only as of a few months ago.” I smirked. “And the only reason I’m unemployed is because I sold my real estate business, remember?”
Aera gasped like I was sharing information I hadn’t already revealed when our roles were reversed. “You’rethatElliot Peters, aren’t you?”
I couldn’t help the grin that came over me. “Yes, I’mthatElliot Peters.”
That made a lot more sense why she didn’t want to stick around. If it was me in her shoes, I wouldn’t want to continue banging an unemployed dude who lived in his parents’ basement either.
“You’re rich.” Her eyes grew wide like she was telling me a secret I hadn’t already known. “Like a billionaire.”
“Not quite, but close.”
“Holy shit, holy shit! Barrett’s the one who acquired your business, isn’t he?” she exclaimed, lifting her drink in the air excitedly which caused the beer to slosh around in the glass.
I grabbed the drink from her hand before she spilled it all over herself. “You know Banks?”
That would explain why her name sounded familiar when we first met. He must’ve mentioned her in passing at some point.
“Of course I do! We went to college together at Warren.” She paused for a moment and belched so loudly that a minimum of three people’s heads turned to look at her. “Warren Wolves! Woof! Woof! Woof!” she chanted.
I couldn’t hold back my laugh as I internally debated who was a worse drunk, me or her. Aside from my occasional weeping episodes, my bets were on her.
“Small world, huh?” I smiled down at her.
“Extremely. Now, dance with me, billionaire boy!” She threw back the rest of her beer before dragging me across the room like a rag doll once again.
There was a small dance floor off to one end of the bar that was primarily used by older couples whenever the band—which consisted of two high school math teachers, an herbalist, and the sheriff—played on Friday nights.
