Page 42 of Under the Mistletoe
Why was he sorry? Somehow her mind had stalled on the wordsI used to have a crush on you.He liked her. But he saidused to. As in past tense. “You had a crush on me in college?”
“A pretty big one.” He finished up the name, marked it off, and moved to the next stocking. “But don’t worry, that was a while ago. I got over it.”
Worry, why would she worry?
“Why didn’t you ever ask me out?” She looked at the list, but the words were a blur before her.
“No big surprise, Liam had a crush on you as well. So we agreed that neither of us would ask you out.”
“Did no one care to ask what I wanted?” Why did her voice sound so squeaky?
“Honestly? No. Neither of us were willing to let a girl come between us.”
“I guess that makes sense.” But still.
“The second year, I think Liam would have been okay with me asking you out. After all, my brother’s attention didn’t stay one place very long, but by then it was clear to me that you were pretty into Liam, so what was the point of bringing it up?” There was a tightness to his voice that hadn’t been there before.
How did one silly crush in college seem to be coming back to haunt her? Maybe Liam had made quite an impression when they’d first met. But she had been interested in Logan on that drive first. “You still should have asked.”
“I almost did after college but…” He crossed off the next name and set the one with Tyce written on top aside. “I guess it was a good thing I didn’t.”
Her eyes darted back to the first name on her list. Amy. She positioned her glue bottle, but her mind was still tumbling his words over. “Wait, why is you not giving me a chance a good thing?”
“You did end up dating Liam for a while. My brother and I share a lot of things, but girls are not one of them.” He picked up a blank stocking. “Well, there was the Jacquelyn fiasco, but that hadn’t been on purpose.”
What? Her head jerked toward him. “I never dated Liam.”
His hand froze over the stocking a moment. “Last Christmas. You showed up at the party as Liam’s date.”
Her brain searched for the same memory but came up empty. What was he talking about? “I never showed up anywhere as Liam’s date. I think I’d remember that.”
“I saw you at the party.” His blue eyes locked on hers. His gaze had shifted to irritation, but she wasn’t lying to him. “I saw you arrive with him.”
Wait. The party where Logan had insulted her. He’d thought she’d come as Liam’s date? “I arrived with him because my car broke down, and he came and rescued me.”
He frowned as if rolling the same memory over in his head. Then he finally sighed and focused back on his stocking. “Well, you stuck close to him most of the night. I think most people assumed you were dating.”
“Most people? I only really knew you and Liam at the party, and when I tried to talk to you, you were rude.” Her voice rose this time.
“I’m sorry?—”
“‘I don’t think this is where either of us wants to be.’” Her voice dropped into a mocking tone. “I was humiliated.”
He cringed at that. “I wasn’t trying to be rude. There was just no way I was going to kiss my brother’s date, even for tradition.”
She opened her mouth to interrupt, but he held up his hand. “I thought you had arrived with him. So I stated the obvious. ‘I don’t think this is where either of us wants to be.’ Only it came out a little…”
“Harsh. Angry. Mean.”
He swallowed. “I’m sorry. I guess…I was just not handling it well.”
“Handlingwhat?”
Logan set the glue down a little harder than necessary, causing it to drip over the side. He closed his eyes a moment before standing and hurrying to the kitchen and returning with a paper towel in hand.
“Our agreement to not ask you out had only gone through college, and I honestly thought that when you moved to Detroit that my feelings would fade.”
“But they didn’t?”
