Page 32 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
‘Cute hat.’ Cal grinned.
Being the mature adult that I was, I stuck my tongue out at him. ‘I don’t care. It’s warm.’
Cal leaned briefly towards me. ‘I was actually being serious.’
I looked up, surprised. ‘Oh!’
He gave a dip to the side with his head, considering. ‘It suits you.’
‘Thanks. I think,’ I replied, laughter bubbling through my words. Even after a night of no sleep – and not for the good reasons – Cal Martin still had a smile capable of knocking me right out of my fur-lined boots. To prevent that happening, I bent and fiddled with Apollo’s lead for a moment, giving myself a moment to resetand have a little mental shake.
I had a whole day with this man ahead of me. Yes, he’s hot. And yes, I liked him. And even though I was usually really obtuse in such circumstances – I blame growing up surrounded by men – I was getting the idea that he might sort of like me too. But I had no idea what I was going to do with my life right now. And like I’d said at Giselle’s, at the most inopportunetime possible of course, getting involved with anyone right now was probably not a great idea. Absolutely. Right! Good. That was sorted then.
‘Are you anywhere nice?’
A deep voice with a definite hint of smile broke into my thoughts.
‘Huh?’ I stood back up and came face to chest with Cal. He bent his knees a little and looked at me straight on.
‘You were miles away …’
‘Oh … that. Yes. No.’
Cal quirked an eyebrow and hit me with that smile again. Oh crikey. This was going to be an interesting day. Pull it together, Lexi!
‘Come on, boy. Up you get.’ Apollo leapt into the back of the Defender and Cal shut the door. We both walked around to the driver’s side.
‘Umm, you’re not driving, remember?’
‘I’ll be fine.’
‘OK. Then you don’t need me to come with you.’
Cal took a deep breath.‘You can sit and talk to me and keep me awake.’
‘The idea was for you to get some sleep. Which you need.’
‘Yeah, but –’
‘No buts. Keys please!’
He gave me a look. ‘Considering you’re best friends, you and Giselle are very different, aren’t you?’
‘That we are. She’d get you to give the keys over without even realising you were doing it. I, on the other hand, don’t have her beauty or persuasiveskills so I tend to find that a more direct approach has to be employed.’
Cal smiled. ‘Direct can be good too.’
‘I’m glad you think so.’ I held out my hand for the keys.
Cal laid the small bunch in it, but as I closed my hand around it, he didn’t quite relinquish his own hold.
‘I’d take issue with the beauty thing too. You shouldn’t do yourself down.’
‘Huh. Oh. Right. Good. Thanks. Thankyou. Good to know.’ I nodded a little too vigorously and did a mental eye roll at myself. It was quite impressive how inordinately bad I really was at this kind of stuff. From the corner of my eye saw Cal run a hand across his chin, and I was pretty sure it was disguising a smirk.
Keeping my eyes averted, I pulled my hand a little to gain full control of the keys and opened the door of the LandRover, putting myself into territory I was far more relaxed in. As I settled myself behind the wheel, I risked a glance up at Cal as he walked around the bonnet to the passenger side. He was grinning. Well, I definitely wasn’t going to win any prizes for my feminine wiles but at least I provided amusement for those around me. That was always nice. Better when it was planned, but still.
Cal pulledopen the door and hefted himself in. Leaning forward he switched on the satnav and pulled his phone from a pocket in his jacket as he waited for it to boot up. I glanced back at the dog whilst I waited. Apollo had his head resting on the back seat, watching and waiting patiently.
