Page 41 of The Best Little Christmas Shop
‘Idon’t want to be entertaining!’
He shrugged. ‘Too bad. So were you one of the Single Ladies shaking their booty in this magical scene?’
I gave an eyebrow raise. ‘No. I mean, yes. But no.’
Cal did a slow blink. ‘OK. I’ll admit to not understanding that answer even vaguely.’
I rubbed my eyes and took another swallow of coffee. ‘Yes, I was technically a single lady but no I wasn’t up there dancing.I have no desire to shake my booty, or in fact anything, in front of the general public. At least definitely not while sober.’
He pulled a face. ‘Well, that gives us some leeway.’
I rolled my eyes. ‘Don’t hold your breath.’
‘No mulled wine for you that night then?’
‘No. It was flying visit. I hate to miss the event but there was some stuff going on at work that meant I couldn’t take the wholeweekend. I set off back that night after everything was finished. Or at least most of it.’
‘Must have been a late night.’
‘More an early morning, but it was worth it to get to spend the evening with my family and friends.’
‘I’m sure they loved having you there too.’
I nodded. ‘They know I love what I do … did … do … I don’t know. They know I loved what I was doing but spending over half theyear out of the country and the rest of it several hours’ drive away hasn’t always been easy on any of us. I know my mum hates it when there’s a celebration or something and I can’t make it. Which was quite often to be fair. Made me feel kind of bad.’
‘She does?’ Cal was frowning.
‘No!’ I looked up, horrified. ‘God, no! They’ve been nothing but supportive ever since I started. You just knowwhen someone’s putting on a brave face, don’t you?’
He nodded, agreeing. ‘You know, I’d heard Dan talk about his little sister but I didn’t put two and two together until I met you and realised you and Xander’s best friend and my mate’s little sister were all the same person.’
‘Yeah. Dan tends to do that when he’s talking about me. He’s kind of protective.’
‘And not saying your name helps that?Are you an international spy on the side?’ Cal flashed his eyes at me but the humour in them died as he caught my expression. ‘What have I said?’
I shook my head. ‘Nothing.’
‘OK. I know I’m a bloke but when you grew up like I did, you get pretty good at reading expressions. And like you just said, sometimes you can tell when someone’s putting on a brave face. Which, if I’m not mistaken, is exactlywhat you’re doing now.’
‘I’m not. This is the only face I have.’ I smiled, and even to me it didn’t feel like it fit quite right.
Cal’s expression told me it hadn’t fooled him either. The ocean-grey eyes held mine, concern showing in the crease of his brow. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve said something I shouldn’t have. But if you give me a clue, it will at least stop me from cocking up again.’
‘It’s fine.I … just had a bit of a tough time with my last relationship. Dan’s always been protective but all that kind of enhanced it.’
‘Somebody hurt you?’ He’d pushed his jumper sleeves back earlier as the warmth of the pub’s fire thawed us out, and as he asked the question I saw the tension in the corded muscles of his forearms. I laid my hand on his arm, feeling the tautness release under it.
‘Notlike you’re imagining from the look on your face.’
Cal laid his own hand over mine momentarily. ‘And here I was, thinking I was good at hiding my emotions.’
I gave a laugh. ‘Well, you’re good at deflecting conversation that involves talking about yourself, that’s for sure.’
‘Says the woman who’s just done the same thing.’
I opened my mouth, then closed it again. He was right. I had.
‘OK.So I tell you one thing and you tell me …’ I tapped my finger against my chin, thinking what it was I wanted to know the most.
