Page 38 of The Holiday Grump
“I’m…” I shook my head, looking for the right words. “I’m not like you.”
I’ll fall for her. She’ll shred my heart, and I’ll never recover.
“You mean you get way too serious way too fast?” He raised his brow. “I know. Life’s not all or nothing, Teddy. There’s a lot that falls in between. Fun weekends. Dates, you know? The girl who’s fun-crazy when she’s drunk and then the following morning?—”
“She’s just crazy,” I finished for him. I’d heard this story. “Sounds delightful.”
Jackson slapped more grout on the tiles, looking a little hurt. “Sorry I can’t sell it to you with big words. I’m not a novelist like your other friends. I’m alive, though.”
I had to laugh. “I love that about you.”
We worked in silence for a while, dodging each other in the small space. Before long, we’d filled all the gaps and the floor looked a lot more finished, apart from the layer of grout sitting on the tiles. It was also sitting across the hem of my bathrobe.
“It’s beer o’clock,” Jackson announced, straightening his back with a groan. “And please don’t throw that awful garment in the wash. Throw itout.”
I discarded the bathrobe and fetched two cold ones from the fridge as Jackson plopped himself on the couch. He’d somehow finished the floor without getting anything on his expensive jeans. The man lived in a different reality.
I restarted the fire that had died and joined him.
“So… Bangor next weekend?” Jackson went for casual, but I heard the serious undertones.
We hadn’t done anything he considered fun in two years. He’d been supportive and patient with me, but I had to pull myself out of this funk or I’d lose the last person not related to me by blood who still cared enough to turn up.
“I thought you’d be signed up for Santa Speed Dating this Friday. Eileen will be devastated if you skip town.”
Jackson sat up. “Santa what? How do I not know about this?”
“Because you don’t pay attention to her flyers?” I guessed. “They’re all over the place.”
“Okay. New plan! We both go Santa Speed Dating.”
“Over my dead body.”
“Would you prefer to be freshly killed or with some impressive rigor mortis? I’ll try to time it right.”
I could see it in his eyes. He’d never let this go. He’d dragme there by the fake beard he’d glue on my face in my sleep, thinking he was both hilarious and helpful. I needed to distract him with something. Anything.
“She kissed me.”
The silence that followed made my ears ring, like I’d just heard an explosion.
“Noelle? The candy cane girl?”
“Don’t call her that!” I tried to shake the mental image of Jackson licking Noelle.
“She kissed you, and…” He stared at me expectantly.
“Nothing. I told her it was a bad idea. She agreed.”
“You didn’t kiss her back?” Jackson yelled.
I wiped the spit spray off my cheek, huffing indignantly. “I… We made out. But I couldn’t go on, could I? We were upstairs in my store. Kailee was there. I mean, not in the room, but…”
“But you told her you’d like to go on, right? You told her that she’s hot and amazing and you’d like to take her out? Eat her out? Meet her later? Give me something!”
“We agreed to be friends. It’s fine.”
Jackson slammed his beer bottle against my coffee table. “It’s not fine, you idiot! She kissed you, and you pulled some standoffish move. You humiliated her, and now she’s never going to try again, and you’ll die a miserable, lonely bastard.”
