Page 40 of The Holiday Grump
“For what?” I blinked in confusion.
The smell of fresh coffee and buttery pastry hit my nose, distracting me from his words.
“I don’t think I said the right thing yesterday. I don’t know if I did the right thing, either. I’m not great at this.” I’d never seen him this flustered.
“This being…?”
“I mean, anyone showing interest in me. I don’t know how to react.”
He looked so adorably panicked that I couldn’t help smiling. “But nothing happened.”
He sighed. “Yeah. I know. That’s one of the wrong things I said. Because you’re right, it doesn’t work. If I’ve learned anything from books, it’s that the buried truth always comes out in a messy way.Scarlet Letter. Crime and Punishment. Jane Eyre…”
“The Doctor’s Secret Baby!”I added, biting my lip. “I haven’t read it yet, but I bet it fits the bill.”
He laughed. “Exactly. Let’s not do that.”
“What do we do instead?” I took a sip of coffee, letting it warm my throat. “Announce the kiss in the town bulletin?”
His eyes flashed with horror. “Lady Lovewatch would lose her mind.”
“Who’s that?”
“The gossip columnist.” He huffed. “Nobody knows who it is, but I suspect it’s actually more than one person.”
“You think they’d write about how the sad woman staying in Fredrik’s bookstore tried to kiss him?”
Fredrik’s mouth tugged faintly. “You didn’t try to kiss me. You succeeded.”
I released a heavy breath. “When I do stupid stuff, I commit. I’m sorry you got caught up in it.”
He leaned on the doorway, fidgeting with his coffee. His voice was measured. Tender. “Are you confused over what happened here yesterday?”
I hid behind my coffee cup. “A little,” I admitted. “I thought maybe you kissed me back to be polite, or… I don’t know. I didn’t sleep much, and my brain is circling the drain right now.” My heart pounded as I looked up at him.
There it was again, the babbling honesty I couldn’t take back. I was out of control and sick of myself.
“Noelle.” He stepped closer, tipping my chin with afinger so I had to meet his gaze. “I didn’t just kiss you back. I wanted to take you, right here. I lost control.”
It was a confession. Full of regret. Yet my body flooded with heat. For a moment, I drowned in his forest-green eyes, like I was submerged in a pond. I waited, too scared to move. My whole body tingled. I wanted him to touch me so that I could respond.
But after a moment, he released me. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” He backed toward the door. “I’ll… leave you to it.”
To what?I screamed in my head as the door closed, and his footsteps faded away.
He’d come to tell me that, then left.
At 3:20 that afternoon,the bell above the Christmas store door chimed as my new friend Kailee barged in, school bag swinging on her shoulder, and a huge dog in her wake.
“You have a dog?”
The St. Bernard followed her inside, settling at the doorway.
“That’s just Skippy. I bagged some bacon for him from the school cafeteria.” Kailee lifted a greasy paper bag, smiling. “He wanders around town, but you can sway him with treats.” She dangled a piece of bacon, and Skippy snatched it.
“He’s gorgeous!” I crouched down to pet him. “Whose dog is he?”
“My mom says he’s like a giant pigeon. Goes wherever he gets the best meal.”
