Page 46 of Merry Mayhem
“But he wasn’t home. So I went to Perks and Rec to grab a burger. I was there when Chad, the guy she went to the wedding with, called. He was supposed to come to Merry Mayhem with her, and he was backing out. We got to talking and Violet asked if I’d be willing to step in as her partner, and I agreed.”
Thea swallows. “So, you liked her.”
“I…” I think back to that night. “We talked for,maybe, ten minutes. We weren’t even flirting, Thea. I swear. We were talking about sucky Christmases, she told me about Sam, and then about Chad, and about Merry Mayhem. It was a very spontaneous decision. I didn’tnotlike her, but I wouldn’t say that it was anything more than an interesting way to spend Christmas.”
“You thought your Christmas was going to suck?”
I shrug. “My parents are concerned about me, and I’m the only single one in the inner circle over in Autre. I was going to feel…” I blow out a breath. “Lonely? Left out? Melancholy? I don’t know.”
“Because of Sierra.”
“Because of what Sierra represented and what disappeared when she broke things off.”
Thea’s arms finally uncross. “What was that?”
“Being settled. A future. Someone to spend a Christmas with that we’d talk about thirty years later.”
She takes a step closer, and I wonder if she realizes it.
“Is that what you want?” she asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
“You seem really sure.”
“Why does that surprise you?”
“You’re…young.”
I give her a half-smile. “Believe me, I enjoyed my youth. I did more stupid things before the age of twenty-three than a lot of people ever do. I’m good. I’m the baby of my family. My siblings are all settled and happy about it. My parents have been married for thirty-three years. Both sets of grandparents are happily married. In Autre, I’m surrounded by people who believe in happily ever after.”
She knows the Landrys well. She knows what I mean. I see true love and loyalty every single day.
I study her in the dim light. The hallway is illuminated only by light from the bathroom, which appears to be a nightlight of some kind, and outside light filtering in through the bedroom windows on either side of the hall.
“So you’re looking for something serious.”
I nod. “Definitely. I mean, not with Violet,” I say quickly. “That was just a spontaneous thing.”
“It sounds like you’re spontaneous a lot.”
I chuckle. “Yeah. It’s part of the package, I’ll admit. I’m a thrill-seeker. It’s how I ended up in a high-adrenaline job. It’s how I ended up a gambling addict,” I say, able to talk about it now where a few years ago, I’d deny it no matter who I was talking to. “I like a little chaos.”
“That doesn’t sound like someone who wants to settle down,” she points out.
“Actually, settling down isveryappealing. I want to be a paramedic and firefighter long-term. And I want to do things like take off on last-minute vacations, plan surprise parties, decide to take saxophone lessons, Christmas shop on December twenty-third, show up on my mom’s porch without warning, decide that tonight is a great night to have pancakes fordinner…that kind of stuff. But I’ve realized that having a stable foundation, people I can really count on, ahome, is hugely important to me being happy and being the best I can be.”
She thinks about that. “Why didn’t you just tell us about you and Violet from the beginning?”
“It washerplan. She wanted people to think she had a boyfriend. I don’t know all the ins and outs of that. I felt like it was her secret and that I had to keep it until she was awake and could tell me how she wanted to go forward.”
“Except with me.”
“I needed you to know that we’re not…”
She lifts a brow.
I decide to just go for it. “That we’re not messing around behind Violet’s back.”
