Page 15 of Her Frosty Billionaire
“I can’t do this. Not with someone who turns everything I love into data points.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I gave you something tonight I can never get back,” I said, voice shaking. “And I don’t regret it. But I need more than a man who sees the world in margins and shipments. I need someone who feels.”
He didn’t stop me when I turned. Didn’t follow.
Mollie and Avery were waiting by the elevator. They took one look at me and pulled me in close. I didn’t look back. Because if Idid, I might see him standing there—still, silent, and not coming after me.
The doors slid shut, and the tears finally came. “I think,” I whispered, “I just fell for someone who can’t fall back.”
6
NOEL
Overpriced tchotchkes were everywhere, reminding me that I’d messed up the best thing that’d ever happened to me.
I wandered the Pleasure Valley Christmas Market, passing booths advertising fudge and glass blown figurines and Christmas T-shirts. The place was bustling with activity and not a single sign of Hope Haynes.
I was the world’s biggest fuck-up.
Three days had passed since she walked away from me at the cookie exchange. Three days of staring at my sterile penthouse, trying to work, and realizing that nothing felt right anymore. The watch sat on my wrist—the one that started everything—and every time I checked it, I thought of her mortified face at my door.
I’d called. Texted. She hadn’t responded. So here I was at the holiday fair I’d called a waste of time, holding a cup of overpriced hot chocolate that actually tasted pretty damn good, and searching for a woman who probably never wanted to see me again.
“Noel?”
I spun around.
Hope stood five feet away, wrapped in a puffy coat and a knitted scarf, her eyes wide with surprise. She wasn’t alone—her roommate Mollie was beside her, arms full of shopping bags.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Looking for you.” My heart was hammering. “Can we talk?”
Mollie’s eyes went saucer-wide. “I’m just going to…go look at those candles over there. Very far over there.” She disappeared into the crowd.
She crossed her arms. “I don’t think there’s anything to talk about.”
“There’s everything to talk about. Please. Just five minutes.”
She hesitated, then nodded toward a quieter corner near the skating rink. We walked in silence, the sound of Christmas music and laughter surrounding us.
When we stopped, I didn’t know where to start. So I just started.
“I’ve been an asshole.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“And I’m sorry. For everything I said at the party. For making you feel like what happened between us didn’t matter. For calling what you love background noise.”
She looked at me, waiting.
“The truth is, you were right. About all of it. I’ve spent the last fifteen years building walls so high, I forgot what it meant to care. And then you showed up at my door with my package, wearing that ridiculous Christmas sweater, and something cracked.”
Her expression softened slightly. “Noel?—”
“I went to see my mom’s grave yesterday. First time in a while.” My voice cracked. “I brought her flowers. Told her about you. About how I met this woman who believes in magic and hope, and how I was too scared to let myself believe in it too.”
