Page 40 of Christmas on Ice
“Your silence confirms everything I need to know. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
“Um, thanks?”
She chuckled. “See you at work tomorrow. May you have sweet dreams of hunky hockey players.”
“Thanks, Bren.” I ended the call and queued up the audiobook. I needed to be distracted. It was a good thing he’d be away all weekend. These feelings were scaring me. ***
Trask was leaning up against the bar Tuesday afternoon when I came out of the kitchen. He flashed me a grin that heated my cheeks and sent a wave of fire down to my toes. Seeing him in person made me realize just how much I missed him over the past few days. I delivered my order quickly and hurried over.
“Four more days,” he said in that soft, low voice that made me all shivery.
I’m sure my face turned redder. We’d be flying out Saturday morning for his sister’s wedding. “I can’t wait,” I said honestly. “Ryleigh is excited, too.”
“Is Sutton still giving you a hard time about it?”
“Surprisingly, no.” I filled a glass of water for him and set it on the bar. When I’d told Sutton about our weekend plans, he hadn’t been happy. But he hadn’t mentioned it in a few days, so I wasn’t worrying about it. “He’s been super moody, though. I think he and his girlfriend are having problems.”
“I’d say I was sorry, but…”
I grinned at him. “Sutton deserves every ounce of misery he gets.”
Trask shook his head and reached for my hand. “Dumbest dude ever.”
I stared at his hand holding mine, then let my gaze travel up his forearm to the biceps and triceps outlined by his form-fitting cable-knit sweater. The man was pure sex on a stick, effortless hotness, and he was interested in me.
“Yeah. Totally stupid.”
“Yeah.” He squeezed my hand. “So, um, I’m not sure what you’re going to think about this…”
My eyes snapped up from ogling his sweater-clad torso. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“My sisterkind ofgot the impression we were dating when I talked to her yesterday.”
“Kind of?”I raised a brow and leaned into the bar. “Do elaborate,” I teased. I felt a giddy thrill at the prospect of being more than just a plus-one at the wedding.
“Well, she was calling to confirm RSVPs, and she asked me if I’d asked you out yet. I told her we went out for pizza Friday, and she teased about it being a date, and I didn’t correct her fast enough and—”
“Let me guess. Her mindkind offilled in the blanks and then you didn’t correct her?”
The corner of his mouth turned up, but his eyes sparkled with amusement. “How’d you guess?”
“Brenna did pretty much the same thing to me Friday night.”
He chuckled. “So, then … are we dating? Because if you’d like to, I’d like to.”
“That sounds like a song.” I pressed my lips together as I wracked my brain for any reason dating Trask was a bad idea. The biggest reason was Ryleigh. If—more likely when—he left Palmer City for the career he deserved, and we broke up, it would devastate my girl. Was it selfish of me to deny us both happiness, though, even if it were only for a short while? We’d talked about how we both wanted to go back to South Carolina…Even if now wasn’t our time, maybe at some point our roots would bring us back together.
But this was the present. And I liked him—a lot. And so did Ryleigh. And truthfully, we were both already attached. It would be dumb to sacrifice happy now for potential sadness later, right? And who’s to say there would be sadness later? What if everything worked out?
Carpe diem.
“Yes,” I said decisively, squeezing his hand back. “I’d like to. Our not-date that was a date? It was—”
“Amazing.”
“Yeah, and it scared me a little. The kissing … it was intense.”
“Because it mattered.” Trask took my hand and sandwiched it between his. “It scared me a little, too. But I’ve learned if it doesn’t scare you, it’s not big enough.”
