Page 36 of Wintertime Love (Holiday 2)

I shrug. “I neither admit nor deny that. But I will tell you that when I was high school, Macy Laxon threw my bag into the fountain and she went missing for three hours and there were reports of a toad in the chemistry lab.”

Finn halts. “You’re making that up.”

“It really happened.”

“You-?” He gapes at me.

I give him a coy look. “Who said I did anything?”

“But she…?” He trails off, looking both horrified and delighted.

This is so much fun. Who knew that Finn would be a believer of the supernatural? I decide to add fuel to the fire and sighing, I continue, “She still walks the other way whenever she sees me coming.”

Finn stares at me, and if he had a tail, I’m pretty sure it would be wagging right now with excitement.

I hide my grin. He can be so adorable at times.

He studies the chest before him with sparkling eyes. “Can I open this?”

“Aunt Vee will kill you,” I warnin a sing-song voice. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“But that’s not a no, either,” he points out, a broad smile on his lips.

I shrug, knowing exactly what he’ll find in there. “Just so you know if anyone who doesn’t have Winter blood running in their veins opens that chest…” My tone is sly. “…it’s said that they are cursed by our ancestors.” Then, I deliberately turn my back on him. “But that’s probably just an old story.”

I don’t hear anything from behind me for a moment.

Finn then reluctantly drags the chest back into its original place. He looks regretful, casting longing glances towards it as he helps me search for the box I’m looking for.

I pretend not to notice but I can imagine him as a young boy filled with unbridled curiosity, always on the search for adventure. I didn’t think that I could find him even more endearing than I already do but the more time I end up spending with him, the more I find myself slipping deeper into this pit that I can’t seem to crawl out of.

“Is this it?” Finn asks after a half hour of fruitless searching.

I walk over and see him pulling out two large boxes that belong to me. I sigh with relief. “Finally. Thanks. I owe you for –“

I freeze when he turns to me with an unholy smile at my words, my sentence trailing off.

“Another date,” he says, immediately. “I want another date. A proper one where you don’t blow me off at then end of it.”

“Can’t I just give you a free meal at the diner?” I ask, my protest sounding weak even to my ears.

“No…” He steps towards me.

I take a step back.

“I want a date. Just you and me after hours, at your diner.”

I blink at the request. “That’s not much of a date.”

A stubborn look passes across his handsome face.

Finally, I relent. “I mean, yeah. Let’s do that.”

Why do I feel like the glint in his eyes isn’t very reassuring?

The next day, I plan to start decorating the diner once the rush dies down but it’s surprisingly busy. I’m running around the whole day. A surprise catering order also shows up and I can’t turn it down because it’s from one of Aunt Helen’s friends. So, Stacy is manning the front while I cook in the kitchen.

I don’t see Finn the whole day and I don’t know why that makes me feel so disappointed but it just adds a little bit of gloominess to my day. I saw him this morning but he didn’t accompany me on my morning run, as he is prone to doing. Instead, he chose to sit with my aunts who were also awake for a change so early in the morning. And by the time I got back, he was gone.

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