Page 60 of Grinch Girl

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Monday, December 22—Single Bells—Date 5—Beach Bonfire

Pairings:

Bella and Michael

Nicole and Jim

Diane and Tripp

Mabel and Brian

Jane and Nate

“You’re going tofreeze in that,” Kelly warned, and I almost laughed because it was such a mom thing to say and she generally didn’t make many mom-comments.

I smoothed the short black skirt over the patterned tights and shoved my feet into the high-heeled ankle boots. “If I stay near the fire, I’ll be fine.”

Kelly took a sip of her seltzer water and frowned at me in the mirror. “Why are you borrowing my clothes? You never borrow my clothes.”

“I was running late, and your place was closer,” I fibbed. I just didn’t want to run into Nate at the apartment building if I stopped by to get clothes.

“And you hate high heels.” As if to prove her point, I almost rolled an ankle walking from her bedroom to the bathroom to apply black eyeliner.

“Any woman who wears high heels during the Wisconsin winter is taking her life into her hands,” I mumbled.

Light flurries were falling as I parked my truck near the beach. They crusted the ground with a thin white layer that these stupid boots were no match for. Instead of marching up like a woman in charge, I slipped and skidded like a little kid.

The fire was fully blazing, and Carol was tending to it like Hestia. “Take charge of the cameramen, Jane,” she called, frowning. “They’re a little overexcited about the open bar.”

The cameramen indeed were gathered around the table covered with bottles of wine and liquor. As I watched, they did a collective shot of whiskey. I gave snake eyes to Sean. He rolled his back at me, but then gathered the guys up and directed them to various points that would be advantageous for getting footage of the lakefront. Once the couples paired up, they’d divide and conquer to record conversations.

As I spouted drivel about the New Year’s Eve party in my confessional, I saw the rest of our scrappy crew of daters arrive, all dressed more sensibly than me. I caught a glimpse of both Bella and Nate striding over, so I slid away from the area as fast as I could on my heels. I couldn’t hide from Nate forever, but I could probably stay away from him until the cameras were rolling. Not that there were that many places to go. I ended back at the bar, pretending to be fascinated with the labels on the cheap bottles of wine.

I experimented with a sip of Cabernet, and it was so awful I almost spit it out. I knew our budget was running low, butew.

“Give me a shot of whiskey instead,” I said to the bartender impulsively. I never drank hard liquor because…well, Kelly. But I was so anxious to be around Nate all night, I needed something. The first one went down with a nice burn, so I had another. Before chugging half a beer.

It all went to my head almost immediately, which is when I realized I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.Great move, Jane.I’d probably end up puking in the bonfire. A trashy townie, after all.

“Cameras start rolling in five,” Carol announced.

My gaze slid automatically to Nate. He was seated on the stool, talking into the camera. But then he turned his jaw so his eyes burned straight to mine. I turned my face away and strodeclumsily to the perimeter of the cleared area, staring out at the lake.

Most of the docks had been pulled onshore for the winter, but we were near a municipal pier that stayed in the water year-round. The water was shallow here at the shore and lightly frozen all the way down. At the end of the pier, the water was about ten feet deep and there were a couple of inches of ice on the surface but cold water rushing underneath. Farther out in the depths, the color of the unfrozen lake changed from a whitish blue to a deep navy.

Even though it was a stark landscape, with no softening foliage from the surrounding winter-naked trees, it was still beautiful.

“It’s quite lovely, isn’t it?” Nate’s quiet voice echoed the thoughts in my mind. “Good evening, Jane.”

So now he was going to be all reflective and serious? When I really, really needed that mocking edge to his voice that told me he wasn’t taking any of this too seriously? When I would have actually paid him to call me “J-Bird”?

“Hey,” I said, keeping my eyes on the water instead of turning around.

Nate moved from behind me so that he was right next to me, shoulder to shoulder. From the corner of my eyes, I could see him scanning the horizon. “So, are you going to tell me what I did wrong?”

I risked a wild glance behind me. Where were the damn cameramen? Oh—back at the bar doing a last round of shots as Carol approached with a warning finger raised.

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