One Christmas Eve

by Shannon Stacey

  “I’ll be back,” she said, and she was gone before he could say anything else.

  He moved to the nonfiction section and found a couple of books he wanted, including what looked like a good history of the town, and eventually ran out of shelves to look at. Rather than linger to the point of making things awkward, he stepped up to the counter as her customer left the store.

  “Oh, you found something. That’s good.” She scanned the books and put them in a small paper bag with the store’s logo stamped on it.

  “Your new window display is amazing, by the way,” he said. “It’s an incredible tribute and I’ll be sad to see it go.”

  “So it meets your approval, then?” Her tone and the way one eyebrow lifted just a little warned him he was back to treading on thin ice. But it was also an opening to maybe mellow things between them a little.

  Not only because Joe had warned him that the harder he pushed at Zoe, the harder she’d push back, but because he didn’t want this beautiful, vibrant woman angry at him all the time. He liked her smile—her sparkle—and he didn’t want to be the reason it dimmed.

  “About that,” he said. “I’m sorry I overreacted to the Halloween display and then doubled down when you called me on it. I was so stressed about everything being perfect when it came to opening my own business and... I don’t even know why it set me off, but it was unreasonable. I’m sorry if you felt as if I was being judgment—no, that’s not right. I’m sorry I actually was being judgmental.”

  Since he usually went out of his way to avoid doing things that triggered the need for apologies, he didn’t have a lot of experience giving them and he wished he could explain his reaction better. Tension tightened the muscles along his spine as he waited to see if she’d accept what he’d said or laugh in his face.

  “Wow.” Her dark eyes seemed to search his for a long moment and then she smiled. “You give good apology, Mr. Wheeler. Thank you. And I’m sorry, too, for blowing it all out of proportion. You really pushed my buttons, I guess.”

  “I think we push each other’s buttons,” he said, and even though he’d been trying to imply they’d both blown things out of proportion, it sounded a little dirty.

  She laughed and then held up one finger. “Hold on just a sec.”

  He watched her walk to the Recommended by Zoe section, and after running her hand over a row of spines, pull a book from the shelf. Then she walked to the desk, and flipping through the pages, stuck small yellow sticky notes on three different pages.

  Without even showing it to him, she slipped it into the bag with his purchases and then winked at him. “A sample, on the house. You can bring it back if it doesn’t suit your fancy.”

  He took the bag when she held it out to him. “Trying to broaden my literary horizons?”

  “Customer satisfaction is important to me.”

  The door opened again before he could think of a flirtatious response—he never would have guessed they’d be this busy between tourist seasons—so he told her he’d let her know and nodded at the man who’d just entered as they passed.

  When Preston paused in front of the window, though, and looked in, Zoe was looking out at him and he smiled as he walked to his car.

  Chapter Four

  “This is perfect,” Zoe said, holding her margarita glass up in front of her so the wooden railing of the Dock’s waterfront dock and the lake beyond served as a backdrop. It would make a great Instagram photo if she felt like digging in her purse for her phone.

  “Considering we had to brush snow off the chairs, I’d go with almost perfect,” Noah argued from the other side of the table. Carly was next to him, and the fourth chair sat empty.

  It was just the three of them tonight, since their other friends had plans, but Zoe was used to being their third wheel. Noah and Carly had been best friends since infancy, more or less, and Zoe had tagged along with them when she came to stay every summer.

  “It’s just a dusting,” Carly said. “And the important thing to remember is that, when there’s snow, there are no bugs.”

  “Cheers to that,” Noah said, and then he downed the last of his beer. “Time for another round?”

  “I’m good,” Zoe said, as did Carly.

  As Noah went back inside to get another beer, Zoe watched her cousin watching her husband and felt a mild ache in her chest. They were so obviously in love with each other, and Zoe wanted that for herself someday. She’d thought she found it once, but she had to admit she didn’t think she’d ever watched her ex-husband the way Carly watched Noah.

  When they were alone, except for a few other hardy people on the far end of the deck, Carly turned her attention back to Zoe. “Before I forget, you’re coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”

  “Was that supposed to be an invitation, because those usually end in question marks.”

  “When Grandad gave me the message to pass along, there were definitely no question marks involved.” Carly grinned. “You are coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”

  While she didn’t say so aloud, Zoe had assumed she’d be joining them for Thanksgiving dinner, as she had last year. She still had a relationship with her parents, but they weren’t as close as they once were and it was going to be a while before Zoe stopped keeping them at a distance. They’d absolutely loved Ben, her ex-husband, which had seemed like a happy miracle once upon a time. But when the happily ever after came crashing down and she hadn’t been able to comfortably articulate her reasons for leaving him to her parents, they’d sided with Ben in the divorce. She’d watched them nod along to his claims she was just having some kind of a breakdown and she needed to get over it.

  Thank goodness she’d trusted her gut and not caved to their pressure to start a family right away. Not having children with Ben enabled her to pack up and drive away from that life—and her parents—without looking back.

  There were occasional phone calls and sometimes, especially around the holidays, she missed her mom and dad so much it hurt. But for the most part, being Facebook friends with them was enough interaction for her.

  “And even though I’m really tempted to keep this to myself and let it be a very amusing surprise,” Carly said, “I’m going to be a good cousin and tell you in advance that Grandad also invited his new tenant.”

  “Preston?” Of course it was him. He was the only new tenant. “Why would Grandad invite him?”

  “Because he has no family in the area and you know how Grandad is. His door’s always open.”

  “It’s a family holiday.”

  Carly laughed. “Don’t even try to tell me you hold Thanksgiving up as some sacred tradition after you grumbled about having to make a book display for it because it’s just a turkey dinner.”

  “Fine. Whatever.”

  She hadn’t seen Preston, except from a distance, since he’d been in the store a few days back, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that. They’d made eye contact through the bookshop window a couple of times and he’d smiled, but she wasn’t sure if he hadn’t stopped in because he was busy or because she’d gone too far when she slipped the copy of one of her favorite very sexy romance novels into his bag.

  “Why are you blushing right now?” Carly’s voice startled her, and she took a sip of her drink to buy herself a few seconds to come up with a decent fib. But her cousin leaned forward. “Why does talking about Preston Wheeler make you blush, Zoe?”

  “Who says it has anything to do with him?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact it’s freaking cold as hell out here, but you’re definitely warm all of a sudden? And don’t even give me any crap about maybe coming down with something.”

  Dammit, Zoe thought. Those were pretty much the exact words that were about to come out of her mouth.

  “It looks like you have a thing for uptight nerds, after all,” Carly continued.

  “He might not
be as uptight as I first thought,” Zoe admitted. “And he apologized for his reaction to the window. And I apologized for taking the whole thing up a notch.”

  “A notch?”

  “Anyway, apologies were made, and he’s actually kind of funny.”

  “When were these apologies made?”

  “He came in the store while you were in Rhode Island.”

  “Huh.” She propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand. “So? Was there chemistry?”

  After debating on lying for a few seconds, Zoe sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. “Yes.”

  “Okay, so why aren’t you with him tonight instead of us?”

  Zoe turned the margarita glass in her hands, belatedly wishing she’d told Noah to bring her another, after all. “I don’t know. I mean, even though he apologized and he sincerely meant it, there was still that look. That disapproval, you know? And he can be funny and nice, but maybe at his core, he’s too... I don’t know.”

  “You can’t assume he’ll be like Ben because he scowled at a window display.”

  “No, he scowled at a fun and sexy window display with obvious disdain, so I can assume he’ll be at least something like Ben. I am a fun and sexy woman and we have a fun and sexy bookstore and I’m not dimming that light to be acceptable to somebody ever again. Not a man. Not my parents. Nobody.”

  “Honey, since you dumped Ben, not even a blackout curtain could dim your light, and I will never, ever suggest you should.” Carly paused when Zoe swore under her breath and dabbed at her eyes with her cocktail napkin. “Look, I don’t know the guy, so I can’t say if he is or isn’t a jerk, but I think there’s a tiny chance you’re hypersensitive and you’re taking it all a little personally.”

  “Yes, I’m sensitive to judgmental asshats.”

  Carly chuckled. “As you should be. But he reacted to the window, not to you. I don’t know how to explain it, except that I think you read Ben’s voice into Preston’s expression and that might not be fair to him. Or healthy for you.”

  “What Ben said hurt so much, though.” It still hurt, if she let herself think about it too much. “He was the man who was supposed to love me for the rest of his life. He didn’t like talking about intimate things, so it took a while to work up the courage to tell him what I wanted him to do and then he says, ‘Don’t be disgusting, Zoe’?”

  “Hey, look who I found,” Noah said from right behind her, and she could tell by the overly loud and cheerful way he said it, that he and whoever he’d found had been standing behind her long enough to overhear what she’d said to her cousin.

  Even Carly, who was facing that direction, had been so intent on their conversation she hadn’t noticed her husband coming back. “Hi.”

  “I hope you don’t mind me interrupting,” a man said, and Zoe’s stomach dropped. Of course it was him. “I’m Preston, by the way. We haven’t actually met yet.”

  Carly stood to shake his hand, and Zoe stared at her drink as Preston walked around the table to her. Her face was on fire and the chilly November night wasn’t doing a damn thing to help.

  “Preston was alone at the bar, so I invited him to join us,” Noah said. “Since we’ve got an empty chair and all.”

  “I don’t want to intrude,” Preston said, and Zoe looked up to find he was talking directly to her.

  She forced a smile. “Of course you’re not intruding. Brush the snow off and have a seat.”

  He hesitated for a few seconds, his gaze searching her face and leaving her no doubt he had in fact heard her saying the hurtful words that had effectively ended her marriage.

  “I heard you came into the store while I was away,” Carly said once everybody was seated. “I’m sorry I missed you.”

  “Zoe showed me around,” he said with a genuine smile. “And she helped me find some books.”

  “Anything good?”

  Zoe’s face flamed all over again when her cousin asked the totally innocent question, because if Noah told them about the romance with the sticky notes, they would never let her live it down. Never. She’d probably have to sell her half of the business and move to the other side of the country to get away from them.

  Luckily, he just said that he hadn’t a chance to read all of them yet, and then turned the conversation by asking about their trip to Rhode Island. Zoe only half listened to the ensuing conversation because she was wondering, if he hadn’t read all of the books yet, which ones he had read.

  It took all of her willpower to take a sip of her cocktail instead of downing what remained in the glass, and she tried to focus as Noah and Preston made the small talk men make to get to know each other. What they did for work. Sports affiliations, although that was something of a dead end because Preston confessed he didn’t really follow sports. After floundering for a few seconds, Noah bounced back with a question about the BMW in the parking lot. Then they talked cars.

  Every time Carly caught Zoe’s eye, she made some kind of face. First a grimace to acknowledge how embarrassing it was to have been in the middle of the conversation they’d been having. But now, the glances were becoming increasingly you should totally go home with this guy and Zoe was doing her best to ignore those suggestive eyebrow arches and not-so-subtle talk to him head tilts.

  She’d already said more than she should ever have said out loud tonight. She had no intention of wading into the conversation and making it worse.

  * * *

  It was killing Preston to pretend he hadn’t heard what Zoe had been saying to Carly when he first walked onto the dock.

  Don’t be disgusting, Zoe.

  It was none of his business and he was one hundred percent sure it was something Zoe would never have said if she’d known he was standing within earshot, so he was stuck with the pretense of being oblivious.

  He’d decided he needed to go out at least one night a week to start building up a social life. He was quickly becoming something of a lunchtime regular at the Cedar Street Café, but—even though he wasn’t much of a drinker—he knew local spots with some kind of bar were the easiest places to strike up casual conversations with people.

  And from what he’d heard, the Dock—despite its rather uninspired name—was a local favorite not only because the food was good, but because they offered access to outdoor seating year-round.

  After asking for a beer, which he intended to nurse throughout his meal, he started looking over what the bartender told him was a limited off-season menu. That was when Noah had approached him and introduced himself, saying he’d seen Preston a couple of times at a distance, but wanted to say hello.

  A few minutes later, Preston was sitting on the chilly deck at a table for four, and one of the chairs was occupied by the woman he couldn’t stop thinking about.

  And if he didn’t do something soon, he was facing the very real possibility he and Zoe would spend this entire evening together without actually speaking directly to one another.

  “So were you all born and raised here?” he asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

  “We were,” Noah said, gesturing between himself and Carly.

  “My parents met in college,” Zoe said, “and they both got good jobs in the area, so I was born and raised in western New York. But I spent all of my summers here. My parents used our grandparents like an extended summer camp, which I loved.”

  “And you moved here as an adult?” For some reason, he wanted to know everything about her.

  “After my divorce,” she answered quietly, and he internally winced. He wasn’t very good at this.

  “Zoe and I always talked about owning a bookstore when we were kids,” Carly said, not subtle in her attempt to steer the conversation away from the rocks. “She showed up one day and said it was time, and here we are.”

  “It’s a great store, so I’m glad you guys did it.”

 
Zoe smiled—and made real, voluntary eye contact with him for the first time tonight. “If we don’t have a book you’re looking for, just let us know and we can order it for you.”

  “I like to read in bed to unwind, so I’ll definitely be a frequent customer.”

  “We have a lot of books that are good for reading in bed,” Zoe said, that challenging sparkle back in full force.

  “Hey, Carly and I need food.” Noah’s voice jerked Preston’s focus away from Zoe’s eyes and he realized that, in less than a minute, he’d totally forgotten those two were there. “Wings and fries for everybody?”

  “Sounds good,” Zoe said, and then she looked at Preston. “You okay with buffalo?”

  “Sure, if you’re sure you guys don’t mind.”

  “Of course not.” Carly stood with Noah. “Do we want them delivered out here or do we want to move inside to eat?”

  When Zoe gave him a questioning look, Preston shrugged. “Wherever you’re most comfortable works for me.”

  “It’s turning the corner from chilly to cold, so why don’t you guys order and get a table and we’ll be in in a few minutes.”

  Preston pretended he didn’t see the look Carly gave Zoe before she followed her husband inside, but he was secretly thrilled about it. Clearly she must like him if she was encouraging her cousin to...whatever she was silently suggesting Zoe do with him.

  “So about these books I can read in bed,” he said once they were alone. “Will they be annotated versions?”

  She laughed, and the air had cooled enough so her breath made a fine mist. “Did you enjoy Falling for the Renegade Rancher?”

  “I did. Especially the parts you marked with sticky notes.”

  “Now you know a little more about what I recommend.”

  “Yes, I do.” He tilted his head. “I think we have similar taste in...books.”