Page 130 of How My Neighbour Stole Christmas
“Ha, as if he could mess with me. Remember who’s in first,” Storee says.
“Girls,” Cindy calls from the car. I didn’t even notice her in there, I was so fixated on the suitcases. “If we’re going to make it to Idaho Springs for a driving break and dinner, we must go. You know I’m going to need breaks.”
“Hold down the fort,” Taran says to Storee before moving toward the front of the car.
I watch Storee say goodbye to her aunt and sister, and then she stands in the driveway, bundled up in her jacket, waving to them as Taran pulls out and drives away.
Once they’re down Whistler Lane and headed onto Krampus Court, Storee turns to me with an evil smile.
“What a shame?” she asks, walking up to me. “You would have been happy to see me go?”
“Would have been easier to be named Christmas Kringle, that’s for damn sure.”
“Aw, so you really do see me as a threat.”
“Have you seen our competition?” I say as she stands right in front of me now. It takes everything in me not to pull her into my chest.
“I have. I’m specifically waiting to see if Jimmy Short can pull an upset.”
“You might have to keep waiting.”
She tugs on my flannel. “Why is there a tree in your truck?”
I glance back at the bed of my truck. “Uh, thought I would put it up in my house.”
Her brows quirk up. “You got a Christmas tree?”
“I did,” I answer as I tentatively place my hand on her hip. Her smile grows.
“Do you need help bringing it into your house?”
“Umm.” I bite down on the corner of my lips. “I could probably handle it.”
“Okay, but do you need help decorating it?”
My skin prickles as I realize I didn’t think this all the way through.
Max wasn’t lying when he said that I haven’t really been living in the house. There are white sheets draped over most of the furniture, I eat meals up in my room, nothing has been moved or touched since my parents passed—it’s a house frozen in time. And if she came into my house, she’d see that.
The question is, do I want her to see that?
“Your face has gone a little white,” she says, her hand smoothing up my chest now.
“Sorry.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “I’m, uh, just thinking.”
“Okay, do you want to talk it out?”
I sift my hand through my hair and think about what Max said to me out in the field.Don’t let this opportunity slip by. If you like her, go for it, and see where it takes you.I could do just that. Go all in and see where it takes me.
“I would like your help,” I say hesitantly. “But, uh, I need to warn you about my house.”
She rubs her hand over my heart. “Cole, you don’t need to warn me about anything.”
“I do,” I say. “It’s, um…it’s preserved.”
Her expression softens. “I get it, Cole. If I’d gone through what you did, I would have probably done the same thing. There’s nothing to be ashamed of, if that’s what you’re feeling.”
“A little, yeah.”
