Page 75 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

“Of course!” I said, then quickly added, “Your whole family, too.”

“Cool.” He paused. “Will James and his dad be coming, too?”

Oh. Didn’t think of that. “Nah. This feels more like a family and close friends kinda thing.”

“Close friends.” Sam gave a short nod. “Gotcha.”

His tone sounded different then, almost distant.

I mean, was I wrong to say that?

We continued walking and a few minutes later turned down Mistletoe Lane. I ran my hands along the candy cane fence that surrounded the big tree in the town square. “It really is one of the best trees you guys have donated.”

“I think so, too.” He stood and peered up at it with a satisfied grin on his face. “I hope they continue to do this even after I take over.”

I gawked at him. “Of course they will. You’re like the smartest arborist I know.”

He waved a hand at my comment and turned to start walking again. “Being book smart doesn’t mean I’ll be as good as my dad.”

“Hey,” I said, grabbing his sleeve to slow him down. “Maybe it’s not about being as good as your dad but about bringing something different to the table, or in your case, to the trees.”

He smiled. “Yeah, maybe.”

I skipped toward the nearest light pole and swung around it, then hurried over to the next one to do the same.

“You always get dizzy when you do that,” Sam warned.

“No I don’t!” I shouted, spinning away and directly into Sam, who grabbed my hand and twirled me.

“Well, now I will,” I said, laughing as he spun me back toward him.

I pressed my hand against his chest as I tried to catch my breath, but the feel of Sam’s racing heartbeat beneath my palm only made mine move that much faster.

“I…” Sam swallowed hard. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Since that night by the firepit after the gingerbread contest when you asked me about my Scrabble word—”

“Oh?” I didn’t dare look up at him. He was standing too close.

We were standing too close.

He took a breath. “I didn’t play it just to win.”

I swallowed. “You didn’t?”

“No.”

I raised my eyes to his, and my body hummed with so much energy that everything felt supercharged.

This was what I had been waiting for.

The moment I had imagined—Be real, G, maybe even dreamed of—for longer than I’d ever admit out loud.

And yet a quiet voice in the back of my head whispered…

James.

I had just asked him out. In front of my family and Sam.

Wait.