Page 39 of Mistletoe Hearts
“You might as well enjoy the night. It's your big opening, so stop worrying about Jensen if he's not showing. Even I'm willing to admit the storm might have something to do with it."
I groaned and barely looked over at Brian. "Would you shut up, Brian?"
He put his hands up. "Touchy, touchy. I see you're still not over our conversation from the other day. I was just telling you the truth. I'm the one trying to help you.” A waiter passed with several glasses of champagne, and Brian grabbed two. "Here. This is your opening. Sure, it sucks that Tweedledee isn't here to accompany you, but you have me and that assistant of yours, who insists on glaring at me and mumbling under her breath every time I come near you. We're the ones in your life."
I flexed my jaw. "Correction, youwerea person in my life. You're not anymore."
"But it doesn't have to be that way. I would try harder this time, maybe. And you could try harder as well. We could make it work. Why don't we pretend for the rest of the night I'm your date, and we’ll see where it goes?" He handed me the champagne and leaned closer like he was going to try and kiss me. Every instinct in my body had me shrinking from his touch as I leaned away.
"You need to stop trying to kiss my future granddaughter, mister."
I snapped my head back at the sound of the now-familiar voice, and when I saw the diminutive woman with the shock of white hair, I wasn't sure if I wanted to run and hug Grandma Lucy or if mortification was going to take over. The problem was, when I got that nervous, I usually couldn't speak. And of course, Brian thought he'd help the situation.
"Alex was my girlfriend. We maybe have a few things to work out, but we're getting back on track."
I shook my head and stuttered. "N-n-no. We arenot. He is not my boyfriend. He's my ex."
Brian put his arm around my shoulder. "Now that's not exactly true. We've been talking the last two days, trying to work things out."
And then I saw Jensen coming through the front door, looking every bit the Greek God of the ocean with strands of wet hair sticking to his handsome face. He looked like everything I'd ever wanted. He grinned when he saw me, but then his face instantly fell when he took in Brian's arm around me, and something inside me snapped. I couldn't take the lies, or any of it, anymore. I knew I had to get the truth off my chest, and it was going to hurt Jensen.
* * *
Jensen
Relief flooded my veins.She looked amazing. The overhead lights were soft and made the diamonds in her ears twinkle as she moved. Had I ever been this happy to see her?
Though after the relief flowed through me, I was far less enthusiastic to see Brian with his arm around her. Matter of fact, I was pissed. I strode toward them, ignoring my grandmother standing there like a fierce warrior because all I could see was Alex. "You want to get your hands off her, Brian."
"Or what? You'll hit me? This is between me and Alex."
Alex shrugged out of Brian's hold and put a hand on my chest. An immediate spark flowed through me, staying me for just a moment. She also took her other hand and shoved it against Brian until he backed up by a few inches.
"Stop it. I have had enough. Enough of the lies and the pretending and all of it." She turned to face me. "Jensen, I'm so sorry. But I can't lie anymore. I should never have agreed to do any of this." Brian grinned as if he'd somehow won.
I pleaded with her. "Alex, you don't have to—"
"Idohave to," she said and turned her attention to my grandmother. "Grandma Lucy, I owe you a huge apology. I'm not Jensen's girlfriend. I'm his best friend. He wanted you to feel better, and that girlfriend he said he had, well, he never had one. He just didn't want you to be stressed out and upset, so I said I would pretend to be his girlfriend. And then I got to know you, and it just felt so terrible to lie to you, and I'm so sorry. I hope this isn't making your condition worse, but I just can't lie anymore."
I couldn't believe my ears. She was telling every single one of our secrets. But I didn't care because I was in love with her. All I wanted was her.
"And Jensen, I'm sorry to you too. I've been lying to you for too long." She sucked in a deep breath. "I'm in love with you. I know you don't feel the same way, and it's fine. It really is. Because this last week was amazing. It was every fantasy of mine come true. I also know that it can't continue. I was going to come back to Catalina. You have to know that. I just needed some time. My plan was to go back and tell you that I was falling for you. I was afraid that would have affected our friendship and maybe you'd never talk to me again, but at least it would've been the truth and I would've been honest with both you and myself."
"Alex—"
She didn't let me finish. "And Brian, if you ever put your hands on me again, I'll cut them off and feed them to you. We're done. Over. And I never want to see you or talk to you again. You are a liar, and a cheater, and Jensen is twenty times the man you are.Inthe bedroom and out. He would never do to me what you did. But you were right about one thing. I have been lying to myself. I've been in love with him since college, and I was too terrified of my emotions to deal with it."
When she turned back to me, I reached for her, but she avoided my touch. "I'm so sorry, Jensen." And then she ran out.
Holy hell. I should go after her, but I needed to deal with my grandmother first. "Grandma Lucy, Alex was just upset. The weather, and her not coming back, and the opening, and this jerk of an ex-boyfriend—"
"Honey," she interrupted and leveled her gaze on me. "You're a worse liar than she is. I knew you were spinning tales in the hospital. You think I didn't notice you'd use the girlfriend excuse whenever I wanted you to meet someone? I'm in control of all my faculties, thank you very much. I wanted to see what you would do. Besides, I've known for years you were in love with Alex. Every other word out of your mouth is, ‘Alex this and Alex that.’ I wanted to get a look at her for myself." She straightened the hem of her blouse. "Can't fault a grandma for trying to set up her grandson, right?"
I blinked at her. "You knew?"
"Yes, I knew. And you didn't make it easy, worrying about me every step of the way. But we can talk about that later. How about right now, you go find your girl?"
Grandma Lucy turned her attention on Brian, and I didn't want to be him. I knew my grandmother was going to set him straight. But I pushed those thoughts aside as I raced out to find Alex.
