“Company drama?” Lydia repeated, already intrigued.
“Don’t encourage her,” I warned, setting my cup down.
Riley ignored me entirely.
“Let me guess. You and Mel had one of those Christmas-movie misunderstandings. You know, the kind that involves miscommunication, snow, and unresolved tension.”
Lydia’s smile was pure mischief. “That sounds right.”
Melanie groaned. “Oh my gosh. Is this what happens in small towns?”
I rubbed a hand over my face. “You’re all terrible.”
“Accurate, though,” Riley said, sliding my change across the counter. “Don’t worry, Drew. Happens to the best of us. The holidays bring out the drama. And the hormones.”
“Riley,” I said, warning in my tone.
“What?” she said innocently. “I’m talking aboutholiday hormones.Everyone’s hopped up on sugar cookies and nostalgia.”
Lydia laughed outright. Melanie, on the other hand, looked like she was debating whether to hide behind the pastry case or flee the county.
I caught Mel’s gaze for half a second…just long enough to see the flicker of something uncertain there. Regret, maybe. Or maybe she was remembering the same thing I was: her lips, her laugh, the way her breath had caught right before she pulled back.
“Anyway,” Riley said, breaking the spell. “You kids behave. I’ve got eggnog muffins I can’t burn.”
I turned to leave, but Lydia stepped closer, looping her arm through Melanie’s and smiling sweetly. “Heading back to the bar?”
“Eventually.”
“Well, if you see Callum, tell him I didn’t buy anything antique today,” she said. “He’ll consider that a Christmas miracle.”
“I’ll pass it along.”
She winked. “Good. And you,” she looked at Melanie, “try not to be too hard on him.”
Melanie sighed. “You’re assuming I care enough to be hard on him.”
I grinned because that was the most transparent lie I’d ever heard. “Sure, Mel.”
She shot me a look, sharp but not unkind, and I knew, without either of us saying it, that the conversation wasn’t over. Not even close.
Outside, the sound of the festival wrapped around the little café with bells jingling, carolers starting up again, and kids shrieking about snowflakes.
And as I stepped back into the cold, coffee warming my hands, I realized something I couldn’t laugh off anymore.
I’d fallen for a woman who didn’t want to be gotten.
Chapter Fifteen
Melanie
If awkward were an Olympic sport, I’d have taken gold, silver, and bronze for that coffee shop scene.
I could still feel the heat in my cheeks hours later. It didn’t help that Riley had basically broadcast our tension to half the café, or that Drew had looked—well,Drew-like.Rugged, calm, perfectly composed, while I tried not to crawl into the nearest pastry display and hide behind a tray of scones.
Afterward, Lydia and I had wandered back through the festival, and I’d done my best to play it cool. It was the perfect afternoon, really, as snow glittered in the sunlight, the air thick with the scent of cinnamon and evergreens, and laughter spilled from the crowd. But inside, I was all tangled like a ball of Christmas lights.
Everywhere I looked, I saw reminders of him. The wreath station with the attack squirrel. The chili cook-off area had been transformed into a cookie decorating table. The spot by the bar’s patio where he’d hung Christmas lights just because Lydia haddared him. And every time I caught a whiff of pine or smoke, my brain supplied his laugh.
