Page 11 of Christmas By The Book

“I guess... I guess I could use your help,” I admitted finally.

He grinned, the smile spreading wider across his face. I noticed, for the first time, a dark smattering of stubble on his jaw, and found myself wondering for one crazy second what it might feel like under my thumb.

“Great,” he replied. “I’ll be able to pull something together in the next few days. This place’ll be full in no time, trust me.”

“Yeah, I hope so,” I muttered, fiddling with a hangnail and trying to keep my cool. I didn’t like having to accept anyone else’s help, but what kind of choice did I have? I knew Haley would kick my ass six ways ‘til Sunday if I tried to get out of accepting this guy’s help, and the last thing I wanted was to let her feel like I wasn’t doing everything I could to keep this store alive when things were getting tough.

“Let’s talk about it over dinner tonight,” he suggested smoothly.

Sheesh, as though I wasn’t blushing enough as it was, I could feel my cheeks burning a bright red, and I was sure he had to have noticed it by now.

“I’m not looking to date right now,” I blurted out quickly. But if I was, it would be with someone like you.

“That’s fine,” he replied, hardly fazed at all. “Call it a meeting then, about this book fair. Does that sound good?”

I hesitated a moment before replying. I still wasn’t entirely convinced this was a good idea, but I didn’t want him to change his mind about helping me. I would need all the aid I could get if I was going to keep this place open.

“Sure,” I replied.

“I can come pick you at your place around... seven, shall we say?” he replied. “Where do you live?”

“It’s just a couple of streets over,” I replied, and I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from the desk. “Here, let me write it down for you.”

I handed him the paper with my address on it, and, just like they had when I’d given him the book, I felt our fingers touch, the same little spark of electricity passing between our skin, like someone had closed a circuit. I drew my hand back quickly, sneaking a look at his face to see if he had felt it, too. If he had, he was doing a good job hiding it—a better job than me.

“Thanks,” he remarked, tucking it into his pocket. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“See you then,” I replied, and with that, he turned on his heel, and made his way out of the store once more.

Haley managed to hold her breath just long enough for the door to drop shut behind him, before she spun on her heel to face me, clapping her hands together.

“You’re doing it!” she exclaimed.

“Going out with him, or the book fair?”

“Both,” she replied, nudging me playfully. “What are you going to wear for your date tonight?”

“It’s not a date,” I replied firmly. “You heard what he said. We’re just getting together to talk about what we’re going to do for this book fair.”

“Oh, it’s a date,” she teased me. “Your eyes are going to meet over a copy machine, and that’ll be that.”

.I couldn’t help but laugh “Not exactly my idea of romance,” I replied, as I tapped on one of the covers of the books we had unloaded earlier. “You think these books have a lot of event planning in them?”

We finished up for the day. Haley promised to lock up the shop, telling me to get home and get all dressed up for my evening with Seth. And, while I could tell her all I wanted that there was nothing to this particular meeting today, I was still worried about what I was going to wear and how I was going to look.

I didn’t exactly have a lot in my wardrobe that would have passed for date-night wear. It was either stuff I could wear at the store, or cozy clothes for hanging around at home in. Mia was perched on the bed, cleaning her face and shooting the occasional judgmental glance in my direction as I laid out pretty much every item of clothing on the floor, praying that at least one of them would jump out at me.

A dress, right? I should go for a dress. That was appropriate. I only had three dresses. The black one I tried on first looked a little too serious, but the other dresses were obviously for the summer, and I didn’t know exactly how many layers I would need to put on before I could bear to be out in the winter cold in them. I tried one of them on, but shook my head and pulled it off again. No, I didn’t look right. Too fluffy and frilly. I would have to go with the black one.

I did my make-up and hair in the mirror, putting my dark hair up, then down, then up again. What was going to convince this guy that I was really not looking for anything romantic? Was I even convinced of that? I couldn’t tell. I wasn’t sure. I felt like I was losing my mind a little, and he was due here in just ten minutes or so. I scrubbed off the red lipstick I had put on and chose a nude. Now wasn’t the time to go experimenting with a bunch of different stuff. Just stick with what made me comfortable, and I would be just fine.

I stepped into a pair of low heels, the only pair I owned, and then slipped the dress on.

The zip was a little fiddly, and I was groping around at the back to try and heave it up when I heard the doorbell go. Crap! I checked the clock on my bedside table, as Mia took off down the stairs to see who it was – we didn’t get a lot of visitors, so I guessed she had good reason to be intrigued.

I hurried down after her, still fiddling with my zip. I couldn’t quite pull it up, but I couldn’t just leave him standing outside the door, could I? As long as I didn’t turn my back to him, then I would be just fine.

I peered out of the peephole, and there he was, standing just a few feet away from me. dressed in a crisp blue shirt with a light gray jacket over the top of it, glancing around as he waited for me to answer the door. My heart twisted in my chest when I saw him like that. Oh, I still didn’t know why he was so intent on helping me, but maybe it was about time I just accepted that he was serious about it. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t want to make a difference, and I needed to remember that.