Page 79 of Mistletoe Mischief

“I don’t know how I feel about being compared to a mosquito bite.”

Ryler laughed. “It’s just an expression. I only mean that we can keep this casual and fun, and we don’t have to turn it into anything more complicated. I’ll be gone by Christmas, and everything in Mistletoe will go back to normal after I leave.”

“Yeah, my new normal,” Pike said bitterly, thinking about Adventures in Mistletoe and Anthony, something he’d been trying to avoid. What would happen when he returned to town tomorrow? Would he pull out of the business, his dream? Could they continue to run the place, even if they were no longer friends?

“I think we should have some ground rules for this,” she said.

“Fire away,” Pike said, keeping his attention on the subject at hand.

“I think that as long as we’re together, we should only talk about happy things, so it doesn’t kill the mood.”

The waiter took Pike’s card and went behind the counter to run it.

“Fair enough,” Pike said.

“In addition, I don’t think we should share this with anyone, especially the rest of the Excursions crew.”

Pike nodded in agreement. “Completely doable.”

“And if at any point either one or both of us wants to end this, we need to be completely honest,” Ryler said. “We don’t need to make it awkward after the fact. We just rip off the Band-Aid.”

“We’re just casually hooking up to stave off the holiday lonelys,” Pike joked.

“It works for me,” she said.

“Are there any rules for what we do together?” he asked.

“Define do,” she said.

“Like we’re not gonna tell anybody that we’re having extracurriculars,” he said, “but are we going to go to dinner like we are now? Or is this more of a late-night text, quickie on my lunch break kind of thing?”

“I think it would be pretty suspicious if we were doing date-like activities together, don’t you think?” Ryler asked.

“Noted,” he said. “So this will be our last dinner just the two of us.”

“I think that’s best,” she said. “And if either one of us finds the experience tonight to be not as gratifying as we expect, no hard feelings in the morning.”

Pike almost spit out his drink. “I think we’re going to be fine.”

“Just because we had one good kiss doesn’t mean we’ll have the right chemistry for sex. I just want you to know that if there are no fireworks, we’re good.”

If Ryler thought that she was going to get a lackluster performance, she was going to be in for a shock.

“Anything else?” he asked gruffly.

“I think we’ve established the main boundaries.”

Doc walked into the restaurant and waved at them, making his way over. “How was everything?”

“It was good, Doc,” Pike said.

“Are you going to stay the night?”

“Yeah,” Pike said, waving his hand toward the dark window. “With the snow coming down outside, I think we’re going to wait it out until morning and give the road crew time to plow.”

“Do you happen to have another room?” Ryler asked.

“I don’t, but if you’re uncomfortable, I could have a cot brought up,” Doc said.