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Jared’s hands were still empty when the MC called out his number for stocking sixteen. Anna Beth hugged him and he walked to the center of the room to collect. He didn’t look inside until he got to his seat and pulled out the envelope.
“What did you get?” Anna Beth asked.
“A two-night hotel stay for New Years' weekend at that swanky new hotel outside of town.”
“Wow, that’s great.”
Jared left it at that because the last thing he wanted to do was ask her to join him with a table full of people watching. He slipped the envelope back into the stocking.
If he couldn’t convince Anna Beth to go, it would make a nice gift for his parents.
After the last stocking was claimed, Vance grunted beside him. “I got skunked again.”
“I’m going to the ladies' room. Make sure Vance stays away from my gift certificate.”
“Oh, I’m taking it! I need me a new pair of satin chonies.”
She laughed. Once she was out of earshot, Vance picked up Jared’s stocking and looked inside.
“This is great. Gives you a reason to jump the gun and ask her.”
“She already saw and didn’t say anything.”
Vance nudged him with his shoulder. “Maybe because she knows you’re unsure and she’s afraid of spooking you again.”
“I don’t know.”
“Look, I’ve been on the other side of her all night and she is into you. And not just for a late-night booty call. Keep that prize your back pocket. I think things are going to work out for you this time.”
Jared caught sight of Anna Beth coming back and his heart squeezed.
“I really hope so, man.”
Twenty-Four
On Thursday afternoon, Anna Beth stood in the middle of Tammy’s shop, decked out in an ugly Christmas sweater and Santa hat over the green, fuzzy costume she had on. Tammy spent two hours applying prosthetics and green makeup to her face and neck. Tammy giggled as she took a picture. “Eat your heart out, Jim Carey. There’s a new Grinch in town.”
Anna Beth turned and looked at herself i
n the mirror. The prosthetics made her nose non-existent, and her voice nasally.
“Jared is going to die,” Anna Beth said.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how are the two of you?”
“We’re good.”
They were, although she hadn’t seen much of him the last few days because he’d been sleeping during the day while she’d been helping her aunt. After he went back to work Sunday night, they’d done a lot of texting and phone calls in the morning and late afternoon, but she missed his face. His kisses. Pretty much, everything.
Tammy grabbed a few items from a clothing rack and walked around, putting them away, talking as she worked. “I know it’s hard to move on when you lose someone. I closed myself off when my first husband died.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks.” Tammy leaned against the front counter, her eyes taking on a faraway look. “It was twenty years ago. We were high school sweethearts. Married at eighteen and madly in love. We were twenty-two when he went for a ride on his motorcycle and a truck took a blind corner too wide. It hit him head on.”
“How horrible.”
“It was. Even years after, I didn’t want anything to do with men or relationships, no matter how many times my mom tried to set me up. I left town for a while, went to school and got a job as a makeup artist in New York. I finally came back here and the first thing I did was get stuck in the snow and need to be rescued by a cantankerous tow truck driver.”
