AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I pulled out my phone and called her. No answer.
I sent her a text.
Several minutes passed, and there was no answer.
There were no responses or missed calls when I arrived in New York hours later either.
She didn’t answer me for the rest of the weekend.
HAZELNUT “YOU’RE MY DREAM” COOKIES
1 cup hazelnut butter
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg
½ cup chopped hazelnut
CHRISTINA
“TWO DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!” My dad yelled out the car window. “Two days!”
The people on the sidewalk cheered and danced at his words. One of them even pulled out a confetti gun and fired it into the air.
“Jesus …” He shook his head, rolling up his window. “The people in this town really are fucking nuts.”
My mother playfully slapped the back of his head. “You’ve done that six times since we landed, George. I think that’s enough.”
I caught sight of my father’s face in the rearview mirror, knowing that he was going to do it at least two more times before we arrived at my house.
Since the moment they met Amy and me at the airport, I’d put on my best fake smile, deciding to hide my hurt for the rest of the holidays.
I knew it was silly to believe that what I had with Nathan was ‘something,’ or that talking to him for hours without missing a beat was what made him a perfect match. I knew that, and I still let myself think that this was my chance to finally become a heroine who gets a ‘happily ever after’ like the girls in the romance books.
He’d officially ruined it, and I was never talking to him again.
I should’ve known he was full of shit when he acted like he read romance …
“I’m excited to see my girls.” My mother gushed from the backseat. “You two make me so proud! I’m also excited to see the certain new someone that you have in your life, Chrissie. Will we get to meet him?”
“Him who?”
“Nathan, the guy Amy told us about.” She smiled. “She says he’s practically your soulmate.”
“I didn’t necessarily say soulmate.” Amy shot me a quick “Sorry” look before steering the car down Main Street. “But I did say that you were supposed to act like you didn’t know anything about him until she brought him up herself.”
“Oh, hush.” My mother laughed. “Well, I’ll wait until he comes over for dinner and I’ll size him up for myself. In the meantime, do you think he’s the one, hon?”
I rolled down my window as we approached a group of people standing by a stop sign. “Two days until Christmas! Two days!”
They screamed like they’d just won the lottery, and the subject in the car was immediately changed to all the things that made the people of Cedar Falls “crazy.”
“Can you drop me off at my bakery?” I asked Amy. “I need to file a few things before we shut down for the holiday.”
“Absolutely.”
I kept a smile on my face until we made it to Sifted Perfection, promising not to work late after I stepped out of the car. But the moment I stepped inside the bakery, I damn near lost it.
You can bake Nathan out of your life, just like everyone else, Christina … You can do it …
Holding back tears, I pulled out my late grandmother’s recipe book and flipped straight to the “When Motherfuckers Break Your Heart” section.
As I was looking over my options, the last person I wanted to see walked through the doors. Looking sexy as always in his uniform, he walked right up to me.
“I’m not ringing up customers right now, sir.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’ll need to wait in line with everyone else.”
“I’m not here as one of your customers.”
“Then you have no reason to be here.” I hated that my body was reacting to him. “I don’t want to hear from you, see you, or deal with you. I also deleted that recording we made, so you won’t be able to blackmail me into going back to you this time.”
He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“The door to leave is behind you, Officer Benson.” I crossed my arms. “Merry Christmas.”
“Christmas is two days from now.”
“Isn’t it wonderful!” A customer walked in right as he said those words, shaking the bells around her neck. “I can’t wait for it to get here!”
We both gave her a blank stare, and one of my associates moved to take her order.
“I need you to explain what the hell has happened between the last time I saw you and right now,” he said. “And I’m not leaving until you do.”
“So, after I tell you, will you leave?”
“Depends on how good your reasoning is.”
“Fine.”
He followed me into my private kitchen and shut the door. “What happened to you showing up for the flight to New York? To you inviting me over to spend time with your family when they landed?”
