Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76664 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
More than beautiful.
She’s beautifully familiar. After only a few days, I feel like I’ve known her for ages. Or like I’ve been waiting for her for ages.
With Emily, both might very well be true.
“Mum said I had to apologize again,” a petulant voice announces near my elbow, making me flinch in surprise.
I turn to see a runny-nosed Nigel pouting beside me, his own hot chocolate moustacheoing his upper lip. “What’s that?”
“Mum said I had to apologize again,” he repeats, a little more irritably. But then, I can’t really blame him. I don’t enjoy repeating myself, either. “Because you’re some big fancy royal fuss.”
I soften. “Nah, I’m not a big royal fuss. No need to apologize to me any more thoroughly than you would to anyone else. You did an excellent job apologizing the first time. Tell your mum she should be proud, and there are no hard feelings.”
Nigel brightens a bit. “Okay, good.” He glances around, searching for something before he adds, “Where’s your redhead boss?”
I grin. “My boss? Did she seem like my boss, do you think?”
He shrugs. “She’s way better at skating than you. And she’s pretty bossy.” He glances sharply my way again, seeming to rethink the wisdom of that last comment. “But I mean, not in a bad way.”
“Just a bossy way,” I supply.
“Yeah,” he agrees, clearly irritated again when I laugh.
“Sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t laugh. She’s my girlfriend, actually, but I’m quite happy to have her boss me around. As you said, she’s way better at skating, as well as many other things.”
He sniffs, drawing the dangling wet beneath his nose up a millimeter before he exhales, setting the snot free again. “I don’t like girls.”
“Why not? Girls are fantastic. Your mum sounds very nice. And you yourself said your sister’s a demon on skates.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, but they’re different. They’re family. I don’t have to kiss them like in the movies.”
“You don’t have to kiss anyone like in the movies if you don’t want to,” I say. “Kissing is neither obligatory nor necessary for a happy life.”
He snorts, a crooked smile curving his chocolate-stained lips. “Oi, you are fancy. And silly, I think.”
I nod in agreement. “Quite. Happy Christmas again, Nigel. Keep asking the hard questions.”
He laughs as he toddles away on his skates across the gravel, clearly thinking I’m at least a little mad.
And, of course, I am.
I’m pretending to be in love with a woman I’m actually falling in love with, all while also pretending not to be falling to the woman herself.
Something has to give.
And maybe it will soon.
Grandmother’s holiday party is right around the corner, an event with a unique mixture of heartwarming, welcoming, mapcap, and romantic vibes that doesn’t come along very often.
A man with his heart on his sleeve could do worse when it comes to setting the scene for a grand confession than a Victorian mansion with loads of tiny, intimate rooms and mistletoe hung in every one…
Chapter Twelve
EMILY
Two days later…
What am I doing?
Seriously.
What?!
“I have no idea,” I mutter as I wait for Maya to get back on the line after the “two seconds” she said she needed to find a private place to talk at the office.
It’s still afternoon in New York and Maya’s working through the weekend, along with two of our most loyal support staff, preparing a killer pitch for a new corporate client nearly as big as Titan Media. They’re doing their best to save our business.
Meanwhile, I’m…
Well, I’m also doing my best to save our business.
But I should be working harder! So hard, I wouldn’t have time left over to watch holiday movies with the funniest, sweetest, sexiest man alive. Or to notice how amazing he looks in linen pajama pants—and nothing else—first thing in the morning. Or to spend magical afternoons with him at museums, or ice-skating, or catching West End matinees, or riding historic carousels, or falling madly in love with the way he makes even a trip to the grocery store feel like a fabulous adventure.
Heck, just falling madly in love with…him.
No!
I’m not falling in love.
I know this because I’ve been in love, and this isn’t the way love goes. Love starts slow, like easing into a pool of perfectly warm water. Love sneaks up on you, step by gentle step, until all of a sudden, you turn around one day and realize that the guy getting toast crumbs all over your table is someone you’d like to keep around for a long, long time.
Or…at least that’s the way love worked with Gabe and Stephen.
But Gabe and Stephen didn’t stick around for a long, long time.
Gabe met someone he liked banging more than me—while we were still dating—and Stephan and I just…fizzled out. First, our Saturday mornings lost their shine, then our date nights and evening walks. Soon, we were both finding excuses to spend time apart. I stayed late at the office and joined a book club. Stephen signed up for a pickleball league, got a second job walking dogs uptown, and eventually decided a WhatsApp message while I was out of the country was the best way to end things.