All Madison wants for Christmas is the same person who once wanted her. Free from the shackles of her broken heart, she's finally ready to give love another shot. But is Madi too late to win back the man of her dreams?
SEQUEL to The Heartbreak Hypot...
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"I know this neat little coffee house in town," Skip said. "I could pick you up, say, tomorrow? Does tomorrow work for you? Would late afternoon be okay? I have work until one ..."
While his mouth was moving at a hundred miles a minute, my brain had positively stalled. It was like it was trying to grab onto the overlapping verbiage as it shot from his lips, but like it didn't quite know how to process it all. Instead, I became increasingly aware that all I was doing was gawking back at him silently, probably just as stunned as a deer caught in headlights.
A picturesque mountaintop. A handsome, small-town stranger. A quaint little coffee house in a quaint little town.
It was all very Hallmark, and it sounded like a dream.
Standing in that room with Skip, illuminated by the golden flecks of fleeting light that streamed in through the tall, glassy panes, it felt like the universe was finally opening up to me. Like it was giving me a chance to seek out the new beginning I craved, to fly high above its wintry peaks now that I felt totally free. After all, that road trip turned out to be just as much about my journey towards healing as about Christmas itself. I got closure with Lola and Holly. I'd forgiven and forgotten Eli. I'd forgiven my dad for leaving the way he did, and I was even patching things up with David and my mother.
When I looked in the rear-view mirror, I could see the twists and turns that I'd endured over the last couple of months. And when I looked to the winding road ahead, I could see myself going into the new year feeling truly free.
Maybe a new man was exactly what the new me needed.
At the very least, a holiday romance certainly couldn't hurt.
"You're a great guy, Skip," I cooed softly.
He noticed the change in my tone, his green eyes flashing as he lifted his chin with confidence. His squirming hands paused their skirmish, and for the first time since he'd turned to face me, his expression shed its nervous edge.
"Too great," I continued, indulging in a sigh. "I mean, you have a job, you have a dog, you have a truck ..." I paused dramatically, warring against that drop of sarcasm that latched itself onto my sultry tone. "And what do I have?"
He considered that for a moment, tilting his head sweetly. "You have one heck of an ass."
Unlike me, there wasn't even a hint of irony laced through his voice.
I don't think Skip even understood the meaning of irony.
Which meant that I could have some real fun.
"True," I mused, pursing my lips. I batted my lashes, too, trying to convey as much sincerity as I could muster.
Given the circumstances, it wasn't a lot.
"But you deserve so much more than that. You deserve a girl who knows the difference between a cultivator and a rotavator." He opened his mouth to speak, but I pressed a rogue finger to his lips. "We're just from two different worlds, Skip."
