‘Cheers,’ Annie said, clinking her glass to Kira’s. ‘To a successful new year.’
‘Cheers,’ Kira said, dragging her gaze from the man she couldn’t have. ‘To a profitable new year.’
Annie grinned. ‘I like you.’ And just like that, a little piece of her heart slotted back into place. Maybe she was likable. Maybe she could find people other than her own sister who would treat her kindly. Maybe she didn’t need to be lonely.
‘I like you, too.’
Annie tensed next to her. ‘Oh, hell, no.’ Her gaze had turned to the hallway where a man had just arrived with a small blonde woman next to him.
‘What is it?’
‘He brought a date to Christmas?’ Annie’s hiss was not nearly as quiet as she intended, and the man turned and locked eyes with her. Kira’s head swiveled between the two of them.
‘Who is he?’
‘He’s a bastard, that’s who he is.’
He definitely heard her and responded with a smirk and a slight dip of his head like he was acknowledging that he was in fact a bastard. Kira could feel the rage emanating off of Annie.
‘An ex?’ Kira guessed.
‘Not exactly.’ Annie was still staring daggers at the man, but he’d turned to greet Logan and Jeanie. The woman beside him laughed nervously and Annie nearly snarled. There were clearly forces at play there that Kira didn’t understand, but she definitely wanted to.
‘Want me to slit his tires?’ she offered.
Annie burst out laughing, leaning against Kira’s arm. ‘No, but I like you even more now.’
Kira smiled, laughter bubbling out of her, too. With or without Bennett, she could still make a life here. In fact, she definitely would make a life here. It was what she had wanted from the start.
‘So, Hazel,’ she said, turning her attention to Jeanie’s other friend. ‘When’s the best time to start planting a cucumber garden?’
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kira was warm and soft and a little bit drunk with her head in his lap. She seemed to be humming some combination of ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Deck the Halls’ as he ran his fingers through her hair. The ends crackled with static, the silky strands clinging to his sweater. He didn’t relish the idea of going into the cold, dark night to get home.
Kira smiled up at him and his heart lurched with the knowledge that his time with her was ticking away, along with the last few days of the year. He’d almost forgotten about that over the course of the day as they’d all talked and ate and drank. The house had been full of friends and family coming and going, of way too much food and way too many sweets. It had been a good distraction.
‘So, when do you head back home?’ Annie asked him now that the house had nearly emptied out again. It was just him and Kira and Jeanie and her closest friends sprawled out on the floor and draped over chairs, full and sleepy. He wondered how many of them would just crash here tonight. He was pretty sure Noah was already snoring from his position laid out in front of the fire.
‘New Year’s Day.’
Kira wasn’t looking at him anymore; her smile had slipped.
‘It’s too bad,’ Annie said, her chin propped on her arms on the coffee table. Bennett could barely see her past the empty wine glasses. ‘You fit in so well here.’
‘Yeah, Benny. You fit in so well here,’ Jeanie repeated, from her perch on Logan’s lap in the chair by the fire.
He winced. ‘I told you, Jean Marie,’ he emphasized her full name as payback for calling him Benny and she stuck her tongue out at him, ‘I can’t just uproot my life and move here.’
‘I did it,’ Noah piped in, apparently awake again. ‘I highly recommend it.’
Hazel grinned at him from her end of the couch. Kira was now stretched out between them, her cozy-socked feet laid in Hazel’s lap. She was the one who fit in so well here and he was happy for her. He’d much rather think of her here amongst friends than by herself in that cold house.
‘It’s definitely worked out nicely,’ Hazel said and Annie groaned.
‘Gross.’
Hazel laughed. ‘Isn’t it time for Secret Santa?’
‘Yes!’ Jeanie shot up from her seat. ‘I almost forgot!’
Bennett breathed out a sigh of relief at the topic change. He really didn’t need all of Jeanie’s friends joining the quest to get him to stay in town. Frankly, the woman whose head was in his lap was reason enough.
‘I didn’t bring a gift,’ Kira hissed at him. ‘I didn’t know!’
‘Don’t worry about it. Jeanie handed the names out weeks ago.’ His sister was excited to bring their old family tradition to her friends, but Kira hadn’t exactly been in the mix at that point.
She still had a little worried frown on her face as she sat up. Bennett patted her knee and leaned in to whisper in her ear. ‘You can help me guess.’
She gave him a relieved smile as Jeanie passed out the gifts.
‘Annie, you go first,’ she said, laying a sparkly red gift bag in her lap.
Annie waggled her eyebrows and pulled the tissue paper from the bag with a flourish. She peered inside and frowned.
‘I know who it’s from,’ she said.
‘Show us what it is first!’ Jeanie said, and Bennett bit down on a laugh. His sister was always a stickler for the Secret Santa rules. She’d had a fit the year he switched the name he pulled with his cousin, Jesse.
