by Meg Easton
She and Davis weren’t dating, though, and she didn’t want him to get the impression that this was a date. Joy was walking near her, so she linked arms with her new friend and they chatted as they walked to one of the carts, and both sat in the back seat. Another guy, Thomas, who she had seen Joy flirting with earlier, came and sat in the front seat next to the driver. Perfect.
Kelli hadn’t seen much of the resort yet, but it was magical at night. Golden Christmas lights had been strung all over the grounds, across buildings, wound up palm trees, and lighting the pathways. This place was heaven.
And she was so grateful for the golf carts. It wouldn’t have been a bad walk in regular shoes, but in four inch heels when you wanted to dance the night away, not so much.
The line of golf carts pulled up to a building, and before she knew it, Davis was at her side, offering a hand out of the cart. She gave him a nod of thanks, took his hand, and stepped out of the cart. She didn’t keep hold of his hand, though. She might be willing to dip a toe in the dating pool, but that was about it.
The ballroom was massive, and had round tables in a half circle around the outside of the room. In one corner, three of the tallest trees she had ever seen were next to each other, each decorated with a different color scheme. One in silvers and blues, one in reds and greens, and one in golds. Garlands ran all along the room, all of which were decorated, and each table was practically a work of art with its decorations.
When she was getting ready and imagining tonight, she had been thinking about who she wanted to sit by, and how she could maneuver things so that she wouldn’t be near Parker. She knew that getting close to him was dangerous, and she had felt herself slipping when they’d been on the beach. Especially when he had been looking at the scene he had created with his little brother. But now? With him in that suit? Now would be particularly dangerous to be around him.
But figuring out how to get everyone to sit where she had imagined had been futile, because the hostess directed them to two tables, and each one had their names at a specific place. She found hers and sat down, and Davis sat at her right. And then, a moment later, Parker sat at her left.
It was fine.
She could pretend she had blinders.
Blinders, and amazing food. They hadn’t been seated for long before the waiter brought in cinnamon-spiced sweet potato soup with maple croutons, which not only was an explosion of tasty goodness in her mouth, but made her whole body rejoice at whatever was in it. She chatted with everyone at the table, and if she ever caught her mind wandering to Parker, she just took another bite.
And then the waiter brought in the main course—roasted pork loin with herb stuffing; Italian roasted cremini mushrooms, cauliflower, and tomatoes; and the softest, fluffiest rosemary dinner rolls that Kelli had ever tasted. Really, the entire meal was so full of flavor and texture, she couldn’t have asked for a better distraction. She cut each item into the perfect bite-sized pieces.
She speared a grape tomato and cut it in half, then attempted to spear one of the mushrooms to do the same. But somehow the fork slipped and, in a move she couldn’t duplicate if she was paid to, she managed to send it airborne instead, and it landed with a plop in Parker’s water goblet.
Several people at the table saw and let out an audible gasp, before restrained chuckles. The ones who hadn’t seen, Davis included, turned to see what had made everyone gasp.
Parker just lifted his glass and considered it. “I’ve had restaurants put lemons, limes, oranges, cucumbers and even strawberries in my water before. This is the first time I’ve had a mushroom.” And then he took a drink.
With as hot as her face and ears felt, she knew her cheeks were as red as her dress. She was going to have to change jobs, move, and change her name.
“I didn’t get a mushroom in mine,” Davis said, clearly not understanding what had just happened.
“I bet if you asked Kelli nicely, she could help you out with that.”
Kelli closed her eyes, trying to make the embarrassment go away. She did everything right and planned ahead precisely so that embarrassing things didn’t happen. Yet they always seemed to happen around Parker no matter how hard she tried.
She speared a perfectly-cut piece of the stuffed pork and made herself focus on the bite, trying to pick out what spices were used. Was that cardamom? And maybe juniper? She would keep trying to figure it out for as long as it took for her face to get back to a normal temperature.
When the waiter removed their dinner plates, she exhaled in relief because maybe she could get to the dancing and away from Parker. But then the waiter set dessert in front of each of them—a plate of vanilla bean clafoutis with raspberries and nectarines. It tasted amazing, but she only had three bites before she declared herself full and set down her fork.
A man’s voice came over the sound system, and Kelli’s attention turned to the man at the microphone who introduced himself as Christian, the dance instructor at the resort. “We have a little custom here for the Tinsel and Tidings Ball. We like to start out the first dance with our guests who have come in this week for dance lessons. They’ll be showcasing the Viennese Waltz, and once they’re done, we’d like to welcome you all to join us on the floor for an evening of dancing!”
As they watched the guests waltz, Davis leaned her direction and said in a quiet voice, “Pretty impressive for only a week of dance lessons, don’t you think?”
Kelli nodded. She had taken years of dance lessons, but never any ballroom. She could hold her own at a dance, but she always wished she knew how to ballroom dance.
The moment the song was over, Davis turned toward her, palm held upright, and said, “Would you like to dance?” like it was a race and he had to rush out of the gate.
“I would love to.” She took his hand, stood, and let him lead her to the dance floor. She didn’t even turn enough to glimpse Parker’s face. She was staying so strong she should get an award. Plus, Davis hadn’t witnessed all the embarrassing things she’d done—not just tonight but on this whole trip—so it felt nice to head to the dance floor with him.
As they danced, it was clear that Davis was getting his flirt on, too. It was nice—it made her feel pretty. They weren’t doing the Viennese Waltz, exactly, but dancing with Davis was easy. Nice.
More and more couples came on to the dance floor, and as they turned and moved around the floor, she saw some she recognized. Joy and Thomas were dancing, and it made Kelli smile. The two looked adorable together, and she hoped they might decide to start dating before the trip was over. They saw Merit and Elise, too, and Kelli once again felt that pang of longing for a relationship like theirs. They just looked so happy and radiant.
And then she saw Parker dancing with Addison, and she didn’t care if she was supposed to let Davis lead—she turned them so that she wouldn’t be seeing him. She didn’t know why it was bothering her. It shouldn’t. She and Parker knew they couldn’t work out. And even if she was wrong and things had changed over the past two and a half years—which was a possibility—she knew she wouldn’t work out with anyone right now. She was too vulnerable and needed to be cautious.
So she put on her blinders and focused on Davis, and he rewarded her with a big smile. They danced together for the next dance, too, and it was nice also. Then they headed back toward their table to grab some water.
As they neared, her eyes found Parker, like her attention was magnetically pulled toward him whether she liked it or not. He was chatting and laughing with a few people. A couple other people were standing just outside the circle they made, looking at Parker’s group like they wanted to join in but were shy or unsure. Parker spotted them, and so subtly shifted in a way that opened his circle. He said something to one of them, and just like that, the two others were in their group, chatting and laughing, too.
Why did he have to go and do sweet things like that? Couldn’t he just shout at someone for stepping on his foot, or punch someone in the guts, or bump into someone, knock
ing them down, and not apologize so she could get over him already?
Getting drinks of water put them right next to Parker’s group and they quickly found themselves pulled into the group, and laughing and chatting themselves.
As they talked, she felt Davis’s fingers brush up against hers. A question, a nudge, asking if he could hold her hand. She had imagined this being a night of dancing with a lot of different people, having fun. Doing a little flirting, but nothing serious. Davis silently asking to hold her hand felt an awful lot like he was trying to claim her for the night. She liked dancing with him, but she didn’t want that. So she just brought her hands together in front. A subtle move, but one that should get the point across to Davis.
A new song started, but she wasn’t quite ready to leave the conversation yet, so she didn’t so much as glance the direction of the dance floor. Parker asked her, specifically, to say what her favorite cheese was when everyone was saying theirs, and right after she answered, Davis put his hand on her shoulder furthest from him and leaned in to whisper, “Did I mention how great you smell?”
And then he left his hand there. He had done it like he was pulling her close to tell her something, but it was as blatant as a guy stretching at a movie theater before draping his arm on a girl’s shoulder. She didn’t want to embarrass the guy by pushing his hand off her shoulder. He was a nice guy, and was probably only doing it because he was feeling threatened by Parker. Who wouldn’t? Parker looked like a movie star tonight.
So she waited a moment, then leaned forward to look at Joy’s bracelet and shook his hand off her shoulder at the same time.
Except instead of taking the hint and dropping his arm to his side, he dropped it to her waist. She took in a slow, deep breath. If Davis was a jerk, there were several things she would’ve done to make sure he got the message. But he wasn’t, and she didn’t want him to think that she wasn’t interested in him at all or that she was mad at him. She simply didn’t want someone to claim her as their date tonight.
As everyone in the circle was chatting, she was running through options that could send the message, and not coming up with any good ones, when her eyes fell on Parker. He was studying her, reading the situation. He met her eyes, and it felt like a question. Like he was looking for confirmation that he was reading the situation correctly. She could’ve given him a slight nod, but hadn’t, yet somehow he still saw it in her eyes.
As soon as Joy finished what she was saying, Parker stepped into the circle toward Kelli. He held out a hand. “Would you like to dance?”
She smiled and put her hand in his. “I would.”
She was sure that Davis got the message as she and Parker walked onto the dance floor, and she was so grateful.
The song ended seconds after they got to a spot on the dance floor, which was great, because then she knew she’d get at least a full song with Parker. He kept one of her hands in his, and placed his other hand in the middle of her back. Interesting. He didn’t go for the waist. Not that she would have any problem with his hand on her waist, but between that and the amount of space between them it felt like he was silently showing that he respected her. She put her hand on his shoulder, resting her arm on his, which made her take in Parker in his suit with touch in addition to sight, and the extra sense nearly overwhelmed her.
“You are impressively graceful,” Kelli said.
“I was going to say the same about you, but I was also going to add that you are extraordinarily beautiful.”
“Wow. A good dancer and a good complimenter. Your mom must be so proud.”
“She is. But to be fair, if Graham and Merit had us make macaroni art and I sent her a picture, she would be proud of me for that, too.”
Kelli smiled. “She sounds like a great person.”
“She really is.”
Dancing with Davis had felt nice. Dancing with Parker felt amazing. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have someone claim her as their date tonight.
Even the thought felt so dangerous. It would be so bad to fall for him, because she would still see him when this was over.
As the song was nearing the end, Parker pulled her closer and said in a voice that couldn’t have been heard by anyone but her, “I got the impression that you’re not wanting to be tied to one person tonight, right?”
She tried to nod, but now that she had Parker’s arm around her, she wasn’t so sure. She was currently having troubles just remembering to breathe. He must’ve seen past that, though, because he said, “If you’d like to make sure that message gets across fully, Roman from QA is a good guy, and with as often as his eyes have gone to you, I’m sure he’d love to dance. If you’d like, I can lead us over there so it’d be natural for you to walk his direction after the dance.”
“Thanks,” she managed to breathe as she marveled at this man.
She might have still been marveling at him when he thanked her for the dance and walked away just as they neared Roman from QA. Parker looked back at her once, but she hadn’t been able to see his expression long enough to interpret it before Roman walked over and asked her to dance.
Chapter Ten
Parker woke up and got dressed for an early morning run along the beach. When he opened his door, he saw the outside of it had been decorated with a paper Christmas tree and decorations made out of pipe cleaners and other items left over from their craft day. For the first second, he thought maybe it was something Merit and Graham had done for everyone, but the moment he saw the sash draped on the tree that read #1 Christmas Fan Behind this Door, with a cat drawn curled up beneath the tree, he instantly knew it was Kelli’s doing.
He stood in front of the door just smiling at it for several minutes. Then he shook his head and glanced down the hallway, the direction of Kelli’s room, feeling drawn toward her and wishing he had never seen Stephanie’s list. Before dating his ex, he’d had all the confidence he needed, but he hadn’t gotten his groove back since they had broken up. Maybe because he feared that everything on her list about him was actually true.
He had to remind himself that he was supposed to stop thinking about Kelli, and headed outside. The sun hadn’t risen yet, so it was still fairly dark. Even so, it was warmer than it was in Denver at midday. It was more humid here than he ever guessed it would be at this time of year, though, and that took a bit of getting used to.
After his run, he showered and even made it down to breakfast a few minutes early.
Once he found out that they didn’t need to meet for the group activity—serving a Christmas dinner to the homeless—until three, he went for a walk along the boardwalk and explored the town a bit. Not that it helped to get his mind of Kelli, especially since he needed to buy a Secret Santa gift for her. Having his arm around her while they had danced last night had felt so perfectly, exactly right, that he had been afraid to dance with her a second time. It had been hard enough walking away after the first song.
He got back just a few minutes before three, afraid that if he came back any earlier that he might run into her, and he was having a hard enough time staying away. He knew he wasn’t good enough for her and that he wasn’t ready for another relationship.
While he waited in the family room for everyone to show up, he walked to where the points were posted. Everyone had at least four points, since everyone made the ornaments and went to the dinner and dance. He had gotten his fifth point on the beach with Kelli, but several people had more than five, including Kelli, who was up to eight. How had she gotten so many so quickly? If he didn’t step it up, he was going to have to say goodbye to his parking spot for a full year.
A driver knocked on the mansion’s front door not long after everyone gathered in the family room, saying he was ready to take them to the soup kitchen. They all headed outside and got in the twelve-passenger van. There were a couple of empty seats, so apparently not all of them were set on winning the prize. He purposely didn’t sit next to Kelli, hoping that the distance would help his heart recover.
/> But once the ten of them were inside the building and got their instructions on how to help prepare the meal they would be serving to people who were homeless or otherwise struggling, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to stay as far away from her as he needed. They were both put on turkey slicing duty, working side-by-side, and he knew he couldn’t bring up the dance without his feelings about the night showing as plain as day on his features, so he instead chose a safer subject.
“I see you’re up to eight points now.”
She smiled as she cut the meat. “And I see you’re not. I think that’s proof that parking spot C-seven really is mine. You might even be able to say that it always has been.”
They asked them to cut one-fourth inch slices of meat, and she cut so carefully that he thought they probably could’ve come along with a ruler and measured all of her slices and they’d each be exactly one-fourth an inch thick, from one side to the other.
“Someone’s counting their chickens. There’s still a lot of week left.” He didn’t know why he was goading her to get more points. He really wanted that spot, but there were a lot of things on that list that he really didn’t want to do. And from what he’d seen at work and the fact that she was there by seven every day, he knew that she could set a goal and achieve it. He was definitely going to have to step up.
“Don’t you worry about me. There are a lot of things on that list, and a lot of hours in the day.”
He moved a group of slices to the platter and turned on the electric knife again. “What did you do to earn points today?”
Her face lit up as she talked about answering letters that kids wrote to Santa, helped as an elf at the shopping center and took pictures of kids on Santa’s lap, and then wrapped gifts at a Toys for Tots charity.