by Wendy Knight
Azura was going to run.
And run she did. She hurdled the slick snow like an Olympic sprinter and bounded down the stairs. “I’m so sorry. I can’t—I’m so sorry.”
With no coat, no bag, nothing, she burst out of the house and raced into the darkness beyond.
“What are we going to do? Should we cancel the party?” Jackie moaned, hands on her hips as she surveyed the chaos on the stairs. “We can’t have a party like this. Crew, I hate to say it, but you should just let her go. Girl is a walking disaster and we just can’t have that kind of mess in our lives.”
Katrina burst into tears. Lila and Ruben fired off furious responses to Jackie’s comment too fast for Crew to comprehend, and Garrett was on his phone already, talking to someone, but Crew was too far away to hear the conversation.
“Crew,” Leah said. “Go. We’ve got this.”
“We don’t got this. This can wait. We need to find Azura. Katrina!” Lila bellowed, “Get her coat and a blanket. Everyone else, get boots and winter gear. Spread out across the grounds.”
“But what about this?” Jackie motioned to the fake snow as everyone else burst into action. Everyone but Crew, who stood as if frozen, limbs unable to move.
He’d lost her.
He’d done everything right and she’d run anyway. He’d bided his time. He’d stayed in the friendzone.
How was he supposed to have a relationship with someone like that? Someone who was always one wrong step from leaving him behind. It would kill him.
It was killing him now.
“I’ll grab her bag too. She’ll probably want to go—” Katrina started, but Lila cut her off.
“Do not grab her bag. We’ll bring her back here. We’ll change her mind.”
Crew shook his head, as if shaking the cobwebs out. What was wrong with him? She was out there in the snow, soaked in glitter and coatless, and he was here feeling sorry for himself?
He swung away, grabbing his coat from the hook as he sprinted out the door. Everyone spread out behind him, but in the thick snow, it wasn’t hard to see where she’d gone.
Straight for the road.
Crew followed. The gate was open, ready to welcome guests. She’d slipped right through and disappeared to who knew where in the dark night.
His family, freezing in the cold and the wind and the snow that threatened to bury them all alive, spread out behind him, trying to follow her footsteps that were being covered with every passing minute. Crew had no idea where she might go. Those footprints were their only hope.
Wait. Crew did know where she would go.
Her only way home.
The train station.
“I know where she is!” he yelled to Ruben, who was closest to him. “I’ve got to take my truck. You go back to the house and I’ll find her.”
Ruben nodded and started yelling orders to everyone within hearing vicinity.
Crew ran for his truck, trying to shut down his shattering heart.
HE didn’t know how, but somehow, Azura had made it to the train station before he had. On foot and without a coat. Granted, he hadn’t been able to go above ten miles an hour the entire time and she could have cut straight through the fields and parking lots that he had to go around. And he knew from experience that she was fast when she panicked.
She sat in the empty lobby when he walked in, her head in her hands. His heart hurt. His family had been out looking for her in the cold, worried and stressed on their biggest night of the year. Anger, just a spark, lit in his heart and he grabbed it like a lifeline. Anger was so much easier to deal with than pain. “Azura.”
She slowly sat up, scrubbing tears from her cheeks. “I ruined your house.”
He shrugged, walking closer, his steps echoing against the laminate flooring. There were two other people in the entire station, and they were across the room. The last train had run for the night. They’d be there a while.
“I ruined your house right before your giant party.”
“So? You ruined everyone’s night when you took off without a coat and we all had to look for you.” He stopped in front of her, hands in his pockets.
Her eyes widened and her pale face lost even more color, if that was possible. “No.”
“No?”
“I didn’t think you’d look for me. I thought—”
“You thought we’re rich and heartless?”
“I thought you’d be glad to be rid of me. I’m a walking disaster.”
She’d heard Jackie. Crew swore under his breath and shook his head. “Running whenever you’re embarrassed isn’t cool, Azura. It’s immature. You want so bad to be a stable adult, but you act like a child whenever something doesn’t go your way.”
She winced. His words were harsh, but he was angry. He was scared. He was hurt too.
“Most people, decent people, would have stayed and helped solve the problem.”
She nodded, her head sinking lower. “I’m so sorry.” She didn’t offer an excuse, she didn’t cry about the curse. She gave him the only thing she could—an apology.
“Azura,” he knelt next to her, brushing the dark hair out of her face. “There are no trains until tomorrow. You might as well come back to the house—”
Her head jerked up and her eyes widened as she frantically shook her head. “No. No, I can’t go back there. I can’t face them.”
Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet. “Fine. Let’s go.”
She continued shaking her head, more frantically. “I just told you—”
“I’m taking you home. To your home. Not mine.”
“That’s a two and a half hour drive, one way,” she whispered. “And the storm—”
“Yep. The sooner we leave, the sooner I can get back.”
A fresh tear slid down her cheek and everything in him ached to brush it away, to tell her it was okay and hold her until she believed him, but she wouldn’t let him.
She would never let him.
“Just—I’ll just find a hotel—” she whispered.
“Everything is booked for Christmas Eve, Azura. Besides, I promised, right? I told you I’d get you home before Christmas. I should have just stuck to that instead of trying to change your mind.”
She didn’t move, but more tears soaked her cheeks. “That’s very nice of you.”
“I’m a nice person,” he growled.
“You punched my ex.”
“Yeah. It was the nice thing to do. Let’s go. We’re wasting time.”
“No.”
He stared down at her, baffled. “No? You won’t go back to my house. You won’t let me take you home. What are you going to do, Azura? Sleep here? You don’t even have your phone or your wallet. What if something happened?”
She threw up her hands, out of options and in a corner. “Stop caring about me when I don’t deserve it!” she yelled. “Why do you care so much?”
Why did he care so much? Did she seriously not see it?
“Because I’m so absolutely crazy stupid in love with you I can’t see straight! Because all I can think about is you! Because whenever I close my damn eyes, I see you. What do you mean, you don’t deserve it?” He yelled back. “Why wouldn’t you? Because you spilled chocolate on my couch? What the hell kind of reason is that? Because you spilled a bunch of glitter? Azura, these things don’t matter!”
She had gone very still, her hands clenched in her lap. “What?”
He stared back at her, breathing hard.
“What did you say?”
Crew rolled his eyes, running a hand through his hair. “Which part?”
“Crew.”
“Come on, Azura. You can’t tell me you didn’t know. Everyone knows. The entire city knows, and we’ve only been here for two days. My family has bent over backward trying to get us together. And I wasn’t subtle.”
“I thought you were teasing,” she whispered.
He shook his head, pushing away from her. “Right. Everyone teases like that.”
>
She pushed to her feet, glitter falling from her clothes like she was her own little storm system. It had splattered on her face, in her hair. It was everywhere. “You can’t.”
He growled under his breath, glaring at her. “You don’t get to tell me that, Azura. I’ll do almost anything for you, but I won’t stop loving you.”
She half-sobbed, her fist against her mouth. “I’m cursed, Crew. You want to live with something like this? A disaster waiting to happen with every step?” With her free hand, she motioned to herself, to the glitter, to the chaos. “There is no curse, or—or if there is, I don’t know how to break it. This is me, ruining everything I touch. You’re a walking golden boy. You—”
Crew cut her off. He didn’t need to hear again how different they were. “The curse isn’t broken because you needed one more kiss.”
“What? No...” she slowly shook her head. “I found them all. I kissed them all. There were only four.”
Crew sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He’d been hoping for a Christmas miracle, but all he’d gotten was pain, and he was tired. So tired. “When you first walked into that party and I went racing over there to help you, because even then I couldn’t get you out of my head. I tried to kiss you. You told me—”
“Don’t even think about it,” she whispered in shock, eyes so wide her spiky wet black lashes brushed her eyebrows. “I rejected your kiss. Why would I do that?”
Crew peered over his fingers at her. “That’s what you do. You reject me. It’s kind of our thing. I throw myself at your feet, you walk right past.”
She didn’t answer, just stared back at him.
“Look, I’ll help you break the curse, but then we need to go. I don’t want to be gone all night and I’m already going to miss the party.” He didn’t know what else to say. He loved her, but her rejection was crushing him.
She held up a hand, pushing a finger against his lips, effectively shushing him. “If the curse doesn’t break. If I’m still like this. If I’ll always be like this, would you—would you still love me?”
Her words shattered what was left of his heart. “Yes,” he said. “No matter how many times you fall, or break things, or spill things or run from me. Love doesn’t work that way, Azura. I wish it did. I wish I could just shut it off, because this hurts a hell of a lot more than I was ready for.”
She hesitated, coming closer step by tiny step. “I don’t—I don’t want to get glitter all over you.”
He’d imagined kissing her so many times, but never once had it involved the curse or sticky fake glitter snow. In his fantasies, she’d kissed him because she wanted to. But it didn’t matter. He believed it was real, and he believed he could help her. And in all honesty, he would take what he could get. “I don’t care about the glitter, Azura.”
She swallowed hard, stopping in front of him when they were toe to toe. “Crew?”
He raised an eyebrow, waiting.
“I love you too.”
Before he could respond, she rose on her tiptoes and brushed his lips with hers while he stood in frozen shock. His whole mind skittered to a stop while his heart nearly tore out of his chest.
I love you too.
He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her against him, and kissed her back with all the pain, the frustration, the fear—the love—everything he had.
He expected her to pull away.
She didn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Crew Bacall was kissing her like the world was ending. Despite her panic attack, despite the glitter, despite the curse, despite her ruining his night, despite everything, he was kissing her like—
Like he loved her.
He loved her.
All his teasing, all his pet names—he’d been serious. He hadn’t been teasing.
He loved her.
“Crew! Azura! Thank goodness. We were so worried.”
Crew pulled back just enough to turn his head but held her close.
Protecting her.
She wanted so much to bury her head against his chest and hide. She couldn’t face them. She’d ruined their house and then she’d made it worse by running away.
“Azura, baby, are you okay?” Lila cooed, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry. I’ll beat my brother to within an inch of his life. He has no filter. And your mother,” she hissed at Ruben. “She will be hearing from me.”
Azura blinked up at Crew, who smiled down at her. “The house doesn’t matter,” he said quietly. “You do.”
“This was all my fault. You tried to tell me. I’m so sorry.” First one tear, and then another, escaped Lila’s eye. “Please, forgive us all. We’ve put you in such an uncomfortable position.”
“I’ve—I’ve got your coat,” Katrina said quickly. “But—” she glanced uncertainly at her mom. “But I forgot your bag.”
Right. All her stuff was at their house.
“I should have taken the snow sooner,” Ruben said. “It was my fault your hands slipped.”
Azura wanted nothing more than to stay in Crew’s arms where it was safe. Where she never had to let him go.
He loved her.
She hadn’t even dared hope. She hadn’t even dared consider the possibility. While she’d been fighting so hard not to fall head over heels for him, she’d missed all the signs.
She’d hurt him.
Who knew how many times.
But she was safe now, safe in his arms and he knew. He knew she loved him. He didn’t push her away. He held tight, his arms a protective circle of warmth.
And she had to leave it.
He’d been right. Running from her disasters wasn’t the right thing to do. Not even close. She turned to his family, holding tight to Crew’s hand, borrowing his strength. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own. And I handled it wrong. I am sorry. And I’d like to help clean up, but I—I don’t know how. I don’t want to make it worse.”
Lila waved a hand through the air. “Oh, that doesn’t matter. Garrett called for reinforcements, but it’s actually very pretty. And when the adhesive dries, it will vacuum right up.”
It would—it would vacuum right up? “But—but it’s so sticky—”
“It’s just to keep it weighted down to get it in the bags. It evaporates. Otherwise we would have a lot of very glittery, very angry party guests.” Lila chuckled. “Which might be fun one year.”
“I didn’t ruin your house?” Azura whispered.
“No, of course not. You thought—Oh, Azura. No, no, the house isn’t ruined. The party isn’t ruined. Please, please come back. You don’t have to socialize tonight. But we aren’t ready to say goodbye. Not like this.” Lila motioned to the cold room around them.
“We can hang out in your room. Watch horror movies, maybe?” Katrina said hopefully. “Take turns picking glitter out of each other’s hair like monkeys?”
“I behaved so badly,” Azura said. “I—I don’t—”
“You had a panic attack,” Ruben said. “It happens to the best of us, and it’s no big deal. We all understand.”
She rubbed a hand across her eyes. “Why are you people so nice?”
Lila and Ruben laughed.
Katrina sniffed, pouting. “Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?”
Crew raised her icy fingers to his lips, kissing her knuckles. “Azura, if you want me to take you home tonight, I will. But if you would consider spending Christmas with us, I promise we won’t make you carry any more glitter.”
Lila, Katrina, and Ruben all stared at her fingers against his lips, eyes wide.
“What does this mean?” Lila gasped.
“It means I love her. And I don’t want her to go,” Crew said quietly.
“If you come back, I’ll help you throw snowballs at my uncle. And maybe my grandma?” Katrina said hopefully.
So they knew she’d heard them both. That wasn’t awkward at all.
She looked up at Crew, brushing a bit of glitter from h
is eyelashes. They were like butterflies against her skin. “If you’ll have me, I would love to spend Christmas with you.”
Crew tipped her chin, his lips finding hers once more.
AZURA spent the party at Crew’s side. He laughed about the glitter, teased her about the glitter, and told everyone she’d been so overcome with Christmas cheer that she’d doused the house in fake snow.
Somehow, somehow, he managed to turn her disaster into a good thing.
There were so many people she could barely move without running into someone, and yet it was a beautiful chaos. Everyone in the town seemed to have shown up, despite the horrific storm.
And not one mistletoe to be seen.
“Hey.” Crew struggled through the waves of people toward her, holding his phone close to his ear. “I have a question for you.”
He took Azura’s arm and led her up the stairs, the noise dying behind them until it was a dull roar and he didn’t have to scream to be heard. “What’s up, Galahad?”
He held up one finger toward her and spoke into the phone. “Yeah, I’ll ask her. One sec.” He lowered the phone and hit mute. “Remember the engineer manager you met the other day?”
Azura nodded. It had only been two days. She’d be in bad shape if she couldn’t remember that far back. “I do.”
“He wants to hire you. Not as an intern. As a full employee, but he’ll work with your school schedule until you graduate.”
Goosebumps covered Azura’s skin and her jaw dropped. “He wants to—he wants to hire me? I don’t have a degree—I haven’t interviewed with him—”
Crew laughed. “I think he doesn’t care.” Raising an eyebrow, he continued, “So? It’s the stable grown-up job you’ve always wanted.”
“I—I’d work in the same building as you?”
Crew nodded. “Is that a problem?”
“Can we carpool? So you don’t accidentally run me off the road again?”
His lips quirked. “Yes, Butterfly. We can carpool. So? Should I tell him you’ll see him on the second?”
Squealing, Azura nodded. “Yes! Tell him I’d love to!”
She threw her arms around his neck and covered him in kisses while he attempted to talk to his boss.