Winter's Kiss (30 page)

“It’s no big deal.” I pulled my gaze away from the car. “Cam and I are still friends. Anyway, like you said, half the town is here tonight.”

“Whatever you say.” Bruce put one hand on the small of my back to guide me around a puddle of snowy mush. I almost acted on instinct and slapped the hand away, but then I reminded myself that we were on a date. And he seemed to be trying to be a gentleman so far. Still, his touch felt oddly heavy and foreign even through my heavy wool coat.

I spotted Cam as soon as we rounded the corner. He was standing in front of the barber pole, digging into his pocket for something. Jaylene was beside him, clinging onto his arm and laughing. She looked cold in her fashionable little baby blue jacket.

I froze. The logical part of my mind knew that if Cam had broken up with me to be with Jaylene, that meant I was likely to see him, you know,
with
Jaylene. And considering the size of our town, that was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

But I still wasn’t prepared for how it felt. Seeing them together. Her hand on his arm, her cute little round face peering up at him. Him looking back at her and smiling. Cam.
My
Cam.

The logical portion of my brain struggled to regain control. It did its best to remind the other parts that Cam wasn’t
mine
anymore….

“You okay?” Bruce had dropped his hand from my back by now, but he stepped over and nudged me with one shoulder. “We could go do something else if you want. Grab some dinner or drive out to the mall to see a real movie.”

“No, it’s okay.” I struggled to focus on the positive. This was what I wanted. My plan had worked. “Thanks. I’m fine. Come on, let’s go say hi.”

Cam saw us coming when we were still a few yards away. His whole face sort of crumpled, but then he forced a smile.

“Hey, guys,” he called out. “What’s up?”

Jaylene looked up too. “Lexi!” she exclaimed in her Southern accent, which made my name sound more like “Lake-sie.” Weirdly, she seemed genuinely happy to see me. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so weird. After all, she thought I was the one who’d hooked her up with Cam. “Isn’t this fun? Ah can’t believe Ah’m about to see
It’s a Wonderful Life
in a theater instead of on TV. Ya’ll really know how to do Christmas around here, that’s for sure!”

“Yeah, that’s Claus Lake for you.” I tried to return her smile sincerely. After all, this ridiculously awkward moment wasn’t
her
fault. No, it was pretty much, well,
mine
. “Um, Jaylene, have you met Bruce?”

“Oh, sure thang. We had a nice chat when he came to pick up Cammie after one of our committee meetins last week.” Jaylene snuggled up against Cam, one of her arms sneaking around his waist.

Cam smiled weakly. I could tell he was more than a little uncomfortable with Jaylene’s public display of affection. That wasn’t just because I was there, either. Cam hated that kind of touchy-feely stuff.

At least I thought he did. He didn’t do a thing as Jaylene gave him a squeeze, then started playing with the sleeve of his coat. Maybe he was just too nice to protest and embarrass her. Or maybe he didn’t mind it that much after all.

For one crazy second, I had the urge to leap forward and shove her away from him. But I did my best to repress it, just repeating my mantra. This was all for the best. All for the best.

Wasn’t it?

The next day was Saturday, and the mall was packed. The noise, smells, and body heat of hundreds of frenzied shoppers dashing among dozens of overstocked stores hit me as soon as I pushed in through the heavy glass doors. Everywhere I looked, bright red and green signs screamed about the fantastic holiday savings. But I ignored them all. I wasn’t there to shop.

Dodging through the crowds, I headed for the high-end department store in the west wing of the mall. Allie had a part-time job there wrapping gifts for the holiday season. It paid better than being one of Santa’s elves, as she’d done the previous year, and involved far fewer sticky little-kid hands and runny noses wiped on your shirt. Aside from those dubious advantages, it didn’t look like much more fun to me.

“Lexi!” Allie looked up from wrapping a decorative candle for a bored-looking preteen boy and his father. Her dark hair was flopping in her face, totally uncontained by her perky candy-cane-striped headband, and her expression was frazzled. “Hi! What are you doing here?”

“Sorry to bother you at work. I was hoping to talk to you about something. But it looks like you’re kind of busy, so …”

“Hold that thought.” Allie finished her wrapping job with expert speed, handed the package to the boy, then checked her watch. “Hey, Rhonda!” she called to the stout gray-haired woman at the next table, “I’m going on break, okay?”

“You betcha.” The woman barely glanced up from the picture frame she was encasing in sparkly silver paper. “But be back by the lunch rush, all right, hon?”

We hurried away from the gift wrap area. “So what do you want to talk about?” Allie asked curiously.

“I’ll tell you in a second,” I replied. “Want to go sit down? I’ll buy you a coffee.”

“Okay. I could use the caffeine.” Allie fiddled with her hair while we walked, trying to get her headband to hold it back out of her face.

It was still early, and the food court was relatively quiet. It only took a few minutes to get our coffees from the doughnut stand. Black with one sugar for me, and cream and three sugars for Allie. We found an empty table and sat down.

“I went to the North Pole with Bruce last night,” I began.

“Oh, right.” Allie wrinkled her nose. “How was it? Did he sprout eight extra hands as soon as the lights went down?”

“Well, sort of. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” I took a deep breath, wrapping my hands around my steaming coffee cup. “I ran into Cam there. With Jaylene.”

“Oh, Lexi!” Allie exclaimed sympathetically. “Sorry. Was it totally weird?”

“Yeah. Weirder than I expected.” I hesitated, not sure how to say what I wanted to say next. “You know, all this time I’ve been really sure I was doing the right thing. But last night, just for a second, well …”

Allie didn’t even wait for me to finish. “So you’re having second thoughts about this crazy breaking-up-with-Cam plan?” she exclaimed, bouncing in her seat so vigorously that she almost tipped over her coffee. “Oh my God, Lexi. I thought you’d never come to your senses!”

“Now, hold on,” I said. “I’m not saying I’ve changed my mind. Not really.”

“But you have, haven’t you?” She stopped bouncing and gripped the edge of the table, staring at me intensely. “You’ve got to do it, Lexi. Just this once, go with your heart instead of your brain. I’m sure you can still get Cam back. It’s not too late—not yet.”

She had a certain demented gleam in her eyes. I recognized that gleam. It meant she was in the midst of formulating a new theory.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” I said.

“What?”

“You know what. The theory.” I raised an eyebrow at her. “You
do
have a theory that applies to this situation, don’t you?”

She smiled. “As a matter of fact, I do. It’s a new one. I’m thinking about calling it the Dozen Dates Theory.” She tapped the stirrer from her coffee on the table. “See, I’ve sort of been thinking lately about how relationships get started. And how some of them last, and some don’t. And just how important those early days are to a new couple as they get to know each other and stuff.”

“Okay, Dr. Freudina,” I said. “So what does this have to do with me and Cam?”

“I’m getting there. See, the idea behind the Dozen Dates Theory is that by the time a new couple has gone out a dozen times, their relationship is pretty much set.” She shrugged. “There’s more to it than that, of course. I mean, I’m thinking this one could make a whole book if I work it out right.” She pushed her coffee aside and leaned forward. “But for your situation, Lex, the key point is this: You need to move fast.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean this is the grace period,” she said. “The honeymoon. You know, for Cam and his new woman. That means you still have a chance to get him back. There’s still time. But not much.” She stared at me seriously. “Because if you let Cam and Jaylene get a dozen dates under their belts, that’s it. You can kiss any hope of rekindling your own romance good-bye.”

seven

The Dozen Dates Theory sounded just about as wacky as the rest of Allie’s long line of theories. But for once, I wasn’t in the mood to pick it apart bit by unscientific bit.

“Two dates, twelve dates—it doesn’t matter,” I told her, shoving my coffee away. “I mean, this is what I wanted—Cam happy with someone else and me free to move on into the future without worrying about him. I just had a moment of weakness, that’s all. You know, because of seeing them together like that. I’ll just have to suck it up and get used to it.”

Allie looked disappointed. “Wait, but I thought you said you weren’t sure this was the right thing anymore. You should always go with your instincts.”

“My instincts tell me to use my brain,” I said. “And my brain has been telling me for months that I have to figure out a way to solve the problem of me and Cam before it’s too late and we end up like Nick and Rachel.”

“That would never happen to you guys,” she insisted. “It only happened to them because of Rachel deciding she didn’t want to bother with a long-distance relationship.”

I stared at her, suddenly feeling as if we were speaking different languages. Speci-fically, I was speaking Logic and she was, as usual, fluent in Ridiculously Impractical Emotion. How many times did I have to point out the facts to her? It felt as if I were trying to convince her that two trains heading in opposite directions were totally safe, while she kept insisting hysterically that they were sure to crash into each other at any moment.

Thinking about that made me feel a little more settled. I was just going to have to get a handle on my emotions for a while—just until I got used to the new world order. Seeing Cam with Jaylene would get easier with time and exposure. It had to.

“Thanks for talking it through with me,” I told Allie, sitting back in my seat. “I think I’m back on track now. Even your Dozen Dates Theory helped.”

“Really?” She looked hopeful. “You mean it helped you see that you’ve got to get back together with Cam before it’s too late?”

I shook my head. “I mean it helped me see that I only have to wait them out for, like, nine more dates before I can stop worrying about Cam. You know, if we count that banquet and the concert as their first two dates, and then the movie as number three.”

She looked disappointed. “But—”

“So!” I interrupted brightly, deciding we could both benefit from a change of subject. “Any progress on your own love life lately? Sorry I’ve been so wrapped up in my own thing that I haven’t asked.”

“It’s okay. And not really.” She glanced at her watch. “But listen, let’s talk about that later, all right? I’d better head back now.”

I walked Allie back to work, then browsed through the department store for a few minutes looking for gift ideas for my family. But I couldn’t seem to focus on the cases and shelves full of jewelry and clothes and perfume and everything else under the sun. Finally I gave it up and headed back toward the mall.

I was still deep in thought as I stepped out of the hushed, tasteful interior of the department store back into the din of hurrying feet, screaming kids, and the Muzak version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” It was a moment before my ears adjusted and I realized that someone was calling my name.

To my surprise, it was Andrew Cole. He had just stepped out of Radio Shack holding a shopping bag. His polished leather loafers squeaked on the tile floor as he hurried toward me.

“Lexi, hi,” he said, straightening the collar of his long-sleeved polo. “Doing a little shopping?”

“Something like that.” I tried to remember the last time Andrew and I had spoken to each other. Despite having been in most of the same classes for the past twelve years, we weren’t what you’d call close, except maybe in the way that the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears could be considered close. To put it another way, we’d been fierce academic rivals since before either of us could spell
fierce academic rivals
.

“Hey, I was sorry to hear about you and Cam splitting up,” Andrew said. “Uh, but I heard you’re already dating again.”

Oh, great. So Bruce was already bragging about that. I wondered what exactly he’d been telling people. Then again, knowing Bruce, I probably didn’t want to know.

“Yeah, sort of, I guess,” I said, drifting into a private little fantasy of shoving Bruce’s wandering hands up his own butt.

“Great. Then how about we go out sometime?”

That snapped me back to reality. “What?” I blurted out. “Uh, we? You mean you and me? Going out on a date?”

“Sure, why not?” Andrew shrugged. His lower lip was twitching slightly. “Hope it’s not too soon. I just don’t want to miss my chance again.”

“Again?”

He winced, looking as if he wished he could take it back. “Well, yeah,” he admitted. “I thought about asking you out once before. Back in eighth grade. I wanted to ask you to the Christmas Ball, but you and Cam got together before I could.”

Wow. That was so out of the blue I didn’t know what to say for a second.

“Um, okay,” I said at last. “Sure. That would be … nice.”

“Great! Are you free tonight? How about dinner at Manfredi’s?” Weirdly, he had that same triumphant gleam in his eye that he got on the rare occasion he received a higher grade than me on a test. I could only imagine what kind of theory Allie would come up with to explain that.

“Sounds good,” I said, trying to sound normal. “I love that place.”

“Fantastic. I’ll pick you up at six.”

You could call it bad luck. You could call it a statistical improbability. Or you could just call it what it was—life in a small town. Whatever the terminology, I could hardly believe my eyes when Andrew and I walked into Manfredi’s that evening and I saw Cam and Jaylene sitting at one of the tables for two along the cozy little restaurant’s back wall.