Winter's Kiss (32 page)

Allie and Nick were bent over a sheet of construction paper together. They both looked up in surprise when I walked in and said hello.

“Lexi!” Allie exclaimed, jumping to her feet and brushing her hair out of her face. “What are you doing here? I mean, I was going to call you and see if you wanted to come help us with this stuff, but I figured you had that date last night and probably wanted to sleep in, plus I know you’ve got that last application essay to finish and then that paper for history class, so …”

She was babbling, probably out of sheer boredom. Or maybe the Elmer’s glue had gone to her head. Either way, I brushed aside her torrent of explanations.

“I’m glad you guys are both here,” I said. “I need to talk to you about something. It’s important.”

“Uh-oh,” Nick joked. “The last time you said something like that, you’d decided to break up with Cam. Let me guess—this time you’re breaking up with the two of us, right?”

“Very funny.” Even though my mind was pretty much filled to capacity with my own problems, I couldn’t help realizing that he sounded almost back to normal lately. At least Rachel hadn’t broken him forever. “But I’m serious. I think I’ve made a colossal mistake.”

Allie cocked her head. “Wait. Did you end up going out to dinner last night with Andrew?”

“Uh-huh.” I’d scooted back into the department store the afternoon before to let her know about that invitation. “Let’s just say it didn’t go well. In more ways than one …”

Flopping down onto the leather sofa, I quickly filled them in on the whole evening. Nick let out a low whistle when I told them about seeing Cam and Jaylene at the restaurant, and Allie gasped with horror when I (briefly) described their kiss.

“So anyway,” I finished, “I realize now that I was wrong. Cam is the guy for me. I never should have decided to end things with him.” I took a deep breath. “So go ahead. Say it. You told me so, right?”

“Well, now that you mention it …,” Nick began.

Allie shut him up with a punch to the upper arm. “Don’t,” she said. “You know Lexi. She doesn’t admit she’s wrong very often, mostly because she
isn’t
wrong very often. We don’t want to make her feel any worse about being so, so,
so
wrong this time.” She smiled at me. “But anyway, why are you here telling us about this? You should be at Cam’s house right now getting back together with him!”

“What? It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is,” Nick urged, leaning back against the edge of an overstuffed armchair. “Cam’s a reasonable guy. So you throw yourself at his feet, tell him you were an idiot, then kiss and make up.”

Allie nodded vigorously. “Just be honest with him, and see if he’ll consider trying again. I’m sure he will.”

I sat up so fast that the sofa squeaked. “Are you insane? I can’t tell him the truth about all the idiotic stuff I did to make this happen.” I grimaced, feeling my cheeks go hot as I thought about all the deceptive tricks I’d pulled over the past couple of months. How could I have been such a fool? “He’d never understand,” I added sadly. “He’s so honest and straightforward—he’d probably never forgive or respect me ever again if he found out how I finagled the end of our relationship. Then I wouldn’t even have him as a friend anymore, let alone anything more. And I
really
couldn’t stand that.”

“But you can’t give up, Lexi!” Allie cried. “You have to get him back.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “It’s not like you to give up, Lex. That’s why Dad always calls you the family go-getter.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not giving up,” I told them. “I’m just saying I need to figure out the best way to handle this.”

Allie looked dubious. “Well, you’d better hurry up and figure it out soon,” she said. “Dozen Dates Theory, remember?”

Nick let out a snort. Clearly he’d heard about Allie’s latest theory as well.

Allie shot him an irritated glance. “Anyway, I still think you can do it. Right now you’ve still got time on your side. See, I’ve been working out more of the theory lately, and there’s something I’m calling the Nostalgia Footnote. That means that, as the recent ex, you still have the advantage of all the memories you two have together. But the closer you get to that dozen dates mark, the less weight that kind of thing—”

“Hold it,” I interrupted, tapping my fingers on the arm of the sofa. “I think you might be on to something there with the nostalgia thing, Allie.”

“Really?” She looked surprised and kind of delighted. And no wonder. That was probably the most enthusiastic response I’d ever given to one of her theories. “Well, I mean, sure I am. So if you just confess everything to Cam right now, his memories of your past together should totally overcome any weirdness about, you know, your methods.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.” I leaned forward and gazed thoughtfully at my cousin. “Hey Nick, I just realized your birthday’s coming up in, like, a week.”

“Let me guess. This is your way of warning me to expect an IOU instead of a real present again this year?”

Poor Nick was always getting shafted on the whole birthday-present thing. I guess that happens when your big day is too close to
the
big day. And like I said, in Claus Lake the entire autumn season is probably too close. Oh, and just in case it’s not obvious, that’s how Nick got his name. After all, being born in December in Claus Lake, what other name could he have?

“Don’t worry,” I told him. “Your birthday gift is already wrapped and waiting in a secret location in my house. But I was just thinking, shouldn’t we all do something special to celebrate?”

He cocked one eyebrow suspiciously. “Why do I have the feeling this idea
isn’t
coming from a genuine burst of cousinly love?”

“Of course it is.” I grinned. “Then again, I’ve always been a multitasker, right? See, I was just thinking, how about if you invite the whole gang out ice-skating on the lake next weekend?”

“Hmm.” Nick picked a sparkly bit of paper off his sleeve and flicked it across the room. “Could be fun, I guess. Plus that way nobody will be able to forget my birthday for once. But what’s in it for you? You realize I’ll have to invite Jaylene, too, right?”

I shrugged. “That’s okay. She’s from Georgia—she probably can’t even skate. With any luck she’ll spend most of her time drinking hot chocolate on shore and Cam and I can reminisce about the first time we went skating together.”

“Ooh, I remember that.” Allie smiled. “It sounded totally romantic.”

“It was. So maybe being out there on the lake together will remind Cam of that night—you know, get that nostalgia thing working for me. If you guys are right and he wants me back too, that could be all it takes to kick-start a reconciliation—no messy confessions required.” I shrugged. “If I play my cards right, Cam and I could be a couple again in plenty of time for the Ball. We can wear the funny front-and-back-halves-of-a-reindeer costume he picked out, and everything will be back to normal.”

“Okay, what the hell. Let’s do it,” Nick said. “I’ll start calling people tonight.”

“Call Cam first, okay?” I urged. “There’s not much point if he can’t make it.”

Nick snorted. “Right. No point at all.”

Allie giggled. “Don’t worry, Nick, she’s crazed with jealousy—she doesn’t know what she’s saying.” She turned to me. “But Lexi, even if this works, you’re right back where you started. You know, that fabulous mismatched future you were so worried about before …”

That had been nagging at the back of my mind too. But I was trying to keep it back there for now.

“I know,” I said. “But I’ll just have to worry about that once I’m back with Cam.”

nine

“Brrr,” Bruce complained. “Nick, dude, why’d you have to have your birthday at the coldest time of the year?”

“Don’t be an idiot.” I looked up from lacing my left skate, quickly tucking my bare fingers into my armpits in a vain attempt to thaw them enough to lace up the other skate. “If his birthday was in July, we wouldn’t exactly be celebrating with an ice-skating party, would we?”

Still, he kind of had a point. It was cold.
Really
cold. Not that it’s ever exactly balmy in Wisconsin in December, but it’s usually not Siberia, either. But just my luck—a front had rolled in the night before and it was downright frigid, with a bitter wind gusting in and howling around the edges of the lake, shaking the latest snowfall off the tops of the pines. At the moment we were all still huddled around the benches and snow-covered pathways by the skating inlet, even though most of us had arrived at least ten or fifteen minutes earlier. Nobody seemed too eager to leave the relative shelter of the shoreline and hit the open ice.

But the weather wasn’t the main reason I was feeling kind of tense. Cam hadn’t even arrived yet, and I was already wondering if this had been a stupid idea. Nick hadn’t been able to reach Cam on Sunday night. He’d tracked him down as soon as he could in school on Monday, but the best he’d been able to get from Cam was an “I’ll let you know.” Cam hadn’t given him an answer until Tuesday morning, which meant Nick hadn’t been able to start asking other people until after that. By then a large chunk of the guest list already had plans for Saturday afternoon. Then a few more had canceled because of the weather. Wimps.

So that left a pretty small group. Me. Nick. Allie. Bruce. Two giggly girls from Nick’s music class. And finally, Cam and Jaylene—if they ever showed up. Now, normally Cam wasn’t the type of guy to cancel at the last minute. If he committed to be somewhere, he was there, come hell, high water, or subzero windchill factor. But now that Jaylene was in the picture, I was starting to wonder if he was still as predictable as I’d always thought. After all, I never would have expected that impulsive, snowy kiss the other night, either….

Ripping my mind away from that unwelcome image, I stood up, brushed some snow off my black Polartec pants, and surveyed our paltry group. When I’d come up with this idea, I’d envisioned Jaylene lost in crowds of people out on the ice, giving me free rein to zero in on Cam and work the nostalgia angle. After all, Nick had tons of friends, which meant his parties normally resembled New Year’s Eve in Times Square. But with only eight of us, it wasn’t going to be so easy to cut Cam loose from the herd. Still, Allie and Nick had promised to run interference for me if they could. I was just going to have to make the best of it.

I finished my laces, then sat up and pulled my warmest gloves back on. That made my hands feel a little less like blocks of ice, though it didn’t help my face, which had gone numb. Who needs Botox when you have an Arctic air mass?

Nick already had his skates on. He was swinging his arms back and forth, trying to stay warm as he waited for the rest of us to finish getting ready. “Hey Bruce,” he said, “where’s your man Cam? Thought he said he’d be here.”

Good question. I wanted to check my watch, but it was hidden under three or four layers of clothing.

Bruce was sitting on a bench playing snowplow with his skate blades in a handy drift. “Yeah, he’ll be along. Probably late though. That new girlfriend of his takes forever getting ready to go out.” He stood up and sidled over to me. Even with a frozen face, he could still leer. Amazing. “Guess she’s not the natural woman type like you, eh, Lexi?”

Before I could answer, I heard a car door slam. I glanced over toward the parking lot, my heart jumping. But it was only Allie. She’d been changing into a borrowed pair of Nick’s extra-warm wool socks in his car.

But behind her, I finally saw a familiar car pulling into the lot. “Cam’s here,” I hissed at Nick.

Bruce spotted the car at the same time. “Finally. Here they are.”

He headed over to greet the newcomers. The rest of us drifted along after him, walking awkwardly across the snowy lawn in our skates and guards.

Cam climbed out of the car first and waved. Then he hurried around to the other side to let Jaylene out.

“What, is she incapable of opening a car door for herself?” I muttered to Allie.

She shot me a sympathetic glance. “Be fair,” she said. “You can’t blame Jaylene because Cam’s a gentleman.”

“Oh yeah? Just watch me.” I scowled as Cam bent over the passenger side door.

A moment later Jaylene emerged. My frozen eyeballs bulged as I got a look at her. Sure, technically what she was wearing could be considered appropriate for skating. But only if the skating in question was in the Ice Capades. She was dressed in a snug Irish wool sweater, a flippy little lavender miniskirt, and shiny white tights. To top it off, a navy-and-white striped scarf was looped jauntily around her neck. At least she was wearing a hat today. It matched the scarf perfectly.

“Oh mah gosh, y’all!” she called out to us, laughing in little bursts that were visible in the cold air. “Ah guess Ah may be kind of underdressed fer this shindig.”

Cam swung his battered old hockey skates by their laces, looking sheepish. “She thought we were going to an indoor rink,” he explained. “I guess I should have been more specific when I told her about this—she’s still not used to, you know, being in the north.”

Jaylene waved her hands, which were as usual encased in cute but awfully thin-looking white mittens. “No, Ah’ll be fine,” she insisted. “Of course, Ah might need a little help to stay warm, if ya’ll know what Ah mean!” She grabbed Cam and snuggled up against him.

“Aw, young love,” one of the music class gigglers called out. “Aren’t they adorable?”

“Sweet,” Bruce agreed. “Yo Jaylene, how is it you can look freezing cold and smokin’ hot at the same time?”

Jaylene giggled, swinging her hips a little so her skirt danced. “Oh, Bruce. You’re such a nut!”

I gritted my chattering teeth. The worst part was, Bruce’s obnoxious comment was true. The outfit Jaylene was wearing was totally inappropriate for the occasion. But she
did
look ridiculously hot.

Still, I figured in that getup Jaylene wouldn’t last long on the ice. I was glad I’d brought plenty of hot chocolate—it was already bubbling away in Mom’s portable party beverage dispenser, which was plugged in in one of the little cement picnic shelters nearby. With any luck, Jaylene would give up on skating within minutes and camp out in there to stay warm. All I had to do was distract Cam enough to keep him from following her in there. If it was awkward watching her cling to him now, I didn’t want to think about catching a glimpse of them making out or something.