Winter's Kiss (36 page)

That brought me back to earth with a thud. I stared at my phone.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Being honest usually fixes things. Except when it makes things even worse
permanently
because the trust is gone. Am I really willing to take the chance of losing Cam forever once he hears how crazy and deceitful I’ve been about all this? He’ll never be able to look at me the same way again.”

“But this is you and Cam we’re talking about,” Allie said. “Of course he’ll forgive and forget. That’s the way he is.”

“How do you know that? What if he doesn’t?” I shoved the phone back into my purse. “Sorry, but I can’t take the chance. If he decided never to talk to me again …” I dropped my head into my hands, feeling self-pity envelop me like a thick, stifling cloak.

“It’s okay, Lexi.” Allie’s moment of hope and glee had passed, and now she just sounded kind of tired. “We all know how you are. You trust your head more than your heart. I’m sure Cam realizes that too.”

I barely heard her. “All this time, I just wanted to save both of us from a little pain and suffering by being practical,” I moaned. “But now it seems like I just made things worse on both of us.” I paused and frowned. “Well, worse on myself, anyway. Cam doesn’t exactly seem to be suffering now that he’s with Miss Naughty Elf.”

Allie sighed and stood up. “Come on, let’s hit the food court. I suddenly feel the need for some serious caffeine.”

* * *

By the time I got to school the next morning, I had formulated a new plan. I found Cam at his locker. Fortunately he was alone, with Jaylene nowhere in sight.

“Hi, Cam,” I greeted him in what I hoped was a normal tone of voice. “Listen, I was just organizing my room over the weekend and I realized I still have a bunch of your CDs and stuff. Do you want to stop by this afternoon and pick them up?”

Cam blinked. “Oh,” he said, sounding kind of subdued. “Um, sure. I guess I could do that.”

“Great.” I smiled, relieved that the pieces were falling into place so easily. “Why don’t you stop by around four? I’ll be ready for you.”

“Okay.”

As I hurried away, my heart was pounding at the thought of what I was planning to do. Could I actually pull this off?

Well, one thing’s for sure,
I thought as I headed down the hall toward my homeroom.
When Cam stops by this afternoon, he definitely isn’t going to find the same old boring Lexi who always took him for granted!

I tucked the phone between my ear and shoulder, leaving both hands free to fiddle with the waistband of my harem pants. I rolled it down carefully, exposing even more of my bare belly.

“So I decided to ditch the vest,” I told Allie, who was on the other end of the line. “I mean, why be subtle here, right?”

“If you say so. I just hope you don’t give Cam a heart attack.”

Giving one last tug at the pants, I then reached up and carefully tweaked my headband/tube top to allow for maximum exposure. Then I took the phone in my hand and switched ears. “Oh, and I’m wearing a thong under the genie pants. Cam always said I have a cute butt.” I giggled, trying to keep my nerves under control. “Anyway, Allie, you should see this outfit. If you thought it was triple-X before …”

I surveyed myself in the full-length mirror on the back of my bedroom door. It was a good thing both my parents were out for the afternoon. There was no way they’d let me leave my room looking like that, let alone answer the door.

And answering the door was the plan. When Cam arrived to pick up his stuff at four—right on schedule, as he always was—I was going to “accidentally” answer the door in my Triple-Xmas Genie get-up. I would pretend I’d forgotten about our appointment and thought he was Allie coming over to see the costume. Oopsie! Blush, wink, wriggle … and as Jaylene herself might say, what man could resist that, y’all?

“There’s the doorbell,” I told Allie, glancing at the clock as I heard a chime from downstairs. “He’s a little early—it figures. I’ll call you later and let you know how it went.”

I hung up and tossed the phone onto my bed. Then, with one last glance at my reflection and a quick adjustment to my Santa hat, I headed for the stairs, walking carefully in my mom’s tallest spike heels.

When I reached the door I paused, closed my eyes briefly, and took a deep breath, doing my best to calm my nerves. Then I opened my eyes and flung open the door.

“Hi,” I said brightly. “I—uh—oh.”

I froze. And not only because it was about twenty degrees outside and I was practically naked.

No, it was because there were three people standing on my front porch, and none of them was Cam. I stared in horror from my school principal to ninety-plus-year-old Mrs. Simpson in her wool coat and pearls to some gawky twenty-year-old kid holding a camera.

“Er, good afternoon, Miss Michaels,” Principal Jamison stammered, his startled gaze wandering briefly downward before snapping up to my face again. “We’re, uh, here to surprise you with the news that you’ve won the Simpson Scholarship this year.”

It worked. I was
definitely
surprised.

thirteen

Actually, to say I was surprised is an understatement. Stunned was more like it. The gawky kid with the camera had looked kind of bored when I’d opened the door. But now his eyes were practically bulging out of his face. He lifted his camera and quickly snapped a few shots. That jolted me back in action.

“Stop that!” I blurted out, ducking behind the door.

“Sorry.” He smirked. “Just doing my job. I’m with the
Claus Lake Courier
.”

Mrs. Simpson was peering at me through her spectacles. “Perhaps we should come back at another time, my dear,” she said in her quavery voice.

“No, wait!” I said, not wanting to give them the chance to change their minds about that scholarship. “Um, wait here a second. Please. I’ll be right back.”

I swung the door shut behind me and raced for the coat closet, almost tripping over my own feet in those stupid spike heels. Flinging open the closet, I grabbed my dad’s oversized camo-print hunting coat. When I shrugged it on, it came down past my knees. Perfect. Wrapping it around me until nothing showed south of my neck, I headed back toward the door.

“Um, okay,” I said, stepping out onto the porch and hoping my face wasn’t as crimson as it felt. “Sorry about that …”

I’m not sure how I survived the interview that followed, though I do vaguely remember promising the young reporter-photographer to e-mail him a picture of me wearing normal clothes. I tried not to think about where those photos he’d taken of me might end up, but made a mental note to stay off the Internet for a few days just for my own sanity.

We were all still there on the porch when Cam’s car pulled into the driveway, right on time as always. He looked confused as he climbed out and took in the sight of me in the camo coat and Mom’s heels. “Er … Lexi?” he said uncertainly, coming closer.

“Hello there, Mr. Kehoe.” Principal Jamison seemed a lot more comfortable now that I was no longer dressed like a stripper. He sounded downright jovial as he greeted Cam. “We’re just here bringing Lexi some good news. She’s this year’s recipient of the Simpson Scholarship.”

Cam smiled up at me from the bottom of the porch steps, shoving his hands into his coat pockets. “Congratulations, Lexi,” he said. “I knew you could do it. Um, and maybe I should come back another time to, you know …”

“Thanks, Cam.” I could only watch helplessly as he gave me a wave and then turned and hurried back to his car.

“What about Sugarplums?” Nick said, glancing across the street as he emerged from the steamy interior of the local dry cleaner’s shop. “I know we just picked up pledge forms there last week, but they always get a ton.”

“Good call.” Allie stepped around a slushy puddle on the sidewalk. It had been a sunny and relatively warm day, and some of the snow that had fallen earlier that week had melted, but now the sun was setting, the wind was picking up, and the slush was starting to harden into ice once again. “Plus while we’re there, maybe we can stop and have a hot chocolate or something. I’m freezing!”

I switched my backpack over onto my other shoulder. It was getting heavy. The three of us had been assigned to walk around Claus Lake’s main business district that afternoon and pick up the pledge forms that people had been leaving at all the shops and restaurants. The Christmas Eve Costume Ball was a charity event, and in addition to buying tickets and contributing at the Ball itself, townspeople could pledge additional money while they shopped or ate at sponsoring businesses throughout the holiday season. And people seemed to be in a giving mood, judging by the number of pledge cards we were collecting. With less than two weeks to go until Christmas Eve, Claus Lake was reaching a fever pitch of festive spirit, as usual.

But I couldn’t seem to focus on any of that. Not this year. Ever since that embarrassing moment on my front porch the other day, I had been fighting a sense of impending doom. It seemed that every time I tried to win Cam back, something got in my way. And even though I’d never put that much stock in Allie’s theories before, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Dozen Dates Theory. What if it was true?

I was busy pondering that for the fifty-millionth time as we crossed the street to Sugarplums, the town’s most popular ice cream and sweets shop. In fact, I was so deep in thought that I bumped into Allie as she came to a sudden stop in the doorway.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” I gave her a poke in the back. “Keep moving—my frostbite is getting frostbite out here.”

“Um, I was just thinking.” Allie turned and pushed me back a step or two. “I’m not really in the mood for hot chocolate after all. Maybe we should go over to the diner instead.”

“What’s the matter with you? You love hot choc—” I stopped short. I’d just gotten a look past her at the interior of the sweets shop. Cam and Jaylene were seated at one of the tiny round tables for two, their heads close together as they dug into a shared ice cream sundae.

Their backs were to us, so they didn’t see us. While we stood there gawking, Jaylene reached up and wiped something off Cam’s cheek. He smiled, and she leaned her blond head against his shoulder for a moment before continuing to eat.

Nick grabbed me by the arm. “Come on,” he said. “Allie’s right. Suddenly the diner looks like a much more appetizing idea.”

Soon the three of us were down the block at the Elf Street Diner, sliding into our usual booth, me on one side, Allie and Nick on the other. My mind was still whirling with what we’d just witnessed.

“If I’m counting right and haven’t missed anything, that’s date number eight they’re on right now,” I said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out mathematically. At the rate they’ve been going, there’s a high probability that the Ball will be date number twelve.”

“Oh, Lexi.” Allie’s expression was anxious and sorrowful. “I wish I’d never even told you about that theory. It’s making you too crazy.”

“Yeah. Since when do you believe in her nutty theories, anyway?” Nick said. Shooting Allie a glance, he added, “No offense.”

The waitress approached at that moment bearing menus. “We don’t need those,” Nick told her. “We’ll just have three hot cocoas and a basket of fries.”

She shrugged. “You got it, hon.” After quickly scribbling a note on her pad, she bustled off again.

“Anyway,” Nick said to me, “no matter what Allie says, there’s nothing magical about date number twelve. It’s not like Cam’s going to turn into a pumpkin or something.”

“I know.” I ran my hands through my hair, not even caring for once about Bozo-ing myself up in public. “I know that. Of course I know that. But it’s not really the point, is it?”

“What do you mean?” Allie asked.

I stared at her. “Twelve dates, thirteen … at some point, that theory of yours is going to be right. They’re going to be a real couple, and it’ll be too late for me to get him back.” I bit my lip. “And then I may spend the rest of my fabulous, exciting, big-city life wondering if I let my one true love get away.”

Allie and Nick exchanged a glance. “Look, Lex,” Nick said. “There’s a really easy solution to all this angst.”

“Don’t tell me to just talk to him,” I warned.

“But you have to!” Allie cried, leaning forward over the table. “Just tell him the truth already. What’s the big deal? You’ve always been honest with the rest of us.”

“Yeah,” Nick added. “Even when we didn’t ask for it. Like when you made me get rid of those ratty old cargo pants I used to wear all the time.”

“Or that time back in middle school when you were the only one who told me my new haircut looked terrible and I should get it fixed,” Allie put in. “I was kind of hurt at first, but you were sooo right, and I would’ve been way more embarrassed if I’d walked around like that for weeks without realizing the truth.”

“Oh, and then there was the summer after sixth grade when you convinced me to confess to breaking old Mr. Miller’s window,” Nick said. “Yeah, he was mad at first, but he was so impressed with the way I took care of his lawn to pay him back that he hired me to mow for the next three summers. So you were right to make me ’fess up.”

I held up both hands as Allie opened her mouth again. “Okay, enough. I get the picture. Honesty is the best policy, blah blah blah.” The waitress was returning with a tray of water glasses by now, so I paused until she’d set one in front of each of us and then hurried off again. “But this is different,” I went on, wrapping both hands around the cool, slick surface of my water glass. “I’ve dug myself in too deep already. If Cam and I
do
get back together, he can never know what a devious psycho I truly am.” I stared at them both. “That means you guys can never tell him either. Promise?”

“Whatever you say, Lexi.” Allie sighed and tugged at the loose strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail.

“Yeah, Scout’s honor and all that.” Nick lazily crossed his heart with one finger. “But if you’re not going to tell him the truth, how exactly
are
you planning to win him back?”

“Good question.” I gulped down half my water, then set down the glass and tapped my fingers on the table, thinking hard. “I definitely can’t just beg him to give me another chance. Way too random and pathetic, especially after I spent so much time practically shoving him at Jaylene. No, getting back together has to seem like
his
idea.”