She patted his hand and rose.
“You have a good day. Love you.”
He watched his mom walk out, not sure how to take what she just laid on him.
“Love you too.”
~
“And this is where Santa will be,” Mia said, pointing to the center of the courthouse ballroom. Santa’s Sleigh Drive was only a week away and she was putting the final details on the layout. Since they couldn’t set up until the morning of the event, she needed everyone to know where things would go to make the set up smooth.
“You got Santa to come, huh?” Jen said.
“Yeah, the rental place comped the suit for three hours and Big Saul is going to be Santa. Pictures are five dollars. I’m expecting this to be the biggest money maker of the night.”
Jen nodded. “Nice work. I still can’t
believe you got all this stuff for free.”
“Donations,” Mia corrected. It hadn’t been easy, but everything was coming together and tonight, she would see Tate and fill him in.
She swallowed hard. All she thought about lately was him, and not in the way she used to. Like wanting to punch him. No, she’d been thinking about how he tasted. She also was thinking about their “date” later and wasn’t stupid. The lack of public appearance wasn’t lost on her. The question of, “Was Tate ashamed of her?” crossed her mind. He couldn’t be totally because he didn’t hide the fact of being seen with her in public right?
But it was never a date.
For the first time ever, a man had her stumped. The way he looked at her. How he picked up on Kyle’s feelings and turned the whole night around showed that there was more to the man than she thought.
But falling for him would be stupid. Mostly because he had his goals and she had hers. They both were counting on this event to be a success which was at least one thing they could agree on.
Shaking her head, she regrouped, told the few volunteers she had where the various booths would go and everyone seemed to be on the same page.
“And here is a map,” she handed out the few Xeroxed sheets of the setup she had in mind. “Keep these for your reference on the day of.”
Everyone nodded and with a few goodbyes and a couple puzzled looks, they cleared out leaving Jen with Mia to finish up a few notes she had.
“So…how did last night go?” Jen asked.
“Fine. Why? What did you hear?”
Jen frowned. “Ah, you said Kyle was having friends over.”
Oh, right. “It went okay. Only one kid showed up. Well, and Tate.”
Jen smiled. “Yeah, I saw him pick up your gloves. I offered to take them to you but he insisted.” Jen dramatically swayed like a teenage girl waiting for her friend to dish. “So, it went well?”
Mia blushed, she was doing that a lot lately. “Yeah, he came in and played X-box with Kyle until his friend showed up.”
“Oh, sweet.”
“Yeah, then he kissed me in the kitchen.”
“Woah, what!” Jen smiled and Mia thought she even jumped a little. “You’ve been holding out.”
“It only happened last night. Well…and a few nights ago.”
“Wait, he kissed you more than once?”
Mia nodded. Deciding not to tell her about the night at the bar. For some reason she felt like she saw a very private, no pun intended, side of Tate that night that he didn’t share with people. It was something she wanted to keep for herself, that piece of him he let her see.