Totally Smitten (A Cozy AF Christmas 3)

I stop midway from carrying her bags to my truck. “Do you not want me to go?” I ask her, almost nervously. If she says no, I’ll carry her bags back to her little car. I may follow her to her parents’ house to make sure she arrives safely, but I won’t come in if that’s what she wants.

She’s twisting her hands in front of her, and she looks everywhere but at me. “It’s just—”

But I stop her. “Look at me,” I tell her.

Her big blue eyes look up at me. For once, she doesn’t have her wide-rimmed glasses on, and I can see how long her lashes are. “Now, tell me. Do you not want me to come with you?”

She doesn’t hesitate then. “I want you to come with me, but—”

She continues to ramble on about how she feels like she’s putting me in a weird spot, but I don’t stick around to listen. I start walking over to my truck to secure the suitcases in the back. She’s following behind me, and finally I turn toward her. “Tara, listen, I’m going with you. I know it’s weird, I’m your boss and all, but I want to do this for you.” I take a step toward her, and her eyes get even bigger. Her breathing is coming out in little pants, her nostrils are flared, and she’s biting her lip. Because I can’t resist, I put my hand around the base of her neck and run my thumb over her pulse. It’s beating rapidly, and I barely refrain from holding my smile in.

I worried all night whether I was doing the right thing or not. I don’t want to lose Tara as an employee, but I’m also tired of pretending I don’t have feelings for her. I didn’t want to make things weird if I liked her and she doesn’t feel the same way, but the way her pulse is racing just standing next to me tells me that I may have a chance. And I’m going to take it. “There’s no buts. You want me to go, I want to go. I like spending time with you, and trust me when I tell you, I don’t do things unless I want to. You know that about me.”

She’s staring up at me, speechless. This is the first time I’ve ever known her to be speechless. I tilt my head to the side and continue running my thumb over her neck. “You okay, sweetie?”

She takes a deep breath, and I don’t think she realizes it, but she leans into me. I put my other hand under her chin and pull her up to look at me. “Talk to me.”

She closes her eyes briefly before opening them. “Thank you for doing this for me.”

She still doesn’t realize it, but I’m doing this for us. I feel good about it and know this is going to be a turning point in our relationship. I just hope I’m making the right decision.

“You’re welcome.” I reluctantly let her go and walk around to the passenger side and open the door for her. “Now, let’s get a move on.”

After she’s in, I walk around to my side. “Okay, where to?”

“Head toward the interstate and I’ll bring the directions for Juniper Junction up on my phone.”

We drive for a while as I listen to the directions before I ask her, “So what do I need to know?”

I chance a look at her, and she looks confused by the question. “Ya know, to make this believable I’m going to have to know things about you and your family.”

She nods her head, “Right. Well, I have a younger brother. Matt, he’s seventeen. My mom is Janet and my dad’s name is Darren. They both work at the university, Mom in the English department and Dad in the math department. They are complete opposites, but it obviously works for them.”

“Okay, so evidently they know how we met, but what have you told them about us?”

She shakes her head. “Nothing. I told them I wanted you to be a surprise.”

I start to think on that and realize that I didn’t think this all the way through beforehand. “So what will they think about you dating your boss and me being so much older than you?”

“You’re only twelve years older than me. Do you think that’s too much of an age difference?”

It makes me wonder if she’s now worried about what her parents are going to think or if she’s just now considering how much older I am. “I don’t think so. Plus, you act a lot older than most women your age. But what about the boss thing?”

She shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t think they’ll care. My parents are pretty good parents. All they’re going to care about is if you make me happy or not.”