“Penny for your thoughts,” she offered. “I know you don’t need it, but it’s all I can afford right now.”
He chuckled. “I was thinking about Christmas traditions,” he said after a moment. His dark eyes found hers. “And possibly trying out a new one.”
Her eyebrows raised. “And?”
“Come with me to San Francisco.” He leaned forward and took her hands in his. “We don’t have to stop here. Come back with me.”
It was a tempting offer. Too tempting, really. If it were any other time but Christmas, she would have said yes in a heartbeat. Despite how different their worlds were, she still wanted to be with him.
“I can’t.” She hated the words coming out of her mouth. “I want to, but I can’t. What about after Christmas?”
Hurt filled Nathan’s eyes but he quickly blinked it away. “I can’t do after Christmas,” he told her. “Business picks up then. I won’t have any spare time. I don’t want to do that to you.”
She hated the bitterness that filled his voice. He sighed leaning back against the pond walls, but still holding onto her hands under the water.
“What if you come home with me?” she asked him. “I’ll make you Eggo waffles. You can see the bookstore. I think you’d love it.”
He dropped her hands. “I can’t. There’s too much work to be done. In California, I can bring you to work. I can multitask. I can’t do that if I go with you.”
“You’re going to work over Christmas?” she asked him.
“I always do. It’s what I’ve always done. It’s why I’m successful,” he said, a touch of anger creeping into his voice. “And I’ve delegated too much as it is. My business runs my life. You need to know that.”
She did. She could already see how this relationship would go. They were on vacation now. It wouldn’t work in the real world. They both had too much work and were each too devoted to it. It was something they shared.
Holly’s chest felt heavy and full of dark clouds. This wasn’t how she wanted to spend her last day with him. She wanted to float and laugh again. She wanted to see him smile. She didn’t want to bring up his past or hers and make things ache. They didn’t have enough time together to fix these things.
They just had today.
“Let’s talk about this later,” she said, knowing that wasn’t going to happen. “I don’t want to bring us down. Not when I’m having the best day ever.”
A half smile attempted to form on his face. “Best day ever?”
She grinned at him. “Definitely top ten. You get me lobster for dinner and maybe another round in your bed, you’ll make top five for sure.”
He gave her a cocky grin. “I can do better than lobster,” he told her.
“And the bed part?”
“Why don’t we go upstairs and see?”
Chapter 20
Merryweather
“She's going to leave,” Flora said, frowning at the sky. “Maybe we should make more snow.”
Merryweather sighed. “We can't make more snow,” she told her sister. “And it's okay that she leaves. We just need to make sure that he chases her.”
Flora's frown slowly faded. “And you have a plan?”
“Do I have a plan?” Merryweather scoffed. “Dear sister, I always have a plan.”
Flora snorted.
“Fine. This time I have a plan,” Merryweather replied, ignoring her sister's eye roll. “I have a wonderful Christmas-inspired plan.”
Chapter 21