Page 53 of Meet Me on Mistletoe Lane

The three of us cackled and immediately quieted when Mrs. Bartlett gave us one of her infamous “don’t push it” looks. Jo and Sam followed along silently a minute later as a few of our classmates began reading their parts aloud, but my brain couldn’t stop circling back to the way Sam responded to my leaping from the lattice.

The panic in his voice.

How his shoulders squared when Jo asked me about my date with James.

And then there was that mumbling about love triangles—

Oh my God, Gianna, why does it matter? I sighed and rubbed my temples.

I had given Sam the opportunity to tell me his real feelings, to give me a reason not to date James, and he said nothing.

He did nothing.

So as much as I hated to admit it to myself, those two things told me everything I needed to know.

Chapter Fourteen

“We make our own magic.”

—Dash & Lily

On Saturday, after successfully sneaking out again to hang with Jo while she worked a morning shift at Eve’s, I finally forced myself to go home, cringing when I saw the familiar cars parked in my driveway.

You knew what you were signing up for, G.

I did one of Leo’s four-count breathing things before opening the front door, and no sooner had I closed it than my entire family swarmed me from different areas of the house. Questions and comments flew at me all at once.

“Cara, what is going on?”

“—you barely know him!”

“Is this like a serious thing—”

“Or are you two in the ‘talking’ phase?”

“Everyone just slow down and take a breath.” I held up my hands. “Yes, James and I went on a date.” I held up my hand to cut off Bianca, who was about to interrupt. “Yes, it is new, and yes, I barely know him…” I thought back to our game of Battleship. Of our conversation in Mom’s studio and on the porch of the B&B. And how he jumped up and hurried halfway down the stairs after asking me about Dad, and I smiled. “I know the timing is off, but I’m excited to get to know him and to see where this leads.”

I thought it would be hard to do that. Lie to them.

But surprisingly, it wasn’t.

Because maybe I wasn’t actually speaking a lie.

James was, in fact, pretty interesting. Charming, even.

Did it go against the fake-dating pact that a small part of me was actually kinda excited to hang out with him some more?

Leo must’ve walked down the stairs at some point, because as I finished, his pinkie finger found mine, and he smiled up at me.

I ruffled his hair and turned back to my family. “We can talk more about it later. I’ve got finals to study for.”

Most of them separated into different rooms, whispering among each other as they left the hall, but Marco and Nico lingered behind and cut off my escape path to the stairs.

“Just make sure he knows that we know people,” Marco said, cracking his knuckles.

“What he said.” Nico nodded toward his brother and crossed his arms over his snug, pink crewneck sweatshirt that said Lilac the Ability to Control Myself.

I bit back a smile. “I’ll do that.”