“Well…” He stumbled. “I mean…”
“Uh-huh,” Kate retorted, triumphantly, happy to have a reason to smile again. She’d been frowning for too long. “So, why would I like you if you haven’t done anything to earn it?”
“I can be nice.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
They sat in unmoving silence for one minute. Then two minutes. All the while, Kate stared. When he finally got uncomfortable with her gaze, he raised his eyebrows in confusion.
“What?”
“I’m waiting,” Kate said, unable to help chuckling.
“Waiting on what?”
“For you to be nice!”
Clark joined her laughter. Not much. Not enough. But it was a start.
“Why don’t we call a truce? A real one this time,” he said, the ghost of a smile still pulling at his lips. “You can have your Christmas, and I’ll have my peace and quiet in my study.”
“My Christmas is the festival. Are you going to give me that?”
“No.”
“But—”
The smile vanished. Clark’s right hand flexed.
“We can’t call a truce if you’re going to be impossible.”
“I am not being impossible!”
“You know I’m not going to give you the festival back. We can’t afford it.”
Here we go again, Kate thought. Two steps forward, one step back.
“That’s not why we can’t have it.”
“It’s a drain on our resources.”
“Maybe, but that’s not the real reason you’re shutting it down,” she retorted.
“Are we really going through this dance again?”
“I’ll do it until you tell me what you’ve got against Christmas.”
“You’ll be dancing forever, then.”
Kate explored two distinct possibilities laid out before her. Either he was a snob who would never attempt to open himself up to her or anyone else, for that matter—a possibility she found remote now that he admitted to liking her, something he never would have this morning—or he was going to flourish into the man she thought he could be. The man she saw hiding behind his thick curtains of cold detachment. Either way, she had to keep trying. The town hung in the balance and a man’s soul was at stake. This was no time to hide at Emily’s house and drink eggnog until she passed out, even if she wanted to.
“Why don’t I make you a deal? Instead of hiding in your office like the saddest man in the world, you spend Christmas with me. Really with me. Not on your phone pretending I don’t exist. And if you still hate it tomorrow morning, you don’t have to tell me why. But if you like it, even a little bit, you have to fess up.”
She wanted that secret. Knowing it could be the change in everything. It could make the difference.
“…Why do I have a feeling you won’t take no for an answer?”
“Because I won’t.” She smiled and popped up from her rock. The cracked face of her childhood Mickey Mouse watch flashed in the dim light peeking from behind the towering fir trees. Already 5 o’clock? When had it gotten so late? There were so many Christmas Eve traditions to get through before the evening was out. Her mind raced with timetables and planning strategies as her boots crunched the frosty grass beneath her feet. The slight shower still trickled overhead, but she paid it no mind; they’d be warm enough once they made it inside and in front of a roaring fireplace. She rubbed her hands together to warm them, not considering the fact that she might look like a plotting, evil supervillain.
“Then I guess I accept your deal.”
All at once, Kate bloomed into her normal self. It was Christmas. Anything could happen at Christmas. And what was more, she was great at Christmas. Renewed faith squeezed her chest.
“Then you’d better get ready for the best Christmas of your life,” she commanded.
“That’s an incredibly low bar to clear.”
“Then you’d better get ready for the best Christmas of all time.”
“You haven’t convinced me so far.” He smirked. “I accept your challenge.”
Chapter Nine
He accepted her deal only because he convinced himself it was impossible to falter. He would never like Christmas, and even if she did make him enjoy it a little bit, he could just lie and save himself the humiliation of telling his story.
And besides, he was a businessman. He didn’t respect any deal not in writing.
When she fled the house, he had no choice but to go after her. Reason told him he couldn’t let a woman wander around outside alone, especially not on his property. Reason told him she’d gone outside without a coat or an umbrella. She’d catch her death! She’d slip on the ice and fall and break her neck! She’d see a stray lightbulb and electrocute herself trying to fix it!
Reason instilled him with a sense of fear for her safety, but reason, if he ever decided to be honest with himself, only served as a justification for stepping out into the biting rain and following her footprints through the wet grass into the forest. As a kid, these woods terrified him. He hadn’t stepped foot past the treeline since his ninth birthday. Twenty years later, these woods still featured in some of his worst nightmares.
But he’d forged ahead anyway. Kate couldn’t be out in the woods alone, not when he had been the one to push her out there.
Clark didn’t have the time or patience for feelings like guilt. At least, he didn’t until he met Kate. She was the human face behind his corporate destruction, and even if he still believed he was doing the right thing, she made him want to apologize. She made him wish there was another way.
So, that’s why he said what he did about her, about her being kind and good-hearted. She needed to know this wasn’t personal. She hadn’t failed him. He just didn’t buy into her gimmicks about the holiday season, that’s all.
“We might as well get it over and done with,” he said, picking himself up from the muddy forest floor. Usually, he preferred clean, Scandinavian office design to dirt and outdoors of any kind, but he made an exception for Kate.
“No need to sound so excited,” she
