But Ryan looked so sure.
“Holly.” He stood, pulling me up with him and holding my shoulders. “I wouldn’t lie about this. You’re my sister, and the only reason I invited Nick here in the first place was to make you happy. Cheer you up from your crappy last few months. I thought the least I could do was help you get a date for the party and forget the fact you’d been laid off and only courted by guys obsessed with IKEA.”
And the hits kept coming.
“Obviously I never could have predicted all these operations you came up with.” Ryan rolled his eyes. “But I’m telling you the truth. Nick’s exact words to me were, ‘Ever since Holly stopped attacking me with Christmas, I’ve enjoyed getting to know her. I like her.’ ”
I stilled. My heart jerked with an extra beat. “He said that?”
“Yes. He also said you would never believe him after all the operations.”
He was right. I wouldn’t have.
I hadn’t.
“He just wanted to keep things going. Keep being with you. That’s why he didn’t want me to let on that I knew.” Ryan let go of my shoulders and stepped back. “Ironically, he was trying to keep you from getting hurt.”
My mind whirled and I released a huff of air, afraid to believe. Afraid to hope for such a gift after everything I’d put everyone through. I struggled to take a deep breath. “But…he left.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Ryan crossed his arms over his chest.
I winced and slowly nodded. “Yeah. Probably even sooner.”
“Exactly.”
We stared at each other. A dozen thoughts flew through my head like Santa’s reindeer. Would Ryan lie about this? No. Could I have been wrong about all of it? Yes. Was it possible Nick really was the guy I thought—and hoped—he was? Yes. Was it worth the risk of finding out?
Tears pricked my eyes and I hesitated, wrapping my arms around myself.
“Look, sis. I know it’s scary.” Ryan could always read my mind, way more than Olivia and her alleged sixth sense could. “All relationships are. I was scared to death when I proposed to Lydia, even though I figured she’d say yes.”
“Figured?Are you kidding?” I scoffed. “She would have proposed to you first if she’d found the concept remotely acceptable.”
Ryan grinned. “Well, yeah. I know that now. But then, it was risky. I had to decide what would hurt worse—trying and getting rejected, or not trying and living my entire life without her.”
Oh, Ryan. That was deep.
I briefly closed my eyes, heart pounding. But he was right. I really liked Nick, and despite our complicated, rocky start, it could be the beginning of something amazing. It’d only been a week, but everything I’d felt for him had been genuine.
Was it possible it had been for him too? Could there be one more Christmas miracle for me?
“Please, call him. Talk to him.” Ryan turned me toward the porch and pushed. “And for the love of Frosty, get inside. It’s freezing out here.”
His bowl had chipped. Figured.
Nick stared at the seasoned noodles crowding his traditional bowl as the TV droned in the background. He’d initially turned on the original animated cartoon Grinch movie, but the second Cindy Lou Who appeared on the screen, it’d proven too painful to watch. He’d clicked over to a rerun of a basketball game on some sports channel he didn’t even realize he subscribed to.
He missed Holly.
He missed the whole Sinclair family. As he’d unpacked, started his laundry, and heated up his annual noodles, he realized he didn’t even like ramen that much. Holly had managed to shift his mindset about everything he’d formerly believed about the holidays, even his favorite soup.
He adjusted his position on the couch, full bowl in hand, and aimlessly stirred the noodles with his fork. He liked ice skating and Christmas cookies and tinsel, and by golly if he hadn’t secretly loved decorating that stupid sweater.
All because of Holly—and her family—making everything real. Chaotic. Perfectly imperfect.
But this Christmas was miserable enough without strolling down memory lane.
No longer hungry, Nick set his bowl on the end table and reached across the couch for his phone, eager for a distraction. Oh yeah. Still dead. He’d lent his charger to Axel last night and forgotten to grab it in his hurry to leave that morning. He could always go outside and charge his phone in his truck but…what was the point? He didn’t want to see messages from anyone but Holly, and the odds of her leaving one at this point were super slim.
