Yep, it seemed that he was exchanging a night out on the town with a hot hookup to go wrap Christmas presents with a sweet woman who really needed a friend more than anything else.
“Sorry, can’t do it. I… made plans.”
Fletcher glanced at Jordan then lifted a brow to Drew. “Oh yeah? With Charlie and Griffin? Or Zeke and Jill? Or maybe Zeke and Donovan and Owen offered to take you to New Orleans?”
Drew shook his head. “Uh, no.”
“So what are you doing tonight?” Paige pressed. “Is it with anyone we know?”
“Uh…” Drew scratched the back of his neck.
“It’s with Rory, right?” Jordan asked.
He couldn’t give away that they were wrapping gifts. That might lead to questions about what else wasn’t done and needed more work. “Yeah,” he admitted. “We’re going to watch a movie at her place.” He had no idea if that was true, but he did intend to show up on her doorstep. What happened on the other side of that threshold wasn’t anyone’s business.
“I knew it,” Jordan said, with a huge grin. She elbowed Fletcher. “Told you.”
He nodded. “Not surprised. Rory’s great.”
“You knew it?” Drew asked.
“Of course. I saw you two talking when you first got to town and there was a spark. Then at Ellie’s, when Charlie was all concerned about the village and party and everything, you jumped right in to defend Rory.” Jordan smiled. “I’m glad you two met. She’s so great, but she doesn’t really let us get too close. It’s like she doesn’t quite trust us. I hope you can convince her that we’re cool.”
Drew smiled. “I’m positive she knows that.” He hesitated, then made himself say the next thing that occurred to him. “She kind of has a thing for Beau. You should set them up.”
Jordan and Paige both frowned “Beau Hebert?”
Drew shrugged. “How many Beaus are there?”
Fletcher chuckled. “You might be surprised.”
“The guy who brought the toys to the petting zoo yesterday,” Drew said.
“Yeah, that’s Hebert,” Fletcher confirmed.
“Well, we can’t set her up with Beau. He and Becca are meant to be,” Jordan said.
Paige just nodded.
“Wait, Becca? The one you were going to set me up with tonight?”
“Yeah,” Jordan said. “Well, we weren’t really setting you up. Fletcher made that up to see what you would say.”
“Oh.” He must have been more transparent than he’d realized. “So Becca and Beau are together?”
That’s awesome.
Then he frowned. That was not awesome. Rory liked Beau. He shouldn’t be pleased that Beau was spoken for. Drew was going back to Iowa. He shouldn’t wish spinsterhood on her.
And he definitely didn’t. But he wished for some phone sex and a few trips back and forth between Iowa and Louisiana, he realized.
“No, they’re not together. Not in the dating-falling-in-love sense anyway,” Paige said. “But Becca and Beau have been friends forever and everyone thinks they should be together.”
Jordan nodded. “The whole town tries to matchmake them.”
“Tries to?” Drew asked. “It doesn’t work?”
“Well…getting them to spend time together isn’t hard. They see each other all the time,” Jordan said. “Like we said, they’re really good friends.”
“We just all want them to start kissing already,” Paige said with a grin.
Drew lifted a brow. “You? The woman who was so adamantly against a town trying to marry her off?”
Paige waved that away. “That was before I fell head over heels for my one and only. When you find the one, your whole perspective changes.”
Drew thought about that. He was already starting to think that being a good guy wasn’t such a bad thing when it came to Rory. She made him want to be good—to do things to show her how special she was, to make her feel good, to take care of her—and she clearly needed more of that.
A change of perspective. Huh.
“So Beau and Rory aren’t going to happen?” he asked.
Paige gave him a look. “Well…why don’t you tell us?”
No. Beau and Rory weren’t going to happen. Because he thought he knew who the right guy for Rory was.
And that should really freak him out.
So why didn’t it?
Six hours later, Drew walked up the Main Street sidewalk toward Rory’s salon. As he approached the front of I’m Gonna Dye, he realized he was hoping that she’d open the door and it would hit him that wanting to be the one to take care of her forever was completely crazy.
He was hoping she would open that door and be just another girl. A beautiful girl, sure. A girl he would still want to kiss. But just a girl that he could say goodbye to in a few days when it was time to go back to Iowa.
All of the thoughts about how he never wanted another man to touch her and how he wanted to be the one who hugged her whenever she cried and how he wanted to protect her from her dad and anyone else who ever hurt her, were ridiculous. It was probably sleep deprivation. Or maybe something in Ellie’s gumbo. Or the fumes from too much reindeer manure.
Then they could then wrap presents and maybe even kiss some more, but he wouldn’t be thinking about taking her to his farm and teaching her to make snow angels or how cool it would be to add to the Santa Village here in Autre next year…together. Or how fucking glad he was that the entire town wanted Beau Hebert with Becca whoever-she-was.
He passed the huge front window of Rory’s salon. The salon was closed, but the lights were on and he could see her inside, sweeping up. Even that sight was enough to make his heart rate kick up a notch.
Dammit.
He stopped at the door and knocked twice. She turned at the sound, clearly startled. But she immediately relaxed when she saw it was him and gave him a huge smile.
Fuck. The flip in his chest didn’t feel like he was over how much he liked her and wanted to make her happy.
She put the broom to the side and came toward him quickly.
She smiled at him through the glass and twisted the lock on the door, then pushed it open.
“Hi.”
That was it. One word. Two letters. And Drew realized he was totally fucked in the don’t-fall-in-love-with-this-woman department.
Everything he felt for her last night was absolutely just as potent right now, if not more so.
“Hi.” His voice came out gruffer than he'd intended.
“I’m glad to see you,” she told him.
He fucking was too. She was dressed in black leggings and an oversized red t-shirt that said Dear Santa, It’s Actually A Funny Story. Drew grinned.
Her green hair was pulled back into a ponytail and…then he saw her feet.
She was wearing red and white striped socks.
Just like the ones she’d worn with her elf dress. Just like the ones he’d been fantasizing about in his dirty elf daydream.
He couldn’t see the tops of them under the yoga pants, of course, but he knew they were thigh highs and would just peek out of the top of her black leather boots.
His eyes met hers and he was certain he looked intense and turned on suddenly.