Chapter 5
Holden
I still couldn’t believe my eyes. Belle—or Isabelle—was standing a few feet away from me. The woman I’d thought I would never see again. The woman I had tried not to think about…but had failed. And here she was.
Except she looked different than when I’d seen her last. Her hair was pulled back in a low slick ponytail, not a hair out of place.
Her outfit was meticulous and well put together.
Not that she had looked like a slob when I’d seen her before, but she had seemed like the type of woman who could throw an outfit together and pull her hair into a quick messy bun and still look amazing.
But now, her entire look screamed prim and proper.
Just like my cousin. Or rather, just like her boyfriend.
Gah! She had a boyfriend! How had she failed to mention that little detail during our afternoon together in New York? And yeah, I had kissed her, but she had definitely kissed me back. And it wasn’t a polite kind of kiss. Or at least, it hadn’t felt that way to me.
Did Alex know I had kissed his girlfriend? He hadn’t seemed to, but he never paid much attention to me. Which was more than fine with me. I wasn’t his biggest fan either, although somewhere along the way we had decided to tolerate one another.
“I thought your name was Belle.” My voice came out gruff in both annoyance and embarrassment. Had she known all along who I was but thought our time together would be a fun little game?
“It is,” she said. “Well, it’s my nickname. Short for Isabelle. Everyone calls me Belle, except for Alex and his parents.”
I think I might have heard my aunt refer to Alex’s girlfriend as Isabelle in passing, but I never paid too much attention when she talked about her.
Plus, I wouldn’t have automatically connected Isabelle and Belle to be versions of the same name.
Alex—and his girlfriend’s name—had been the furthest thing from my mind during that day I’d spent with Belle.
“And you expect me to believe you didn’t know who I was?” I asked, my voice still curt.
Her eyes widened in what I assumed was disbelief. “What? I had no idea who you were. Alex hardly mentions you, and if he does, he doesn’t call you Holden—he calls you Prescott. I thought that was your first name.”
I studied her face for any sign that she might be lying but found none. She really did seem to be a genuine person. That quality of hers had stuck out to me like a beacon during our time together.
“I didn’t even know Alex’s cousin—you—were a hockey player until this morning when Maggie said something about the charity event,” she continued, but then paused, before adding, “You know what? I don’t need to defend myself to you.
Our meeting was coincidental. And it was you who didn’t want to share any personal information with me.
” She folded her arms across her chest and gave me a pointed look.
That was true. But I hadn’t thought her having a boyfriend would be kept secret as well.
“You didn’t think that telling me you had a boyfriend would be a good thing for me to know?”
“I didn’t know you were going to kiss me,” she exclaimed. “I thought I was just thanking you for saving my life—or at least, saving me from a severe injury.”
“I wasn’t planning to kiss you,” I argued.
“Then why did you?”
I ran a hand through my hair. She wanted to know why I had kissed her. Well, there were a few reasons I could give her, but none of them seemed like the right answer.
It could have been because of those guys who had been about to blow my cover.
It could have been that I had enjoyed her company more than anyone else I could remember.
It could have been that I thought she was beautiful and was very attracted to her.
It could have been because I thought I would never see her again.
Or…or it could have simply been because I wanted to kiss her.
“I don’t know,” I finally said, not wanting to voice any of my thoughts. “But I do know that you kissed me back.”
Her cheeks flushed, and I saw her visibly swallow. A moment passed before she said, “We were under the mistletoe.” As if that was a good enough reason for her to have kissed me back.
“True,” I agreed. “But you could have given me a quick peck and pushed me away.” I wasn’t sure why I was acting like a jerk, pushing her on the topic of our kiss. Probably because I wanted to know that our kiss had meant something to her. Because it had meant something to me.
She broke our eye contact and then gave me a haughty look. “You practically had me in a vise grip.”
I scoffed at her exaggeration. Two could play this game. “You were practically climbing me.”
Her mouth fell open at my remark. “I was not.”
“And I didn’t have you in a vise grip,” I countered.
She pursed her lips. “Fine. I kissed you back,” she huffed. “I’m going to check in to my room now.”
“Wait.” I reached out, placing my hand on her arm to stop her. “Does Alex know about the kiss?”
A guilty expression crossed her features. “No.” She looked around us to make sure we were still alone. “He doesn’t know about our afternoon together.”
“Why not?”
She threw her hands up in the air, and it was the first sign of the woman I’d met a week and a half ago, her hands always moving animatedly when she talked.
“I don’t know.” Her hand moved as if to brush hair away from her face, something I’d watched her do several times when we’d been together, like she wasn’t used to her hair being slicked back.
She folded her arms again as if she were trying to keep them from moving while she talked.
“I guess I just figured I’d never see you again. ”
I nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t think I’d see you again either.”
Our eyes locked, and as the silence swirled around us, I had the same urge I’d had last time we’d been this close. I wanted to pull her into my arms to make sure she was real, to make sure that kiss had been as good as I remembered it being.
Instead, I broke our eye contact and turned my head to the side. “I won’t say anything to Alex.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice quiet. “Plus, there’s not really anything to tell, right? We were just two strangers who found ourselves under the mistletoe and fulfilled a Christmas tradition.”
My jaw clenched at her flippant perception of our time together, and I worked to loosen it. “Right.”
She gave me a small smile. “So, I’m guessing we’ll be seeing each other a lot this week.”
I shrugged. Not if I could help it. “Maybe. I’m pretty busy with charity event stuff.” Or at least, I was going to pretend I was. The less time I spent with Belle, the better.
“Oh, yeah, of course.” She looked toward the front desk, where my aunt and uncle were finishing their check-in. “Okay, well, maybe I’ll see you around, then.”
I gave a single nod, and then we were both going our separate ways.
Looked like I would be spending even more time hiding in my room than I had originally thought.
I had no desire to be hanging out with Alex and Belle.
Just the thought alone of him holding her hand, putting his arm around her, or…
kissing her made me sick. Aunt Maggie would be disappointed, which I felt bad about, but keeping my distance would benefit everyone else.
Taking the stairs, I trudged up to my room, my scowl so deep, it might as well have been carved into my face.
I hadn’t been looking forward to this week to begin with.
Being alone in my apartment over the holidays would have been a far better alternative.
And Belle showing up as my cousin’s girlfriend?
That was just the rotten cherry on top of this disaster of a holiday.