“I thought maybe you were sad because you’re standing under the mistletoe and nobody’s kissed you yet.”
She looked up and damn if she wasn’t. Her skin suddenly felt tingly and she glanced around, but everybody was involved in their food and conversations and nobody was paying the slightest bit of attention to the fact that her face had to be as red as a Christmas stocking.
“I want you to know,” Andy said, “that you forgiving me and making me welcome here has made me a very happy man. And I’d really like to kiss you.”
Good lord, she hadn’t been kissed by a man in fourteen years. And by nobody but Earle for decades before that. She wasn’t sure she even remembered how it was done, but she found herself tipping her face up to his and leaning a little closer.
“Just a quick one,” she whispered. “All the kids are in the room, you know.”
He chuckled softly, and then his lips met hers and she clenched her hands to keep from touching him. Just as her body seemed to say, “oh, yes, we remember this,” it was over. She sighed, wishing it could have gone on just a little longer.
“Maybe you should leave that mistletoe up there for a while.” He winked and she giggled like a smitten schoolgirl. “Now, I’m going to go get me a slice of that banana cream pie before Lauren and Paige eat it all.”
That was fine with Rose because she could use a minute alone to compose herself. Andy Miller, all of people. Who would ever have guessed that?
Once she was fairly confident she no longer looked like a girl who’d just been kissed by a boy she had a crush on under the mistletoe, Rose went in search of dessert. Something chocolate would be good. Chocolate and gooey and sinful.
She was spooning chocolate truffle into a paper bowl when Katie nudged up beside her. “I saw you kissing Andy Miller under the mistletoe.”
Prickly heat crawled up Rose’s neck as she mentally flailed for something to say. Was she upset? “I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.”
“Wait until Fran hears about this.”
“Katherine Rose Davis, don’t you dare!”
Her daughter just grinned and walked away, sticking her tongue out at her over her shoulder.
“Whoa!” Mitch said, very loudly. “Katie just got middle named!”
“On Christmas Eve?” Ryan shook his head. “Hell of a time to end up on the naughty list.”
“Speaking of naughty and nice lists, we need to open up the presents so Nick can get to his dad’s before his little brother and sister go to bed,” Rose said in a voice everybody could hear.
As she’d hoped—and expected—the excited rush toward the tree distracted them from wanting details on Katie’s transgression, which was a relief.
She wasn’t sure how she felt yet about Andy wanting to kiss her, but she knew her feelings weren’t going to be clarified any by getting everybody else’s opinion on the matter. This was something she was going to have sort out for herself.
Chapter Nine
Katie, acting as official hostess in Rose’s place, was in charge of passing out the gifts. Mostly, though, she was just trying not to pass out.
Josh had kissed her. Andy had kissed her mom. This whole mistletoe thing was out of hand and, if she could, she’d kick Mitch in the junk for hanging it. He had to have done it for his own twisted amusement, since Josh had made a good point about hanging mistletoe at a family party.
It had happened so fast, she barely had a memory of it to savor later. Just a fleeting impression. Everybody had been chanting and then his mouth touched hers, lingered for far too few seconds, and then was gone. She’d always imagined her and Josh’s first kiss, if it ever really happened, would be some earth-shaking, soul-shattering event, not free party entertainment.
But she pasted on a grin, put on the Santa’s helper elf hat Josh thought would be a cute gimmick, and handed out gifts. She, Josh and her mom would exchange theirs in the morning, but there were plenty under the tree to pass around.
Being the elf kept her so busy she only caught fleeting glimpses of the opened gifts. Her mom had knit a scarf and hat in Bruins colors for Nick, and Katie knew she’d knit Andy and Drew each a pair of fisherman’s mittens. Mitch gave Josh a new splitting maul, which made both men laugh. They wouldn’t let anybody else in on the joke, but Katie suspected her mother knew by her smile and made a mental note to ask her about it later.