“I do, Elda. Our texts.” They were going to make this work.
“Texting with you has been great,” she said, “but…Danny…our date wasn’t.”
“It was good. We had fun.” Danny Garland didn’t fail at stuff. He wasn’t going to fail at this relationship before it ever had a chance to get off the ground.
“I think we might have more fun with other people,” Elda said. She squeezed his shoulder, and that was it. Elda was done with him.
Danny nodded a tacit good-bye and hustled out of the building as fast as his crutches could carry him. He stood on the steps for a moment, squinting from the myriad of Christmas lights and the gold and silver aluminum ornaments decorating the trees outside the rink. Tourists and townies alike passed by—all paired up and gazing at their partners lovingly. Everyone around him was in a couple. Tonight was an exact replica of when he caught Star and Phil together in the laser tag room. Danny was the only loner in North Pole. He headed toward the comfort of Santabucks.
Danny had nearly started sobbing on Main Street when he caught Star kissing Phil. But the end of this whatever romance with Elda only numbed him. The fact that they couldn’t make things work wasn’t the worst part of the situation. Two girls had rejected him in one week. Oh-for-two, Danny was in a slump.
Elda squashing their budding romance proved he wasn’t so special, that he was truly nothing without his ability to play basketball, that whatever “popularity” he’d built up over the past several years was all phony. Danny, outside his ability to shoot hoops, brought nothing to the table. Holly had known that about him right away.
Danny snuck a peek inside Santabucks before entering. He kind of wanted to talk to his mom right now. He needed to talk to the one woman on the planet who actually knew him. She was working the counter tonight, but she wasn’t alone. Holly was in the coffee shop, too, and so was Craig. They were sitting right next to each other, having a serious, intimate conversation. She leaned closer to Craig as he spoke. Danny’s stomach churned. He was going to be sick.
They were on a date. At least it looked more like a date than whatever Danny and Elda had been doing on the architecture tour.
Danny, nearly choking on the oppressive scent of peppermint and roasted almonds that permeated Main Street, pulled his eyes away from the scene. He set off for home, keeping his head down to block out the Christmassy glow.
The breakup with Star had frightened him. When he met the Page girls, Danny should’ve done the irresponsible thing and thought with his heart instead of his head. He should’ve gone after Holly from the start. It definitely would’ve ended in disaster, but it would’ve been worth it. He should’ve thrown caution to the wind and beckoned her over to the mistletoe today, just to see what would’ve happened.
…
When Holly booked it out of the hockey rink to avoid having to watch Danny and Elda kiss under the mistletoe, she bumped into Craig in the parking lot.
“Where are you off to?” he asked.
Holly didn’t have an answer. She was either going to hide or run or bury herself under a mound of royal icing and candy inside her grandmother’s garage.
“I was gonna get coffee. Want to come?” Craig had his hands in the front pockets of his mom jeans, and he was rocking back and forth on his feet—heel to toe, heel to toe. He was nervous. Holly had never seen Craig nervous before. She figured him for someone who didn’t care what other people thought.
Holly usually relished her solitude, but she needed a diversion. Craig had been fun at the arcade following the second round of the gingerbread contest, and she’d had a nice time chatting at the ice skating thing tonight. Grabbing coffee with him wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It might actually be fun, keep her mind off other guys.
Plus, he had a car. An escape vehicle. She was on board with anything that would get her far away from the ice rink as fast as possible.
While Craig drove her to Santabucks, he kept talking about himself, the things he liked—movies and books and TV shows. Even though Holly couldn’t bear to hear one more trivia tidbit about Game of Thrones, she didn’t totally mind just listening. The distraction was working. Thanks to Craig, she’d forgotten all about Danny…for the moment.
As soon as Holly and Craig entered Santabucks, they were in Garland world. Danny’s mom was working the counter. Danny’s pictures were on the wall. This place unfailingly brought back memories of the first day Holly had seen him working here, The Coffee Shop Incident, of Holly adding Elda’s phone number to his contacts, and of the two of them meeting here this morning before spending one fantastic day together. That was all in the past. Now he was kissing Elda.
She could totally picture it, the kiss. Danny and Elda were so awkward together, but all of that was just pent-up sexual tension. The mistletoe was the icebreaker. After that it was just a few quick steps to a full-blown romance.
Which was good, because that was the point of this whole thing. Elda needed someone worthy of her, and Danny needed someone who could open up to him and wouldn’t break his heart.
Holly placed her order—medium cinnamon latte—and Craig jumped in to pay before she could.
“You don’t have to,” she said.
“I want to.”
He was just being friendly. Craig had noticed that Holly was upset, and he was being nice. Holly accepted the drink, grateful for the kindness. North Pole was full of good people, people who looked out for one another. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
After retrieving her drink from Danny’s mom, Holly walked over to a table in the middle of the coffee shop, trying desperately to prevent her mind from conjuring up a mental image of whatever Elda and Danny might be doing right now. Holly was willing to bet they were at his house. Obviously his mom was working tonight, and they’d have the place to themselves. Holly shuddered as she reached for a chair. But Craig barreled over, nearly knocking her down, and pulled out a chair for her. Okay, so he was really leaning into this whole polite thing. “Thanks, Craig,” Holly said as she sat down.
Then Craig took the seat right next to her instead of sitting across the table, which was super odd and intimate. Their arms were right next to each other, nearly touching. She kept her eyes down on her drink, because if she turned her head, she and Craig would be practically nose to nose. She wrote it off as Craig being incredibly socially awkward, which was something Holly could empathize with. It probably hadn’t even occurred to him to take the seat across from her.