He kept talking about Game of Thrones for a few more minutes, and Holly worked hard to appear interested. When he stopped to breathe, she asked, “Is your showstopper ready?” Holly stared at the dried splash of coffee on the lid of her drink. It was shaped kind of like a reindeer, because of course it was.
“I’m about finished,” Craig said. “It looks amazing. I’m really proud—” He cut himself off. “But how is your showstopper doing?”
Holly stared at him for a beat. “It’s good.”
Craig, blinking, tilted his head as if ready to hang on her every word.
“Craig? Is this a date?”
He straightened up. “Oh.”
“I mean, if it is”—oh my God, what if it wasn’t and she was saying all this right now?—“I want to be upfront with you right from the start. I’m not interested. I like someone else.”
“Danny,” Craig said right away.
“Yeah.” Yikes. Maybe she’d been more obvious about her feelings than she thought.
“I always thought you two made more sense together than him and Esmerelda.” Craig straightened up, resuming his usual air of disdain for other people. “Besides, it’s fine. Dinesh thought you and I might make a good couple, but I get the feeling you don’t really like Game of Thrones. I can’t be with a girl like that.”
“Good, well, we’re on the same page.” Holly sipped her drink, waiting for Craig to move to the other side of the table. He did not.
After she finished her coffee, Holly dragged herself home to work on her showstopper. At least the caffeine jolt would keep her up all night. She needed every available second before judging started tomorrow at four.
But she reached a roadblock just outside her grandma’s house. A couple stood on the walkway, silhouetted in the moonlight. Holly’s heart was in her throat. It was Elda and Danny. They were standing close, talking, touching each other here and there like they were constantly checking to make sure the other was real.
But wait. This guy wasn’t wearing a cast, and he wasn’t using crutches. It was Dinesh. Dinesh was touching Elda’s hair and whispering in her ear. Elda was gazing at him like he was the Mona Lisa, and she was determined to figure out all of his secrets.
Holly marched right up to them. She pushed Elda’s shoulder, not hard, but firm enough so Elda would know she meant business.
“Hey.” Elda rubbed her arm. “What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter?” Holly stared hard at Dinesh.
Elda ran her fingers through her hair and gave a slight smile to Dinesh. “Dinesh and I…” Elda grinned harder and shrugged.
Holly snapped Elda out of her Dinesh-induced haze. “Where’s Danny? What about the mistletoe?” Holly shuddered. She’d been picturing Danny kissing Elda for the past half hour.
Elda squeezed Holly’s hand. “I shot him down.”
“You what?” Holly snatched her hand back. That wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Elda and Danny were supposed to be on his couch right now rounding second base. It was the scenario she’d been preparing her brain for.
“Holly, I told you. Danny and I have nothing in common.” She nodded toward Dinesh. “I found someone who doesn’t mind the real me.”
Dinesh leaned in. “I more than ‘don’t mind’ her, to be clear.”
Holly folded her arms. “But the mistletoe. I saw you move on Danny like you were going to eat his face off.”
Elda laughed, her eyes wide with surprise. “I don’t know what you thought you saw, but it wasn’t that. I kissed him on the cheek, just to take the pressure off. He doesn’t like me. If anything, I think he likes you.”
“I wish you’d stop saying that.” Holly’s hands balled into fists, and she glanced over at Danny’s house. The light was on in the front room, but she couldn’t see in. “Danny Garland doesn’t like me.” Holly saw the truth when Danny had looked at her tonight. The word “nope” had been written all over his face.
“He’s confused,” Elda said. “Think about it. He’s had this fabulous time texting with a girl he thought was me while having a great in-person rapport with you. His mind must be all jumbled up. We really did a number on him.” Elda reached over and picked a bit of fuzz off Dinesh’s coat. The two of them were chatty, bubbly, happy. They had an easy vibe that was the exact opposite of how Danny and Elda acted when they were together.
Dinesh wasn’t the guy Holly would’ve picked for her cousin, but what did Holly know? She was the nerd who’d been in love with a guy for eight years, but instead of being honest and telling him about it, she’d tried to set her cousin up with him instead.
They really had done a number on him. Holly had concocted this elaborate scheme with literally no escape plan and no favorable ending. She had been messing with Danny this whole time, and it was time to make things right. Time to tell him the truth. Danny would probably hate Holly forever because of it, but it was the only possible way out.
“We’ve got to come clean. Both of us.” Holly held out her hand. “Give me your phone. Please.”
Elda handed it over.
Holly opened the text conversation with Danny. She wrote, “I want to explain everything. Meet me in my grandma’s garage when you get this.”
Chapter Seventeen
Danny glanced out the kitchen window toward the back of Mrs. Page’s house. Holly and Elda were walking together to the garage.
Hadn’t Elda already explained everything, or at least tried to? She wasn’t into him. Period.
He shut his curtains and sat on his bed. What was left to discuss?
Almost immediately after he sat down, he stood again. He grabbed his crutches and went to the window. The light was on in Mrs. Page’s garage. He touched the windowpane, which was cold under his fingertips.
He’d been all upset after his first date with Elda because he thought he was going to have to live his whole life pretending to be someone he wasn’t in order to get girls to like him. But being around Holly today, he realized that wasn’t the case. Some girls—or, at least one girl—totally got him. He was both totally comfortable and completely off-balance around her. He wanted to hold her and talk to her. He wanted to know her and wanted her to know him.
He knew she didn’t feel the same way, and that she was possibly interested in Craig, but that was okay. He’d take the risk and tell her how he felt. She had to know. She was leaving in a week, and this couldn’t go unsaid.
Elda had said in her text that she needed to explain everything. Well, so did Danny.
Danny’s stomach filled with butterflies as he threw on a jacket, grabbed his crutches, and headed out the back door. He was super nervous, but he’d dealt with enough disappointment in the last month to know he could handle it if Holly ended up laughing in his face. He’d survived a broken leg and catching his girlfriend cheating on him in public. He could handle a little rejection.
A few months ago, he might not have been able to say that.
When he reached the garage, he peeked in the window. The door was slightly ajar, so he could hear the girls’ conversation. Danny smiled to himself when Holly’s voice reached his ears.