A Very Merry Bromance (Bromance Book Club #5) (16)

“I’m not sure how to answer that.”

Colton leaned forward, arms on the table, and lowered his voice. “You have to be kidding me. You ignore me for a year, and this is what I get from you?”

Her shoulders tensed. “I’d rather not bring our previous entanglement into this.”

“Well, sorry, sweetheart, but I’m dragging it front and center. And for fuck’s sake . . . previous entanglement?”

“How would you prefer I refer to it?”

“How about what it was? A night of amazing sex and the start of something with serious potential?”

She looked at her hands. The only other sign of discomfort was a hard swallow. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment, finally raising her gaze again. “That was a mistake.”

“Two minutes ago, I would have disagreed with you.”

She had the decency to flush. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

“Well, congratulations. You did it without even trying.”

“Look.” She sucked in a breath. “I’m here because my brother asked me to talk to you and gauge your level of interest.”

“That would be zero.”

Gretchen bit her lip, and an unwelcome flashback intruded on the conversation. Her standing nearly naked in front of him, chewing her bottom lip, trying to explain why they could never work.

She swallowed. “If you’re only saying no because of our . . . that night, can I at least convince you to listen to an official proposal from the company?”

Colton grabbed his beer and sucked down the last warm remnants. God, he hated Budweiser. He set the bottle down harder than he intended. Tense silence throbbed between them as he tried and failed to think of something to say. Un-fucking-believable. Could this day get any worse?

On the stage, J. T. started to play the intro melody to a classic, “River” by Joni Mitchell. “This is my favorite Christmas song,” J. T. said before launching into the lyrics.

Gretchen made a disgusted noise. “This is not a Christmas song.”

“Of course it is,” Colton fired back, not because he cared but because he was pissed off and arguing with her seemed like a good idea. “The word Christmas is in the first line.”

“Just because the word Christmas appears in the song doesn’t make it a Christmas song. It just happens to take place at Christmas.”

“Which makes it a goddamn Christmas song.”

Her eyes sparked. “Turning this song into a Christmas song dilutes its message.”

“Oh, please, enlighten me.”

“The entire song is an apology. It’s a wistful homage to the bittersweet loneliness that follows the end of a relationship.”

He blinked. That was actually deep, but he’d be damned if he’d show her he was impressed. “Loneliness at Christmas,” he countered.

She waved her hand. “Don’t trivialize it.”

“Is there something trivial about Christmas music?”

“Everything about Christmas, or the way we celebrate it at least, is trivial.”

Okay, those were fighting words. He leaned into the battle. “I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of year.”

“Of course it is.”

“Enlighten me again.”

She shrugged. “You’re happiness and frivolity personified.”

He sucked his teeth to cover the sting of those words. “Them’s some big words for a dumb hick like me.”

“Stop pretending to be insulted. I never insinuated you were dumb or a hick.”

“Oh, trust me, honey. I heard your insinuation loud and clear when you ran out of my hotel room like I was some kind of diseased reptile.”

Her eyes flashed again, this time with shame. That should’ve been his cue to shut up, but instead he plowed forward.

“What was the problem? Were you too embarrassed to let people know you’d lowered yourself to sleeping with happiness and frivolity personified? Is the great and powerful Winthrop name too good to be sullied by the likes of a clichéd country bro? Or was this your plan all along? Fuck me and keep it in your pocket until you needed me for something?”

Her face fell, and in the brief second when her mask slipped away, he saw that his words had wounded her. Deeply. He really should’ve shut up. “Gretchen,” he breathed, pinching his eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

He opened his eyes at the sound of her sliding out of the booth. “I can see this is going nowhere,” she said tightly.

“Wait,” he said, reaching for her hand.

She jerked it from his reach and instead grabbed her coat and bag. “I’ll tell my brother you’re not interested.”

Her heels sounded an angry retreat as she stormed away. A cold blast of air chilled the bar as she threw open the door and left.

“Fuck,” Colton breathed, once again squeezing his eyes shut. He needed to go after her, but when he opened his eyes to get out, Duff blocked his way.

“You handled that well,” Duff said.

Colton glared up at him. “Let me out.”

“Best to leave it be at this point.”

“How much did you hear?”

Duff dropped into the seat Gretchen had just vacated. “Enough to know you’re an asshole.”