Approximately Yours (North Pole, Minnesota #3)(48)

He should kiss Elda.

Holly was the one who’d told him to stop thinking and just go for it. That was what he should do.

And then someone shouted, “Kiss him, Elda!”

This was the moment of truth. Danny gazed into Elda’s big brown eyes and leaned toward her. He hadn’t kissed anyone since Star. Heck, he hadn’t kissed anyone before Star. This was a big moment. He prepared himself to remember it.

Elda, however, sideswiped his cheek and whispered, “You don’t want to kiss me.”

The crowd groaned with disappointment over the non-kiss for a split second before resuming whatever they were doing—drinking eggnog, returning skates, taking selfies with the life-size cardboard cutout of North Pole native and professional hockey player, Stan Stashiuk.

“Yes, I do.” Danny was trying to grab the bull by the horns here. He and Elda were supposed to be together.

She caressed his cheek. Nothing. No sparks. Not a one. “No, you don’t.”

“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.