Approximately Yours (North Pole, Minnesota #3)(50)

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.

“Oh my God, you’re hopeless!” Holly was laughing, tilting backward in a lawn chair, popping M&Ms in her mouth.

Elda was on the floor, fiddling with one of those gingerbread kits they’d used to practice for the second round. She was trying to make the walls stand, but they kept toppling over as she tried to add more icing.

Danny raised his hand to knock. He held his breath. This was it. This was the moment of truth.

“I mean, look at you.” Holly laughed louder, covering her mouth to stifle it. “I can’t believe Danny actually bought that you were the one who knew how to build a gingerbread house.”

“Shhh,” Elda said. “Shut up.”

And now his breath was stuck in his throat. His hand had stopped about an inch from the door. For once, Danny was glad to be on the crutches, because at least they were keeping him upright.

“Besides, I’m not that bad.” Elda leaned back, admiring her handiwork.

“You’re terrible,” Holly said. “You suck.”

“Well, you’re a terrible matchmaker.” Elda’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Texting him all that stuff about architecture and weird books? No wonder we never had anything to say to each other.”

Danny’s heart skipped a beat, and the past week or so started replaying in his mind, but with a new clarity. Holly rocking the second round of the competition, telling him she was a sculptor, an artist. Elda having absolutely nothing to say to him whenever they were together, but Holly being able to see into his soul.

The girls had been playing a prank on him. He’d been talking to Holly this whole time.