Page 88 of 27 Kisses
“Absolutely.”
I laugh and shake my head, and that gets some looks. Nosy people. “All right, lass. I’m listening. What are you confessing to?”
She studies her nails. “I might have encouraged Mom and Dad to come home.”
“So? I mean, it’s a little surprising. But not exactly earth-shattering news.”
“And,” she continues, “hinted that Garrett would be the perfect person to host Christmas.”
I stare at her. “Were you trying to torture him?”
“No. But he’s been avoiding family and Christmas for way too long.” She grins. “And now I expect a thank you.”
“Ha.” How will Garrett react to this news?
“No thank you?”
I shrug just to torture her and go back to work.
Garrett arrives an hour later, still grinning. I almost let out a smile, but I have a reputation to uphold.
“I think this might work,” he says, standing close. But not too close. Is that an automatic response? “I mean, Nat seems to think they have everything covered. Not invitations, but everything else.”
Does he think I’m still worried about my customers finding out? The town? “We can take care of that right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“In fact, this will take care of a lot of things. I still need to give you your Advent kiss.”
“It’s one day after Christmas, Aidyn. No one’s doing Advent calendars anymore.”
“Obviously, you’re wrong. I am. How many Advent kisses have you had so far?”
He thinks about it. “Twenty-five.”
“And this will be kiss number twenty-six.” I take his arm and pull him into the center of the room. The diner is crowded, so I climb on a mostly empty table to be heard. “Listen up.” This is an unusual phenomenon for Christy’s Café, so it doesn’t take long for the noise to die down. And I have a loud voice. “Is Mrs. Weppler here? Oh, there you are.” I wave at her. “Get up here, Garrett.”
He shakes his head.
I give him a look because I’m not above dragging his arse up here. He sighs and climbs onto the table. A smile slips out, and Jesus, Garrett is so damn cute sometimes. “All right, listenup, everyone. This is Garrett. You all know him, so say hello.” I get a few rumblings. And that will not do. “For Christ’s sake. Is that the best you lot can do? Tell the man hi.” This gets a better response. “As you might have heard, Garrett and I are together. And since you’re all a bunch of nosy nellies, we might as well get this out of the way.”
Grabbing Garrett’s face, I whisper, “Happy day after Christmas, love.” And then I kiss him. With tongue. This isn’t a friendly kiss. I don’t want anyone to have any doubts.
When I pull away, Garrett looks a little dazed. And so does the rest of the restaurant. And then everyone starts cheering. I smile because no one’s grumpy all the time. Then I raise my hands to quieten them down. “Don’t expect me to be nice now because that isn’t happening. I can barely stand most of you, so don’t be pushing it. And last but not least, Garrett has an invitation for you.”
“Me?” he asks in a low voice.
“If you think I’m inviting them, you’re sadly mistaken. You, me, and Lanie. That’s all I need, love. But I don’t want to hear the rest of them complaining forever about being left out. So”—I nod my head toward the patrons—“do your thing.”
Garrett clears his throat. “Um, hi.”
“Hi,” everyone yells. Figures they’d get it right this time. “Tomorrow at one p.m., at Bishop Fields, I get to marry the man I love, Aidyn Christy.” He stares at me fondly, and I could get lost in that look. Then he clears his throat and smiles at the rest of the diner. “And I hope—Aidyn and I hope—you’ll all join us.”
After that, it’s pure chaos. And for once, I don’t mind.
Twenty-Three
GARRETT