Page 15 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

“Come in, come in!” May’s mom calls out as we all stumble through the back door and kick off our snowy boots into a messy pile. “I made hot cocoa!”

She holds up a silver tray of steaming, mismatched mugs, and after we hang our jackets and hats sloppily on the metal hooks, the four of us descend like vultures, each eagerly grabbing one.

I end up with a yellowish-green one, the Grinch’s grumpy face staring back at me as I wrap my cold fingers around it.

“Perfect for you,” Molly jokes, clutching her pick, a Swanson’s Christmas Tree Farm mug, the letters worn and fading.

“It’s got a little something special in it,” May’s mom says, leaning forward conspiratorially. “It’ll warm ya right up!”

“Whipped cream?” Molly asks eagerly, already sporting an adorable whipped-cream mustache.

I take a sip and snort. “Rum.”

Her mouth forms an O, and I smile, reaching out to brush off the mustache with my thumb.

May nods to the living room, where a warm fire is still roaring away in the fireplace. “Let’s chill in there.”

Before we can pass through the doorway, though, I grab May’s arm. “May, can you show me to the bathroom?” I grin at Cora and Molly. “We’ll be right back.”

“Wrong way,” May says as I drag her down the hallway, rerouting to circle us back in the opposite direction.

I pull her inside with me and flick on the light.

“What’s up, Blackwood?” she asks, taking a sip from her mug, unfazed.

“You do know Cora’s into you, right? Or are you that obtuse?”

She nearly spits her mouthful all over me.

“Cora? Are you…?” She clears her throat. “You’re sure?”

“Did you drop one of those enormous weights at the gym on your head? Of course! You just need to buck up and tell her. ” I put my drink down on the edge of the sink, slapping my hands onto her shoulders.

“May. You are a strong, cool lady! I have seen you deadlift enough to rip both of my string-bean arms clean off my body. You can do this!”

She chews her lip thoughtfully, considering. So, I decide to press a little harder.

“Tell you what, if you have it in you to confess to Cora tonight, I swear on Molly’s destroyed pair of lucky socks that I’ll finally ask her about moving in together.”

I showed May pictures of the town house during one of our workouts at the gym. Or… during one of her workouts, while I occasionally attempted a biceps curl and took yet another water break.

She doesn’t say anything for a long moment. Then she takes a swig of her hot chocolate and nods. “Deal.”

“Yeeeees!” I say as I swipe my mug off the bathroom sink, doing a happy dance on the white tile floor. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

“Hey, Blackwood?”

“Yep?”

She swivels me toward the door, giving me a light push. “Get out. I gotta pee.”

After we head back to the living room and settle in, me and Molly on the comfy couch, May sitting on the floor with her back to the fire facing Cora, who sits legs crossed in the oversize armchair, I give May a mischievous grin. “Let’s play truth or dare.”

Might as well help guide her in the right direction… and make sure she doesn’t chicken out before I can.

“Two sips of rum and this one goes off the deep end,” May mutters into her mug.

“I’d play,” Cora says with a shrug. And suddenly May “Down Bad” Swanson nods in agreement.

“All right, Parker,” I say, turning to the side to look at Molly. Let’s see if I can get some questions answered too. “You first. Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she says, sipping more of her hot cocoa. “I’m too cozy to be rebellious.”

“Why did you ditch us earlier? What did you have to do?” I ask.

Molly’s brow furrows as she chokes on her sip.

“It was Noah,” she finally gets out after a coughing fit.

“Had to hop on a call with him to figure out what to do about Mom’s Christmas gift, and the service was too spotty in town.

It’s not scheduled to get here until the twenty-sixth, so we’re in a bit of a pickle. ”

I can tell she’s lying from the way she hurriedly tucks her hair behind her ear, a tell I learned a year into us dating, when she tried to cover up that she was planning a surprise birthday party for me. The same tell from the coffee shop all the way back in Pittsburgh.

Molly isn’t very good at keeping secrets. And she’s even worse at lying, so I don’t see it often.

At least, I didn’t. Until recently.

But I also know from the fact that if it was Noah, she would have just told me earlier. And she definitely wouldn’t have just sprinted off without a word.

“What did you get her?” I ask, my eyes narrowing.

“Technically, that’s a second question,” she says. “But we got her the Brother DreamMaker sewing machine she’s been drooling over since she retired and got back into making quilts. Supposed to be good for embroidery.”

That, at least, isn’t a lie. Beth loves her quilt making.

I’m even pretty sure I saw that exact sewing machine on her vision board for the year.

But something still feels off. Seeing my calculating gaze, though, Molly raises her eyebrows at me and goes on the offensive.

“All right, Blackwood. What about you? Truth or dare?”

“Do you even have to ask?”

“Chug the rest of your hot chocolate,” Cora dares me immediately, and I grimace but quickly oblige. The rich drink goes down about as unpleasantly as I expect it to. So much for savoring it.

I groan as I lower my mug, then point back at her with my index finger. “Okay, Myers. Your turn. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

I cast a sideways glance at Molly before asking, “You got anyone in Pittsburgh you’re interested in?”

I give her one last chance to buck up just in case May doesn’t actually have the gumption.

May tries not to look too eager as Cora starts to panic, trying to change her answer. “Dare! I meant dare!”

I shake my head, clicking my tongue. “No takebacks.”

She sighs and picks at the arm of the chair she’s in. “Yeah, I mean… sure. I guess so.”

“Who?” Molly prods, squeezing my leg in excitement as she leans forward.

“Technically,” May speaks up, her voice cracking nervously, “that’s a second question.”

Molly plunks back on the couch, defeated. Well played, Swanson.

“What about you, May?” I ask. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” she says, and Molly perks up again next to me. I reach out to grab her arm before she can say anything.

“If you happen to like someone,” I say, choosing my words carefully this time, “I dare you to go tell them how you feel.”

May’s brown eyes narrow, and she lets out a long exhale. “All right,” she says, peering in Cora’s direction.

Oh my God. Could this be it?

Then she calls out, “Bear!”

Is that some kind of cute nickname, or are we actually about to be attacked by a polar bear…?

I exchange a glance with Molly as May whistles loudly.

There’s a long stretch of silence, during which everyone but May peers at one another with what the fuck looks on their faces.

But then finally there’s the sound of paws clacking slowly on the wood floor, and an ancient golden retriever appears, tail wagging slowly as he makes his way to May at a glacial pace.

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

“Bear,” she coos, and he nuzzles into her welcoming arms. She leans back and gives him a kiss right on his nose, and he plunks his butt down in front of her. “Have I told you how much I love you?”

His tail thumps happily on the floor, and he licks her face in response.

“You have a dog ?” Cora asks, and May nods. “I’ve been here for like two days and didn’t know!”

“He mostly keeps to his dog bed in my parents’ room since he’s gotten older,” May replies sadly, ruffling his ears.

Molly sighs from next to me. “I’m letting this technicality slide because Bear is really cute.”

I nod in agreement but shoot daggers at May, who mouths a dejected I’m sorry when Molly and Cora look away.

We play a few more rounds, in which Molly and I try every angle to get Cora and May to confess, each of which earns me progressively worse dares.

I end up eating the oldest condiment in May’s refrigerator (mayo from 2015 that even Bear is repulsed by) and prank calling Jim to tell him I quit, which ends in a flurry of text messages from him with emojis I didn’t even know he knew how to use.

Thankfully, though, it seems like Cora and May are starting to let their guards down, which makes it sort of worth it.

They might be evading actually telling each other, but by talking about their ideal types (each other, naturally), their greatest relationship deal-breakers (none of which the other has), how they’d both rather jump off a bridge than face rejection (clearly), it feels like maybe, just maybe, progress is being made.

After the latest round of evasion, when it’s my turn again, no one even bothers asking me to pick.

“Alex,” Cora says, fingers tapping on her mug. “I dare you to tell Molly something you’ve never told her before.”

Shit. I knew all that prodding was going to get me into some hot water.

I feel Molly still next to me and wish I had more hot cocoa I could take a long sip of to hide behind.

“That sounds an awful lot like a truth,” I counter, and May nods in agreement, petting Bear’s head.

“Fine,” Cora says with a challenging shrug. “You can answer, or I dare you to run in your underwear down the street.”

Cora has severely underestimated my aversion to truths. Without a second thought, I hop up and head for the door. “Okay.”

Everyone follows behind me. Even Bear pads along after us.

“She won’t do it,” Cora says, shivering as I throw open the door. “It’s freezing out there.”

“You say that like this is the first time she’s been dared to do this,” Molly says with a sigh, leaning against the doorway as Bear sniffs the cold night air with curiosity.

I peel off my shirt, tossing it in her direction with a wink.

Molly attempts a look of disinterest, but her cheeks turn ever so slightly red as she continues, “Alex Blackwood never turns down a dare.”

And with that, I kick off my pants and launch off the porch into the night.

Behind me I hear everyone laughing and Bear barking, as I freeze my literal butt off.

The pinch of rum in the hot cocoa was nowhere near strong enough to make this anything but awful as I attempt to run through the snow, knees high and bare feet turning into blocks of ice.

“Why is this driveway so fucking long?” I groan as I finally make it to the street, heading for the stop sign at the end, where I can finally turn around.

A group of older women lingering outside the quaint house at the corner look at me in horror, and I just nod, holding up a hand to wave as I make the U-turn to head back to May’s. “Evening, ladies.”

By the time I stumble back up the front steps, Molly’s waiting with a giant cozy blanket and my teeth are chattering loudly enough to be heard on Mars.

“You’re something else, Blackwood,” May says, chuckling as she shakes her head.

“That’s one way to put it,” Cora says with a laugh.

I pull my clothes back on before Molly wraps me up in the blanket and guides me back to the living room. She cuddles me by the fire as I try to regain feeling in every possible extremity.

“Your turn, Cora,” I manage to get out, and Cora bites her lip from her armchair, knowing my little run just earned her a whole lot of payback.

“Dare,” she says finally.

“I dare you to kiss someone. Someone human. ” I add the last part hastily. No more Bear kisses, no matter how adorable he is.

Cora gives me a murderous look. “Well, I mean, I’m obviously not going to kiss either of you,” she says, motioning to me and Molly, who is swaddling me like a sickly Victorian child. “And I’m sure May doesn’t—”

Then May Swanson stands up, wraps her hands around the arms of the armchair, leans forward, and cuts Cora off with a kiss.

It’s so completely unexpected but so completely perfect.

I grin at Molly, pulling an arm out to give her a fist bump. “Now, that’s a Christmas miracle,” I say through chattering teeth.

May did it. She actually did it.

I guess that means I have to hold up my end of the bargain.

Molly pulls me closer, her familiar smell mixing with the burning logs in the fire. “It sure is. Now let’s get you back home, Champ.”