A Holiday Romance (19 page)

“I’m sorry for being a grump. It’s hard to say goodbye.”

Mary Grace reached a soothing hand across the seat. “Especially when you’re leaving your heart behind.”

Alice blushed. “My heart is right where it belongs. I’ve learned not to give it away that easily.”

And how, she wondered, did that make her any different from Kyle?

Hadn’t she stood on the other side of the door from him, refusing to open it? Wasn’t she just as much a coward, even after all her justifications?

Sure, she was willing. But not willing enough to take the chance of going first.

Because what if she said “I love you,” and he said “Thanks”?

Her eyes stung. They were probably bloodshot. She dug through her carry-on bag for her sunglasses.

“You can be sad if you want,” Mary Grace said.

“Phooey.” Harrie leaned into the aisle. “Lemme tell you, toots,
Hank
would treat you like a queen. Are you sure you don’t want—”

A honking car interrupted the offer, the noise coming directly from behind the bus. One of the passengers said, “He’s going to run right up our tailpipe.”

“No, he’s passing.”

Heads craned, following the car as it swerved into the adjoining lane, still honking up a frenzy.

Alice glanced out the window from her slumped position. Sleek car, crazy driver.

She bolted upright. Dark blue Caddy, crazy male driver. “Kyle,” she said. “Kyle.”

Harrie climbed over Alice to see. “What the—”

“That’s Kyle Jarreau,” Mags announced. She waved her arms. “Yoo-hoo! Hello-o-o there!”

“Holy cats. He wants us to pull over.” Harrie stood and made her way up the aisle to the driver, grabbing onto seats as she went.

Mary Grace slipped into the seat beside Alice. “Oh, Alice. It’s so romantic. He’s come for you.”

She couldn’t take her eyes off Kyle’s car, which had pulled even with the front of the bus. She could see him motioning for the driver to pull over. “It’s probably…probably just a…”

But she couldn’t think of a single reason, other than her, that Kyle might have to stop the bus. No, her heart must be galloping faster than her thoughts, she told herself. There had to be some other explanation. He was supposed to be in a meeting.

The driver had slowed the bus and was pulling over to the side of the road. Harrie hung over the safety rail by the door. “He’s coming!” she shouted to the back of the bus.

The passengers stirred, catching the air of excitement. Mags and Mary Grace sat forward, watching expectantly.

Alice didn’t. Her eyes were closed. Her fingers, tucked into her armpits, crossed. She’d never wanted anything more than for Kyle to say, in front of the entire bus and the rest of the world, too, that he wanted her, needed her, couldn’t be happy without her. That she wasn’t just a holiday romance.

She heard the
whoosh
of the door opening. The sound of footsteps. The murmur of the passengers.

And then Kyle’s voice. “Alice Potter.”

A man at the back of the bus grumbled about the delay and was quickly hushed. Mary Grace burbled with excitement, nudging Alice’s side.

Alice removed her sunglasses but was too wobbly in the knees to stand. Kyle was waiting in the aisle, so tall his head seemed to touch the ceiling.

Her throat seemed to be lined with sandpaper. “Kyle, what are you doing here? What about your meeting?”

“The meeting’s not as important as I thought it was.”

“Your promotion.”

“I’ve done enough. Either I get it or I don’t.”

“But coming here? They’ll find out about you and me, and how will you ever explain that away?”

“I don’t want to explain it away.” Kyle reached past Mary Grace. He took Alice’s hand and she felt herself rising, almost floating, pulled toward him like a balloon on a string. “But I will explain it.”

Mags clapped her hands. “Oh, do!”

Explain it to me,
Alice said silently.

“I’ll tell them I broke company policy,” Kyle began. “I’ll tell them the story of how one evening, I walked into the lobby and saw a woman who looked lost. But when I met her, I learned that she knew exactly where she was going and that, surprisingly enough, it was a journey I wanted to take right alongside her.”

One of Kyle’s hands was on her waist. She leaned into it. She gripped his arm. She needed him to hold on to. She always would.

“I will tell them that this woman made me see how stuffy I’d been. That displaying emotion wouldn’t weaken me. She showed me how much more meaning my life would have with her in it. And I’ll explain that I would rather risk losing my job than losing her,
because no matter how fast it’s happened or how crazy it seems—”

“I love you,” Alice said. She just couldn’t contain it any longer.

A chorus of sighs rose from the passengers.

“I’m sorry I didn’t open the door,” she went on. “That was dumb. I was afraid if I let you in I’d cave the way I used to do with Stewart when he’d make up his excuses for letting me down.”

Kyle cringed. “I won’t ever let you down again.”

“It’s not you.” She couldn’t quite catch her breath. “I never said—it was too humiliating—but Stewart, he left me in a very public way. Announcing his new engagement before he’d even told me. Until lately, I never really admitted to myself how much that affected the choices I’d made ever since. How safe I’ve played it.”

“If I ever meet him, I’ll pound him into the ground.”

She laughed weakly. “No, no more fights. He’s not important to me now.”

“Good, because I’m going to make you forget he ever existed.”

“How will you do that?”

“By telling you every day how much I love you.” Kyle kissed her once, lightly on the lips. The emotion in his dark eyes said how much more he wanted, when they no longer had an audience. “And that I’m never letting you drive out of my life again.”

Alice was finally able to breathe. “You’re taking quite a gamble, making that promise. We’ve only known each other two weeks.”

“Didn’t you hear?” He led her by the hand to the front of the bus, toward the steps. “I’m the son of a gambling man. I recognize a jackpot when I win one.”

He stepped down. She followed, swooping toward him with her hands on his shoulders, launching herself into the unknown even though she had no idea where she was going or what she’d do when she got there. But she did know how long the trip would be.

Forever.

Kyle lifted her up in his arms, carrying her off the bus with a flourish. The passengers applauded and cheered, led by Harrie and Mags and Mary Grace, who’d crowded into the doorway and were waving gaily as Kyle carried Alice away.

She was overwhelmed, her mind spinning at the thought of all that he’d put on the line just for her. She put her mouth near his ear and said the one simple word that was far more eloquent than she’d known.

“Thanks.”