Holiday Wishes Read online

  She stared at him and let out a long, shuddering breath. “Okay, you know what? After much consideration, I’ve decided adulthood isn’t for me. Thank you and goodbye.”

  “I’m sorry, Lotti.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” she said. “I have flights.”

  “I know.”

  She looked around. “And I’m actually off work for once. There’s no other guests until after the first of the year.” She paused. “Are you sure there aren’t any open roads out of here, not a single one?”

  “Not until the storm moved on and they’ve cleared everything of debris. The reports say we’re at least twenty-four hours out from that. More likely forty-eight hours, or even more.”

  “Oh my God.” She sank heavily to her desk chair, dropping her forehead to the desk. “This is all my fault.”

  “Yeah? You personally called Mother Nature and asked her to unload her wrath?”

  Keeping her head down, she moaned. “I actually thought this was going to happen, that I could get away from here. Two weeks, that’s all I asked for.”

  “I’m so sorry your vacay got screwed up. And I’m sorry for my next question.”

  She lifted her head. Her smile faded. “Sean, you can’t stay. I’m closing down the inn.”

  “That’s already happened, Lotti,” he said on a low laugh. “I hear you but there’s literally nowhere to go.”

  With a sigh, she stood up and faced him. “Okay, then what’s your question?”

  “Since we’re all stuck for at least the next twenty-four hours, I was hoping we could throw my brother and Pru an impromptu wedding reception.”

  “That’s usually preceded by an actual wedding,” she said.

  “Yeah. Thought we could do that too.”

  She stared at him. “You’ve lost it.”

  “This place is actually the perfect wedding setting.”

  She laughed but when he didn’t, she shook her head. “Sean, a wedding is an organized event. I mean, I’m a very organized person. I have lists and check them twice and all that, but even I couldn’t pull this off on the fly on my own, and I don’t have any employees scheduled because I was supposed to be off work.” She picked up a clipboard on her desk and showed him, flipping through all the stuff she had on it.

  She was right, she was organized as hell. He stopped her on the page labeled: Cabo. There were three things listed:

  Sand

  Surf

  Surfer

  “That’s my to do list for Cabo,” she said. “Beneath it’s my flight itinerary, which says nothing about being sidelined by the storm of the century.”

  He met her gaze, which was dialed to stubborn and determined. And . . . hopeful. “Your to do list includes a surfer?” he asked.

  She looked a little embarrassed but held his gaze. “I’ve discovered that I’ve got a little problem with relationships,” she said. “So I’m trying something new. I’m going for the opposite of a relationship. And nothing, not the storm, not my B&B responsibilities, not even you is going to stop me.”

  “I can appreciate that,” he said. “But—”

  “No buts, Sean. I don’t have time for buts. And here, let me make you another list, one of everything else I don’t have time for.” She grabbed a pen and hurriedly scribbled on a piece of paper, which she handed to him.

  Things I don’t have time for:

  Your shit

  Crazy shit

  Bullshit

  Stupid shit

  Fake shit

  Shit that has nothing to do with me

  He laughed, thinking his younger self had been the biggest idiot on the planet that he’d let her get away. She was funny, sweet, amazing, and sexy as hell. “I get it,” he said. “But sometimes life doesn’t play along. We’re not getting out of here and neither are you.”

  “Dammit,” she said.

  “So . . . about having a wedding here . . .”

  “Seriously, you’re nuts.”

  Yeah. There was no doubt. And something else. He couldn’t stop looking at her. For him, she was everything he’d never deserved, especially all those years ago. He should’ve left things alone, left their attraction as a “what if.” But he’d never been good at leaving things alone. He hadn’t been able to resist taking a taste of her, even though he’d not been mature enough for her. He’d had issues over losing people, big issues.

  So when she’d told him that she was moving, he’d simply walked away first. Yeah, he’d been a first-rate asshole, but the truth was he always walked first to protect himself.

  Except now the joke was on him because even to this very day, she was still the one who’d gotten away. And as a result of what he’d done, Lotti now walked away from relationships, at least emotionally, because she was afraid of getting hurt and he hated that. “It’s not completely nuts,” he said. “I could get ordained online and—”

  “Sean,” she said on a low laugh. “It won’t work. There’s not enough room, for one thing. And there’s no one to cater. No wedding decorations or cake or—”

  “The big living room is perfect,” he said. “We all fit in it, no problems. And you won’t have to do a thing, I’ll handle it all.”

  She just stared at him. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

  He managed a small smile. “People change, Lotti. I’ve changed.”

  “So you keep saying,” she said softly and paused. “Look, I think it’s incredibly sweet of you to want to do this for your brother. You’re trying to make up for your past.”

  He held her gaze. “Yes. Apparently, I have a lot to make up for.”

  She flushed a pretty pink and lifted a shoulder.

  “Oh, don’t go shy on me now,” he said with a smile. “I still need to hear specifics on the ‘not that great’ thing.”

  She covered her face.

  He felt a ping in his heart. “I really was that bad, huh?” he said as lightly as he could.

  “Well, it’s not like I’m keeping score or anything,” she murmured demurely.

  “But . . .” he coaxed, giving her a “go on” gesture with his hand.

  “Okay, okay, but remember you asked.” She hesitated. “Everything was actually great, but only one of us . . . finished.”

  He winced at his own ineptitude back then but managed to catch her when she laughed and went to turn away. “If I could go back,” he said solemnly, “and do things differently, I would.”

  This clearly surprised her. “You would?”

  “One hundred percent.” He paused. “I’d like a chance to right my wrongs with you, Lotti. All of them.”

  She stared up at him as if she wanted to believe that and he leaned in, letting their bodies touch, and when her breath caught, he felt a surge of relief.

  He wasn’t in this alone. She still felt something for him, even if she didn’t know what exactly.

  “I think you’ll be too busy to right that particular wrong,” she said a little breathlessly, not moving away, but instead making sure they stayed plastered up against each other.

  He stared down at her mouth and wanted it on his. So badly that he lost track of what she was saying. “Too busy doing what?”

  “Giving your brother a wedding.”

  “Wait.” He stilled. “You’re in?”

  “Well far be it for me to be the one who stands in the way of you doing something amazing for your brother,” she said. “Besides, what do you know about planning a wedding?”

  “Uh . . .”

  “Exactly,” she said. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you know nothing about it. Whereas I know more than you, at least. So . . .”

  “So . . .” He took her hand in his. “We’re doing this.”

  She inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly as she squeezed his hand. “I guess I’m nuts too, but yeah, we’re doing this.”

  Chapter Four

  Lotti was pretty good at picking herself back up after a fall, proverbial or otherwise. Sh