Love on the Lifts Read online

  “You know, you make a lousy Dr. Phil.”

  She laughed again. “Maybe because I believe we should always listen to our own hearts, and not other people’s brains.”

  “He’d be with me right now, if it wasn’t for Cyn,” I mumbled. “I just know it.”

  “Kate, you deserve a guy who’ll be with you even if sin—and I’m spelling that S-I-N—is around.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “I was thinking she should spell her name exactly like that.”

  “Yeah, I heard you at the pizza place.”

  “I think Joe did, too.” Then I remembered. “We’re going to a movie tomorrow night. Did you want to go with us?”

  “You don’t need a third wheel on your date.”

  “It’s not a date. I asked him and he confirmed that it wasn’t a date.”

  Shaking her head, she gave me a look that said she thought I was really out of it. “Katie, you don’t ask a guy if it’s a date.”

  “Then how would I know?”

  “You just know.”

  “Just know? I’m starting to hate those two little words. Joe uses them all the time.” And here I was thinking about Joe again.

  “I really like Joe. That was nice of him to help out this afternoon,” Aunt Sue said. “And speak of the devil.”

  With a bright smile, Joe sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of us. I was pretty sure that he was here to make me pay the dance I owed him.

  “How’s the chowder?” he asked.

  “Really tasty.” I tapped the bottom of the bowl with my spoon. “But it’s all gone. I might have to get some more. Want some?”

  “No, thanks.” He turned his attention to Sue. “How ’bout you, Sue?”

  “No more for me.” She patted her stomach. “I’m watching my weight.”

  “Great! Wanna dance?”

  Aunt Sue laughed. “Are you sure I’m the one you want to ask?”

  “Absolutely.”

  With another laugh, Aunt Sue handed me her bowl, stood, and held out her hand. “Then let’s go, Casanova.”

  I watched them walk toward the dance area, and it occurred to me that was pretty much what I’d been doing all night: watching people walk to the dance area, watching people laugh, talk, dance.

  I shifted around on the couch to get a better look at the dance floor, and there was Brad and Cynthia. I hadn’t been aware that they’d arrived, but there was no missing them now. They were dancing so close and so provocatively that I thought they might get arrested for lewd behavior or something.

  I turned back around, set the bowls on the table, and crossed my arms over my chest, trying to hold in the hurt. I had to let Brad go. Just had to.

  If I wanted any chance at all of finding love while I was on winter break, I had to completely get over the guy.

  Chapter 12

  A Brad-ectomy.

  That’s what I needed.

  Without anyone noticing, I left the party and trudged home. After changing into some thick fleece warm-ups, I grabbed the quilt off my bed, made myself a mug of hot chocolate, and curled up in a chair on the redwood deck, the quilt wrapped around me, both hands around the mug, with a mist of steaming chocolate tickling my face.

  Our condo looked out over nothing and everything. No houses before me, only trees and hills that grew into mountains. I hadn’t turned on any lights, and the houses on either side of me didn’t have any on—Cynthia, I knew, was still at the party. Maybe the other neighbors were as well. So it was really dark and quiet. The sky was black and vast, filled with a thousand stars. It was so peaceful and calm.

  I breathed it all in: the warmth of chocolate, the scent of trees, the cold of snow. You wouldn’t think snow would have a smell, but it does. A pristine crispness in the air.

  I took deep breath after deep breath, centering my being, occasionally sipping on chocolate. I started mentally listing all the reasons that I wanted Brad to notice me. The reasons I wanted him for a boyfriend.

  He was hot.

  I tapped my fingernail against the porcelain mug. Tap. Tap. Tap.

  He had a killer smile.

  He was nice.

  Tap.

  You don’t know that for sure, Kate, a little voice echoed in my head. I mean, really, what had he done that was nice?

  He never talked to me, not really, not like Joe did. He didn’t hang around Aunt Sue’s bookstore or ask me to go with him to a movie or throw snow at me. He didn’t dance with my aunt.

  Course, he wasn’t dancing with Cynthia, either. What they were doing on the dance floor could hardly be classified as dancing. They’d just been holding each other close like they were trying to keep warm.

  Don’t think about it, Kate, I chastised myself.

  Continuing with the Brad-ectomy, I focused on what I really and truly liked about him.

  He was hot.

  I tapped my mug, sipped my chocolate, tapped my mug.

  There had to be something else. I couldn’t be this bummed out over a guy not noticing me if he was nothing more than good looks. I wasn’t that shallow. Or at least I didn’t think I was.

  I heard a noise on the stairs and nearly dropped my hot chocolate in my lap.

  “Hey, it’s just me.”

  Joe. My breathing slowed, but my heart was still thudding.

  “I was knocking on the front door—”

  “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

  “Not a problem. I thought you were probably back here.”

  He came up onto the deck and sat in the chair beside mine.

  “Why’d you think that?” I asked.

  “No reason.”

  “You must have had a reason.”

  He shrugged. “Just seemed like the type of place I’d go if I was hurting.”

  “I’m not hurting,” I snapped.

  “It’s okay, Kate.”

  “I’m not hurting,” I repeated, more irritated with him than imaginable. “I just did a Brad-ectomy, if you must know.”

  He chuckled. “A what?”

  “I exorcised him. I have no further interest in him whatsoever.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.” Let’s move on to another subject. “Aren’t you cold just wearing a leather jacket?”

  “You asked me that earlier.”

  “So? I’m asking again. The later it gets, the colder it gets, so I thought maybe you’re starting to get cold now.”

  “Yeah, I’m starting to get there. Don’t suppose you’d share the blanket.”

  “Nope. I’ve got it all warm and cozy inside. Besides, there’s not room for the two of us in this chair.”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  “Joe, look, you’re right. I came here because I wanted to be alone, to just think, so I’m not very good company right now. I don’t want to share my blanket—”

  “How ’bout your hot chocolate?”

  The guy sounded pathetic. I thought I could actually hear his teeth starting to clatter, and I could definitely see his breath on the air. I rolled my eyes. “Sure.”

  He took my mug and took a swallow. “Just what I needed.”

  “You can go inside,” I told him. “Turn on the fire, watch TV. You don’t have to keep me company.”

  “I’ve got nothing else to do.”

  We sat there in comfortable silence for several minutes. Then I peered over at him. “You know Aunt Sue is too old for you.”

  He laughed, a deep rumble that echoed over the deck. “I don’t think she’ll ever be old. She has so much energy and so many great stories. I could talk to her all night.”

  “So why didn’t you?” I asked. Even though I really wasn’t interested in him as boyfriend material, I think I still wanted him to say that he’d left because of me, because he’d noticed I was gone, because he wanted to be with me. Selfish I know, but there you have it.

  “She got a little down after we were talking about Michael and left the party.”

  I sat up straighter. �