Page 49 of Falling for the Grinchy Bad Boy

My heart clenched. “I had a work thing,” I lied smoothly, just like I had lied to everyone who asked at the time. Even Aunt Victoria was surprised I wasn’t returning to see two of my best friends get married. The truth was I couldn’t bear to watch Cooper marry someone else, especially someone who I used to call one of my best friends. It was too pathetic to admit out loud.

It should have been me, a treacherous little voice in my head had whispered. If I hadn’t run away that night at the lake, if I hadn’t been such a coward about my feelings, maybe it could have been me. Cooper had always been my crush. It was just a little irritating Lynn moved in on my territory. Not that I had a claim. But Katrina didn’t want me messing around with her brother but seemed to be fine with Lynn marrying the guy.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t miss much,” Cooper said bitterly. “Since there wasn’t actually a wedding. Just an awesome humiliation ritual with yours truly in the starring role.”

The pain in his voice made me want to reach across the table and take his hand, but I kept my fingers wrapped around my own coffee cup instead. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

He was quiet for so long I thought he might not answer. Then he took a deep breath and started talking.

“I was so excited that morning,” he said, staring out the window at the gray December sky. “I mean, I had doubts. Doesn’t everyone feel that way on their wedding day? Wondering if you’re doing the right thing, if you’re ready for such a big step?”

“I don’t think so,” I said softly. I’d never felt that way about anything I was truly sure about.

He glanced at me, something unreadable in his expression. “No, I guess you wouldn’t. You always knew exactly what you wanted.”

If only he knew how wrong he was about that. How many nights I’d lain awake in college thinking about blue eyes and gentle hands and the boy I left behind. How many times I had picked up the phone to call him and then chickened out at the last minute.

“Anyway,” he continued. “I was nervous but happy, you know? Ready to start this new chapter of my life. And then…” He trailed off, his hands tightening around his coffee cup.

“Then?”

“Me and my groomsmen were standing at the altar waiting for her. Then my best man got a text from Lynn saying she was sorry, but she couldn’t go through with it. She was in love with someone else.”

My eyes widened. Maybe I knew the story, but I didn’t know that particular detail. When Aunt Victoria told me the wedding didn’t happen, I was so relieved and selfishly happy. Like it mattered. It wasn’t like it meant I would get him. If my aunt told me about another man, I wasn’t paying attention.

“Cooper, I’m sorry.”

He smirked. “It was her tennis pro at that gym downtown. I just thought she was really into tennis. I should have suspected something was going on. Her text said they were leaving town together that morning and that was that.”

I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. “Oh, Cooper.”

“The worst part wasn’t even that she left,” he said, his voice getting rougher. “I mean, it hurt like hell, but if she wasn’t happy, if she was in love with someone else, I would have understood. The worst part was how she did it. She could have called things off at any time. I wasn’t pressuring her to get married, wasn’t demanding she stay with me. She was the one that dropped not-so-subtle hints for a year that she wanted to get married. But she waited until I was standing at the altar in front of half the town with all of our families and friends expecting a celebration. I think she did it on purpose. She wanted to hurt me.”

Tears pricked at my eyes as I imagined Cooper in his tux, waiting at the front of the church, slowly realizing that Lynn wasn’t coming. The humiliation, the confusion, and the raw hurt of being abandoned so publicly had to have been devastating.

“She could have had the decency to break up with me in private,” he continued. “Getting dumped hurts, sure. But not nearly as much as getting left at the altar. It was cruel for no reason. Whatever faults I have, I never did anything to deserve that kind of cruelty. To have my heart stomped on by someone I thought loved me.”

His voice cracked slightly on the last words. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying. This was why he’d been so different when I came back to town. This was why he couldn’t stand Christmas anymore—because Lynn had destroyed him right at the start of what should have been the happiest season of the year.

“I can’t go through that again,” he said, looking directly at me. “I can’t let myself be vulnerable with someone who’s just going to run away when things get real. I don’t have it in me to survive that twice.”

The words hit me like a physical blow because I knew he was talking about more than just Lynn. He was talking about me and my pattern of kissing him and then disappearing. About how I hurt him that night at the lake, even if I’d been too young and scared to understand it at the time.

“I understand,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “And I promise I’ll keep things strictly business from here on out. No more… complications.”

Even as I said it, I wanted to lean across the table and kiss him until he stopped looking so hurt and closed off. I wanted to tell him that Lynn was an idiot for letting him go, that any woman would be lucky to have his heart. I was dying to tell him I had been thinking about him for ten years and regretting my cowardice every single day.

But I couldn’t. Because he was right. I was a runner. I had hurt him before, and he was smart to protect himself from me doing it again.

“Good,” he said, but there was no relief in his voice. Just resignation. “So. The Night Market. Let’s talk about that.”

I pulled out my laptop with shaking hands, grateful to have something concrete to focus on. “Right. Santa’s Night Market. I’ve got the vendor applications processed, and I think we can set up the booths along both sides of Main Street, leading up to the square. That way the tree will be the centerpiece, visible from everywhere.”

“Makes sense,” he said, his tone carefully neutral. Professional. “What about crowd control? There’s going to be a lot of people funneling toward the tree.”

“I’ve arranged for extra security, and the police chief said he could have some officers stationed at key points. Plus, with the fire department on standby…”

We spent the next hour going over logistics, vendor assignments, and safety protocols. It should have been boring, routine planning stuff. Instead, every accidental brush of our fingers when we reached for the same document, every moment when our eyes met across the table, felt charged with everything we weren’t saying.

It was going to be the longest three weeks of my life.