he’d be spending Christmas day at her place, he chuckled.
“So you can see why I want you to stay away from her,” his mum warned.
“Yes. Sure.” But Matt was very careful not to make any promises. There were two ways to look at Hannah’s situation. Either she was the marrying kind and would be looking to hook another husband in the not too distant future, or the jerk in Vegas had turned her completely off men. Judging by the way she’d put him in his place, he figured the latter, and that meant seducing her would be all the more fun.
He had no qualms about being the rebound guy who helped sexy Hannah mend her broken and bitter heart.
“I was thinking we could go see the Christmas movie at the Memorial Hall tonight. There’s a different one on every night this week,” his mum announced, an obvious attempt at changing the subject. “Tourists from Yallingup and Dunsborough have been venturing in and I’ve heard it’s a fun night.”
He couldn’t hide his grimace. “What’s showing?”
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” She beamed and he thought maybe her grief had gone to her head. He could think of a zillion things he’d rather do than sit in the stifling hot town hall on plastic chairs, surrounded by overexcited kids watching a Dr. Seuss film—that date with Hannah topping the list. But he loved his Mum, and Hannah hadn’t agreed to her part of the bargain, so he didn’t have a better offer.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
“Terrific.” She actually clapped her hands and her tone was happier than it had been in a long while. “I hope the Two Cs are home by then. The Grinch used to be their favorite book.”
“Used to” being the operative phrase, but Matt refrained from mentioning that. If he had to sit through Christmas kid-movie hell, his little sisters could suck it up too.
* * *
IF HANNAH HAD to return to Wildwood Point with her tail between her legs, she couldn’t have picked a better time than Christmas to do it. Despite a brief lecture from her parents and another from Troy, her oldest brother, she’d gotten off relatively unscathed. Everyone in town (including her nearest and dearest) was too busy with Christmas and the influx of summer tourists to spend too much time harassing and lecturing her. With the hectic schedule of events leading up to the big day, it meant she could spend her days in the Elliot’s showroom and her nights out of the house, giving no one the chance to corner her for a “chat.”
Tonight Hannah and her two best friends from high school were taking her godchildren, James and Sari, to the hall to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It happened to be one of her favorite holiday movies and she couldn’t wait to snuggle up with James or Sari on her lap.
In the early evening breeze, Hannah waited on the front steps of the hall for Laura and Jayne to arrive with their children. Not sharing her dream of traveling, both Laura and Jayne had married their high school sweethearts and popped out two adorable babies within months of each other. At four years of age, James and Sari were already the best of friends and although her friends’ kids adored her, Hannah couldn’t help feeling the odd one out. But not for long—soon she’d have a little baby too. She rested her hand on her stomach and smiled. Motherhood hadn’t been on her immediate agenda, definitely not single motherhood, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t thrilled.
Laura and Jayne didn’t know about the baby yet, and it was awful keeping the secret from them, but she couldn’t risk her parents’ finding out from someone else. The plan was to go to her thirteen-week scan in Busselton on December 31, and once she knew everything was okay with the baby, then she’d spill the beans.
“Annah, Annah.” She turned, hearing Sari’s sweet voice, to see her friends holding the hands of their children as they approached the building.
Hannah waved and went to greet them. She hugged Laura and Jayne and then stole away James’s and Sari’s hands. “Who’s up for popcorn and candy?”
“Me! Me! Me!” the kids shouted in unison.
The five of them climbed the steps and went inside to the nearly full foyer. Laura and Jayne took the kids to find seats and Hannah, knowing how fidgety James and Sari could get waiting for anything, volunteered to fetch the snacks. She smiled and waved and made small talk with a few people as they waited it out in the queue. Just as she was almost at the counter, something made her glance sideways, back toward the entrance, and her heart stopped dead in her chest.
Never in her wildest imagination had she visualized seeing Matteo Della Bosca here tonight. He stood tall above the crowds and she couldn’t make out with whom he’d come, but there was the top of a blond head bobbing on either side of him. Something inside her twisted at the thought that he’d so easily found another date for the night, two if the plural blond heads were evidence. And brought them to the showing of a kids’ movie? Yeah, that surprised her.
“Evening, Hannah. What can I get for you?”
She tore her gaze away from the entrance and smiled at the guy who’d run the Christmas movies for as long as she could remember. “Oh, hi Jimbo.” She couldn’t for the life of her remember what she needed to order, so she went for variety. “Can I have one large box of popcorn, one bag of candy floss and five chocolate bars? Yes, that should cover it.”
When Jimbo handed her a box to carry her purchases, she turned away from the queue and found herself scanning the crowd, but the Italian was no longer in her sight. Ignoring the disappointment that churned through her stomach, she ventured into the hall and found her way to her friends, seated right in front. She tried to focus on the cherubs chatting in excitement as they waited for the movie to start, but it took all of her willpower to stop from craning her head around and looking for him.
No wonder she infuriated her family. This kind of behavior infuriated her. But the truth was, it was against Hannah’s nature to turn down the offer of a good time from a hot man. And Matteo Della Bosca wasn’t simply hot; he was on fire. Despite knowing it had been the right thing to do, she couldn’t stop remembering the feel of his lips on hers or fantasizing about what kind of night she’d be having right now if she’d said yes instead of no.
Thankfully, she’d seen the movie more times than she could count on her hands, because if this were her first viewing, she wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone if she liked it or not. The minute the lights came on again, the urge to turn around became almost unbearable. The mass exodus from the hall gave her no chance to locate anyone, and when they finally emerged, Sari needed to go to the bathroom and Jayne decided to take James as well. Hannah told them she’d wait in the foyer. Not because she might see the Italian and definitely not because she might catch a glimpse of which local women had been suckered into a date with him.
No longer in the mood for small talk with anyone, she leaned against the wall near the bathrooms, which happened to give her a good vantage point of the crowds spilling out into the warm night air. She must have spotted half the town and a number of people she didn’t recognize, and was beginning to think she’d imagined seeing Matteo earlier, when someone sidled up beside her.
Even before she turned her head, she recognized his presence. Her belly did an undeniable flip of joy. He’d swapped the suit for khaki shorts and a plain black T-shirt that highlighted the perfection of his upper body.
“You turned me down for a Christmas movie?” He leaned against the wall, too, so his shoulder almost touched hers, and she wondered what he’d done with his dates.
Yeah,
