Just Home for the Holidays - Deborah Cooke Page 0,20
met Chloe’s gaze over his head. “Hot,” she mouthed with a wink.
Chloe nodded, then looked away from her sister’s approval. She let her gaze linger on Hunter, as if she was besotted with him, and let her sister worry about it a bit.
He certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes.
And that kiss. It had warmed her to her toes, and left her hoping for another.
“Mom said we weren’t having a ride,” Daphne informed Hunter. “The line is too long.”
“It is a long line,” Hunter agreed. “But you can buy tickets online for specific times. Like this.” He held up his phone, displaying his purchase of five rides for 10:30.
The girls squealed.
“Not all of us,” Chloe protested. She wouldn’t waste the ticket, but she wasn’t going to ride a carousel horse like a kid. She’d have Hunter give it away.
“Afraid to do something silly?” he asked, his eyes glinting, and one more time, she realized he was daring her.
“Of course not.”
“That bay has my name on it,” he said, straightening then bumping her shoulder with his. “How about you?”
“Why that one?” Alex asked.
“Because all the best horses are bays, preferably with a white star on the brow,” he said with such conviction that Chloe wondered how much he knew about horses—and how he knew about horses at all. He ducked her gaze, which didn’t surprise her one bit. “Which one’s yours?” he asked the girls.
Daphne and Alex raced to the fence, each insisting that she got to choose first.
“Thank you, Hunter,” Mandy said. “I didn’t realize they sold the tickets that way. Let me pay you back.”
“My treat,” Hunter said amiably. “You can’t come to Bryant Park and not ride Le Carrousel Magique. It would be a tragedy to miss the best part.”
Chloe was aware that the carousel was there all year, and not part of the holiday decor.
“But all of us?” Mandy asked.
“Come on,” Hunter teased. “You know you want to.”
Mandy laughed, giving in easily. “Only if I get the frog.”
“No one’s going to fight you for that one,” Chloe said and they laughed together.
“You have to send a picture to Marshall, let him know what he’s missing.”
“It’ll keep him working longer than he usually does, just to avoid the mortification.”
“I want the white one with the ribbons,” Daphne called back to them.
“I want the gold one with the stars and stripes,” Alex said, and Mandy ushered them into the line for the ride.
“So, does this count as a surprise?” Hunter asked, whispering in Chloe’s ear.
“I’ll have to give it to you,” she ceded.
He fist-pumped the air. “Yes! Number twelve is a goner.”
“You’re going to run out of rules in a hurry,” she said and he laughed.
“I find that hard to believe. I fully expect an amendment.”
“Is buying the carousel tickets online what I left off the schedule?” Chloe asked him in an undertone.
“Doesn’t matter because I’ve got another.”
“There’s more than one thing wrong with my schedule?” Chloe didn’t believe it.
“There’s another big one today, but I didn’t tell you because A/ you didn’t want to know, and B/ I’d already bought these tickets.” He shook his head sadly. “I just can’t ride five horses on the carousel simultaneously.”
“What else is wrong?”
Hunter met her gaze, completely serious. “You can’t have lunch here, then make it to the David Koch Theater in time for the matinee of The Nutcracker.”
“Why not? It’s not that far to Lincoln Center. We’ll just get a cab...”
“But there’s construction on Columbus Avenue and on Amsterdam Avenue, and it’s backing up traffic around the west end of the park. I’m living on the Upper West Side and have been dealing with this all week. It’ll take you longer to get there—and if you’re late, they won’t seat you until intermission. You should have switched it up and done the Columbus Circle market today and this one tomorrow. But what’s done is done and you can still save the day by getting lunch there instead of here.” He pulled up the website of a restaurant on Columbus. “This place has a kid-friendly menu and quick service.”
Chloe stared at his phone, astonished that Hunter was a better planner than she was, at least this time. She’d never thought about construction. Daphne would have been so disappointed if they’d missed part of the ballet. “Thanks.”
“Anytime.” His eyes danced and she thought he might steal a kiss again. Instead he just whispered in her ear. “Number seven is gone. Number twelve is unlamented. Five down, eight to go.” Then he winked, the