Mistletoe and Mr. Right (Moose Springs, Alaska #2) - Sarah Morgenthaler Page 0,16

him lean in closer. “Well, then I won’t feel too bad when I beat you.”

“You’re welcome to try,” he replied, taking his favorite cue from its spot leaning behind the bar. “I’m game if you are.”

Her soft, rich laugh matched the bourbon perfectly.

Lana brought her rosé and her bourbon to the table closest to the fireplace. “I’m a little chilly.” She shrugged her jacket off once they were in the vicinity of the space heater he’d set next to that side of the wall. “You’d think I’d be used to the weather after so many Chicago winters.”

Rick grabbed a second space heater from near the door and plugged it in, aiming it her way. Then he glanced at the cold fireplace. “Want me to get a fire going?”

“Maybe next time.” Her eyes sparkled as she chalked her cue stick. “This won’t take very long. Best out of three?”

Unable to resist the challenge in her eyes, Rick found himself dangerously close to smiling. “Your break.”

The sweater Lana wore was long enough that it stayed snug around her hips when she bent over to break, but the loose cowl neck slipped down her shoulder. Rick was learning a lot today about Lana and himself. Apparently, he was a shoulder guy. Who knew?

“You’re staring at me.” Lana looked up, and when she flashed him a heart-stopping grin, Rick was tempted to throw the game for the sheer hell of it.

“You’re gorgeous,” he said quietly, since all sense had already abandoned him.

Lana missed her break. The cue slipped right off her knuckles, sending the white cue ball spinning sideways, nowhere close to the triangle of billiard balls she was trying to hit.

Rick took the ball and ignored her protestation, placing it back in her hand. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable.”

“I never said I was uncomfortable,” Lana replied, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as she offered him a flirtatious look. “I also never said thank you. That day down by the lake when you ran off those jerks.”

“You said thank you. You sent me a letter.”

That letter was the oddest thing in his home. Lana’s handwriting had been smooth and polished, as if she’d learned how to write a letter professionally. Whereas her words had been chopped, difficult to follow, as if she herself hadn’t really understood what she was trying to say.

The thick, silky paper had been folded into a lined envelope actually embossed with his name. But the stamp on the front had been slapped on partially askew. The combination of polish and haphazardness confused him. Rick probably had paid too much attention to the thing.

She could have sent him an email.

“You’re the only person in town who doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” Lana told him.

“You’re the only person in town who makes me feel like I’m thirteen again.” That hadn’t come out the way he wanted. Rick cast around, once again hoping someone would save him from himself. No one did. “It’s the whole head cheerleader thing. You don’t go sit at her table unless you want the whole school to watch you get milk thrown in your face.”

“Mathletes.”

“What?”

“I was in the mathletes. It’s like debate club, only we tried to solve math problems faster than our opponents.”

Suddenly, he laughed. Not at her but because he never in a million years would have pictured this woman scrambling to out-math anyone. And damn, it felt good to laugh.

“You’re making fun of me.” Lana’s cheeks had turned rosy, but her eyes were sparkling with self-deprecating humor. “It’s okay. My cousin Killian teased me about it mercilessly. Race car Killian, not polo Killian. Polo Killian was in mathletes too.”

Rick raised an eyebrow. “You have two cousins named Killian?”

“Ridiculous, isn’t it? You’d think one would be enough. I promise race car Killian is the far superior Killian, no matter what I tell him to his face. When dealing with Killians, one must keep their egos in check.”

Her description of her family caused his mouth to twitch upward. “Isn’t Killian the one Graham beat up?”

“Race car Killian. And Graham didn’t beat him up,” she said, defending her cousin’s honor. “There were simply words exchanged in a more physical form than normal.”

“Graham was pretty upset,” Rick reminded her. “Zoey nearly got killed in that rainstorm Killian took her four-wheeling in.”

“I’m fairly sure that was equal opportunity near death. Zoey wasn’t exactly making her best choices. Getting dumped by her dream guy can do that to a girl.” Lana took her