My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,8

felt the woman next to me look at me a few times. Finally she said, “I’m waiting for my friend. She’s coming for a visit. Who are you waiting for?”

I was a good-looking guy. That wasn’t vanity, it was just fact. Actually I was good-looking, successful, and pretty fucking charming. Women came on to me a lot, and I knew the signs.

This woman was attractive and seemed perfectly nice. She was also interested. Normally, I would have at least taken a second look, because who wouldn’t?

But for the past year, my problem had been a woman with sexy curls, glasses, and killer legs. A woman who barely even liked me. A woman who was apparently—

“My fiancée,” I told the woman, letting her down easy. “I’m waiting for my fiancée.”

“Oh.” She turned away, a little embarrassed, and we let it drop. Ten minutes later, they announced the arrival of Penny’s flight, and the woman got out of her chair and nearly sprinted to the doorway where the passengers would come out. I closed my laptop, packed it, and stood more slowly as I shrugged my coat on, holding back as I watched people file into the arrivals hall.

I hiked my bag to my shoulder and watched people meet one by one and pair off, heading for the parking lot. And then there she was: Penny Gold, wearing jeans and a sweater of deep green, the green of fir trees. She had knee-high brown boots on over her jeans. She’d tied her hair up, but there was no mistaking the spirals of those dark brown curls, falling around her face and trying to break free of the elastic they were held in. The glasses she wore gave her a sexy librarian look, and her legs in those jeans—Jesus, I’d never seen her in jeans.

She glanced around the arrivals hall, distracted, and when she saw me her face formed an expression of surprise, her mouth a perfect O. She stopped in her tracks, and the man behind her had to do an abrupt turn to avoid knocking into her. Penny didn’t notice.

I lifted a hand and waved at her. Then, since she seemed frozen in place, I went toward her.

“Hi,” I said, since she also seemed incapable of saying anything.

Penny found her voice at last. “What are you doing here?”

“Picking you up at the airport.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Since you don’t own a car here in Denver, it kinda seems like I do.”

“Oh.” She still seemed at a loss for words. Her cheeks were going a few shades of red. It was cute, though I had no idea why it was happening. It certainly wasn’t because Penny Gold had a crush on me, because she didn’t.

“Where’s your bag?” I asked her. Another person nearly bumped into her, and I gently took her wrist, steering her to the side of the crowd.

She seemed to jump to life when I touched her, even though I was only touching the sleeve of her sweater. “It’s on the luggage carousel.” She pulled her sleeve from my touch and waved vaguely to her right. “Over there.”

“Okay, we’ll go get it. Then I’ll take you to your new place, and then out for some dinner. Or we can do it the other way around, depending on how hungry you are.”

“We can?” She shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was a notch louder than it needed to be. “Okay, yes, okay. That sounds good.”

“Which one?”

“The one you said.”

I found myself smiling at her. Those hazel eyes, long lashes, that pretty mouth—who knew the sexy librarian look was my weakness? “Okay, Penny,” I said. “We’ll do the thing I said. Welcome to Denver.”

“My name is Penelope,” she said.

“Right, right. Where’s your coat?”

“I don’t have a…” She looked past my shoulder at the window, where you could clearly see the snow outside. Her eyes went wide with alarm behind her glasses. “I don’t have a coat!” she exclaimed.

“Really?” I shook my head. “Jesus, California people are something else.”

“How could I not think of it?” Penny seemed panicked. “I thought of everything. Everything! All of my things are in labeled boxes! I made a map of the transit routes near my new apartment! I’ve already found a local accountant!”

“You got an accountant in Denver, but you didn’t buy a coat? It’s winter.”

“I know.” She looked at the window again, as if hoping the snow had somehow gone away. “I even checked the average weather for this time of year. I