Bring Me Home for Christmas

you.”
    “It’s all right. I just fell asleep reading. You can turn the light off if you want to. Or leave it on, I don’t care.”
    He just shuffled inside the door for a moment. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. He took off his jacket and hung it on the peg just inside the door. Then he sat in the only chair in the room, rested his elbows on his knees, clasped his hands together and hung his head.
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” she said suddenly. “What is bugging you? You want me to sleep on the air mattress? Because I’d be happy to!”
    He lifted his head instantly. “No, no. We’re good.” He stood, went to his storage chest and reached inside to pull out some clothes. Then he headed for the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
    She heard the shower running and she sank down in the bed. “Maybe he’s got a girlfriend,” she muttered to herself. “Maybe that’s it. I’m in the way.” She put her book on the table beside the bed and turned over, presenting her back toward the bathroom door. It was a very long shower. Yes, she thought. Very likely there was a girl around here somewhere and now that his friends were gone, he’d like to get back to her. Just because things hadn’t worked out for Becca didn’t mean Denny’s life had been standing still. She’d sent him packing and he had been trying to jump-start a new life up here in the mountains.
    It seemed a long time before he was back in the room, and she purposely didn’t turn to look at him.
    “Becca?” he asked softly.
    “Hmm?”
    “You ready for the light to be off now?”
    “Sure,” she said. Tomorrow I am going to find the right moment to bring it up, to talk to him about whatever it is that is making him act so uncomfortable around me.
    He rummaged around, putting his clothes away, turning off the light beside her bed, crawling onto his air-mattress bed, then flopping around like a fish on the dock. She sighed heavily, not sure she was going to make it till the right moment tomorrow. She listened to his mattress gymnastics for another ten minutes, when the light beside her bed suddenly flicked on. Startled, she rolled over to look up at him.
    “Look, I think I’m just going to head out to Jack’s. If you think you’ll be all right here by yourself.”
    She raised up in bed. “Jack’s?”
    “His guesthouse. You could probably, ah, use the privacy….”
    “What the hell is going on with you? We didn’t have a problem all week and all of a sudden something is eating you. And it’s not letting you sleep! And it’s about me! Is there a girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend and you can’t find a way to just tell me you want to spend time with her?”
    He frowned in complete confusion, those beautiful expressive brows drawing together. “Girlfriend?”
    “Well, I can’t for my life figure out what’s wrong with you!”
    “Girlfriend?” he said again. He sat very gently on the edge of her bed. “Becca, there’s no girlfriend. I’m finding it kind of… Well, it’s hard to be alone with you.”
    “You were alone with me all week!”
    “Yeah, but the guys were all here. Once I knew they’d all be gone, that I wouldn’t have to look Rich in the eye in the morning… That’s when it started to get really…hard,” he said, emphasizing the word with agony.
    “What’s hard?” she asked. She reached out and touched his arm. “My God, you’re freezing!”
    He took a deep breath. “Cold shower, Becca.”
    “What for?” she asked, genuinely stumped. He rolled his eyes and she realized exactly what was hard. “Oh! But why?”
    “Because, Becca… Are you going to make me say it?”
    She pushed herself up in the bed a little bit. “I think you’d better, because I had myself convinced you had a girlfriend and you were feeling guilty about spending all this time with me.”
    “It’s you, Becca. I’m miserable being alone with you and your broken ankle and knowing I can’t get too close or I might just lose my mind. Knowing I’d have to face the guys every morning—that kind of kept my head on straight. But they’re gone, it’s just you and me. You, me and your boyfriend! And I don’t think I can be alone here with you. Okay?”
    Her blue eyes were wide and her lips parted slightly as she stared at him. Finally she said, “Seriously?”
    He glanced away. “I’ll just go out to Jack’s,” he said, standing.
    She grabbed his ice-cold hand. “You don’t have to go to Jack’s.”
    “Yeah, I do.