Meet Me Under the Mistletoe Read Online Free PDF Page B

know. I wasn’t myself. My head was all over the place.’
    Laurie had been thrown off course, and there was only one reason. She thought back to the summer only a few months before – but with the November wind whistling outside Siobhan’s window, and her life in tatters, being with Jay felt like a lifetime ago.
    Jay had been sitting in the striped hammock on Laurie’s roof terrace, rocking gently in it as he opened a beer for her. Seventies rare groove drifted out of Laurie’s iPod dock, a lilting soundtrack to the hot summer night. They’d all been out together that night, to an outdoor film screening in the park – but before midnight Siobhan had fallen asleep downstairs on Laurie’s bed.
    Laurie sat down beside him, and he passed her the open bottle of Corona – she noticed how his white and grey striped T-shirt, worn with faded jeans, set off his tanned skin. He’d discarded his flip-flops alongside hers. There was plenty of space in the hammock, it was a double one Laurie’s mum had sent over from Spain, but gravity had brought the two of them together awkwardly in the middle. Laurie glanced over at him. With a day’s stubble on his jaw, and his dark hair a little longer now, he looked just like he had the first day they’d met, when he was carrying his guitar case up to his new flat. Jay turned to her and smiled. As if he’d hardly noticed the fact that one side of her body, clad in a strapless turquoise jumpsuit, was now pressed inappropriately closely against his.
    ‘Siobhan’s missing an amazing night sky,’ Jay said, tilting his head to look back. Laurie leaned into the hammock and looked up. Even with all the artificial light from south London’s bars, offices and shops, the stars shone out brightly.
    ‘She is,’ Laurie said, conscious again of Jay’s body against hers. The warmth of his arms, the faint, clean smell of him, a hint of cinnamon. Stop being weird, she told herself. She must be drunker than she thought. She took a sip of her beer, then rested it on the small wooden bench he’d made her that spring when he’d started renting his carpentry workshop.
    ‘Maybe it’s not such a bad thing,’ Jay said, his warm brown eyes resting on hers, ‘that Siobhan fell asleep.’
    Jay’s voice sounded different, softer than usual. It wasn’t that usual tone, the one he used when he did neighbourly stuff, like lending her milk, or asking to borrow her Mad Men box set.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘I mean, I like being alone with you,’ he said, his gaze unwavering.
    OK, Laurie thought. Now this was definitely getting weird. She looked away, hurriedly thinking of escape plans. ‘Do you think the music’s a bit loud?’ she said, moving to get up.
    ‘It’s fine,’ he reassured her. ‘Really.’ He took her hand before she could get to her feet. It felt sort of nice, her slim hand in his larger one. Her heart thudded in her chest.
    And then – Jay moved towards her and they were kissing. His hands were on the bare skin of her arms, and she was kissing him, kissing Jay. Jay from downstairs. And it felt good.
    She pulled away, and he smoothed her dark hair back behind her ear. They looked at each other and then finally he laughed, breaking the tension. ‘This is strange, isn’t it?’ he said, toying with her hand, running a finger over her palm. She nodded. A year of being friends – and now this. Yes, she’d felt something when she first met him – she’d realised right away that her new downstairs neighbour was hot. But then they’d become friends, got to know each other and the chemistry had seemed to soften to something easier to live with. Now that rush of desire was back, and it was all the stronger for knowing him better. He kissed her again, bringing her into his arms so they were lying down in the hammock together. They stayed up there, kissing, chatting and laughing for the whole warm night.
    As the sun rose over the city, they crept back downstairs and Jay walked Laurie