That Mistletoe Moment by Cat Johnson Page B

how shocked she sounded that he’d called. “Hey. It’s Nathan.”
    â€œHi. Um, are you allowed to call?”
    Odd question. She must think he was at work and could get in trouble. “Sure. I’m off work now, so yeah. I can talk.”
    â€œOh, okay. Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”
    He laughed at her continued joking. “Thanks. So, I’m going to be in town by tomorrow night and I was hoping we could get together some day before the party.”
    â€œGet together for real?” she asked, once again the surprise evident in her tone.
    â€œYeah, for real. Maybe for coffee. Or drinks. Or, hell, I don’t know, hot chocolate. Whatever you’d like. I probably won’t get there until like eight or later tomorrow night so—”
    â€œThat’s okay. I’ll be awake.”
    He’d been about to say they’d have to put off seeing each other until the next day, but hell, sooner was better than later for him. “You sure that won’t be too late?”
    â€œIt’s fine. I’m off this week, so I’ve been staying up until like midnight every night.”
    He remembered their texts last night. “Watching Christmas movies?”
    â€œYes.” She sounded adorably shy.
    He smiled, enjoying how he knew her so well already.
    Okay. Moving on. He had to plan this date.
    It finally hit him that he actually had a no-shit, bona-fide date.
    How long had it been since he’d had one of those?
    Far too long, was the answer to that question. His parents could just wait to see him until they woke up the following day.
    â€œSo should I come right to your place and we can decide when I get there?” he suggested.
    Fingers crossed there’d be no traffic or bad weather to keep him from getting there. Hell, he might even consider sneaking out early if he didn’t think the commander would notice.
    â€œYeah, come here. I’ll text you my address. You can see my Christmas tree.”
    â€œThat sounds great. I’d love to see it,” he said, and amazingly enough he actually meant it.
    Not too many years ago his only reason for going to a woman’s apartment would have been the hope of getting into her pants, and here he was excited by the prospect of Christmas trees and hot cocoa.
    Was that a sign of maturity or just an indication of how much he liked this girl already? Honestly, he didn’t care which it was, as long as he got to see her again.

CHAPTER 7
    S he glanced at the clock on her phone and her heart sped. In probably less than half an hour, Noelle’s Build-A-Boyfriend Nathan, or whatever his real name was, would be here.
    One of her first orders of business when he walked through the door would be to find out his real name.
    Her boyfriend and the relationship might have started out as fake, but now both were very real and she was really going to meet him.
    Last night, after one final confirmation of what time to expect him, Noelle had hung up on the surreal phone conversation and typed in her address.
    She’d hesitated barely a second before sending him the text. She couldn’t tell Nikki that. No way, no how.
    Her sister would only throw cold water on her excitement. Nikki would say he was a stranger. That Noelle should meet him in a nice, safe public place and not at her apartment. Heck, Nikki would probably tell Noelle not to meet him at all.
    But he wasn’t really a stranger. They’d texted. They’d talked on the phone.
    Call her crazy, but she trusted him.
    Sure, they’d met under rather unconventional circumstances. But hey, people met online all the time. What did it matter if the connection was made on a matchmaking site or the Build-A-Boyfriend app?
    That was her theory and she was sticking to it.
    No. Noelle would not let doubt creep in. That’s why she’d avoided talking to her sister for the past twenty-four hours. Nikki would have sensed something was up.
    Noelle