Beyond the Mistletoe: A Christmas Romance (Beyond Love Book 7) by Karice Bolton Read Free Book Online

see him.
    “Indeed, it is.”
    I sat stumped. In all honesty, I couldn’t imagine Derek having any issues finding women to date. In fact, my gut told me both Derek and Eric had no trouble lining up the females, which made this particular situation even more troubling. Why were they here putting up with this weekend’s events? Was the dating scene that dire?
    Derek’s eyes linked with mine, and I felt the flutter return. I didn’t know if it was the snow in the air or what in particular, but he looked absolutely incredible. The scarf tucked around his neck framed his face and forced me to concentrate solely on his eyes, which was almost my undoing.
    I cleared my throat and sat back on the bench. Tempted to glance in Eric’s direction to see if the same flood of emotion ran over me, I wiggled slightly to get a glimpse.
    “Well, I’d love to see your sister’s work. I’ve always thought about experimenting with charcoal.”
    “You two should meet,” Eric offered. “I’m sure she’d love to show you her drawings. She’s got a website too.”
    “I’ll have to check it out.” I turned slightly, catching Eric’s gaze. There was no arguing the fact that he was extremely attractive, but…
    “Uh-oh, Derek,” Jason laughed. “Do you have any artistic siblings to introduce to Emily? Or is Eric one-upping you?”
    This was so embarrassing.
    “Not a one. I might be destined to a life without love…” I heard the smile in Derek’s voice.
    “But he doesn’t need a creative sibling, considering—” Gabby began.
    “Let’s keep some mystery about me.” Derek waved his hand to cut Gabby off, and she hid her disappointment, but not before flashing a wry expression in my direction.
    “I didn’t want to be the person to burst your bubble about your chiwoodle…” Eric began.
    “I don’t think you could.”
    The sleigh bounced over a mound, and I found myself grabbing Derek’s leg to steady myself. In doing so it was impossible to miss the strength in his long, lean muscles as they contracted under the blanket. My body temperature immediately went up several degrees, but rather than remove my hand right away, I let it rest there.
    Catching Gabby’s grin widen, I straightened up and acted like the feelings flooding through me never happened. At the most, this weekend was meant to be all about the fun, not feelings overtaking my senses.
    “Well, Bodie isn’t technically a chiwoodle,” he continued.
    “What do you mean?” I didn’t even bother to turn.
    “I looked it up last night on the web and he’s technically a wapoo.”
    I felt Derek’s body shudder with laughter but didn’t hear a thing come out of his mouth as everyone waited for my response to this earth-shattering proclamation.
    “What are you talking about?” I removed my hand from Derek and instantly wished I hadn’t.
    “The AKC posts the acceptable hybrid names, and Bodie’s Chihuahua-poodle mix is actually called a wapoo not a chiwoodle.”
    There was something about Eric’s delivery that irked me slightly.
    “The AKC doesn’t know everything about everything,” I informed him. “Bodie grew up as a chiwoodle, and I’m not going to blow up his world and tell him he’s actually a wapoo. That’s crazy.”
    “A chiwoodle literally doesn’t exist,” Eric countered.
    “A chiwoodle does exist, and he’s literally sleeping soundly on my toes right now.”
    Derek couldn’t keep in his laughter as Eric turned to face me. I attempted to make eye contact by dislodging my shoulder from Derek’s.
    “You can call Bodie whatever you want, but the AKC doesn’t recognize it.” Eric smiled, lifting a brow.
    The snow began coming down harder, and our sleigh slid into the woods where the temperature seemed to drop another few degrees. I sat back on the bench, unsure what to say to Eric, because in that moment a realization hit me. Eric had the one quality that drove me crazy.
    He was a know-it-all.
    “It’s true.” Derek suddenly