Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

C ute in red, huh?

No. Absolutely not. He would not let Kira convince him to don a Santa suit. A man had to have his limits. Right?

He tried to follow Kira, but she slipped easily away through the throngs of revelers. Everyone was starting to gather around the big evergreen in the center of the town square, so attempting to go against the flow of the crowd was impossible.

‘Ben!’

He turned from his search for Kira and spotted his sister working her way toward him. For a split second, he thought about ignoring her, but that wasn’t really in the spirit of the evening.

‘Hey, how did it go?’ he asked, as Jeanie and Logan caught up to him. Annie was with them, too, her giant fluffy earmuffs and hideous Christmas sweater making her stand out in the crowd.

‘It went great. A lot of sales even with giving the cocoa away for free.’

‘I told you that was a good idea,’ Annie said, nudging her friend. ‘Lure them in with free stuff and then start charging.’

Jeanie smiled. ‘You were right. You’re a very savvy businesswoman.’

‘I know. So,’ Annie turned to him, eyes lit up mischievously, ‘did you find anything interesting up at the tree farm yet?’

‘Oh, yeah, several dead bodies, the place is littered with them. I guess I just forgot to mention it.’

Annie laughed. ‘I like him.’

‘Yeah, he’s a riot,’ Jeanie said dryly.

‘I haven’t found anything except an old house and a woman trying to run the place by herself.’ He decided not to tell Jeanie and her friends about the list he’d found behind the radiator. If there really was something valuable buried at the farm, that was for Kira to find, not this nosy town.

‘Oh, no, Ben.’ Jeanie shook her head like she was horribly disappointed in him and he knew he didn’t want to hear whatever it was she had to say next.

‘What?’

‘Not again.’

‘Ooh…’ Annie chimed in. ‘What?’

‘Ben has a habit of wanting to fix things for people, specifically people he’s dating,’ Jeanie explained. ‘And then they just end up taking advantage of him and ditching him.’

Annie winced.

‘It’s not like that,’ Bennett protested. Was this the thanks he got for sharing more of his life with his sister? She just aired out his dating issues on the town square? He never should have told her about those last few dates, and about the favors he’d given out, like he was freaking Santa. Thankfully, he’d kept his sharing to the last few months and hadn’t delved back further into this particular dating issue. If Jeanie only knew how screwed up his dating life was, he’d never live it down.

‘It’s definitely like that,’ Jeanie said. ‘How many of your last dates involved rides to the airport?’

‘Not that many…’

‘Oh, Bennett.’ Annie shook her head. Even Logan grimaced.

‘Why is it so bad to want to be helpful? Isn’t that a good thing?’

He blamed Mrs. Brendan, his first-grade teacher. She really got him hooked on those gold stars. And maybe over the years he’d liked the way people appreciated him when he did them a favor, he liked the feeling of being needed, of being useful.

‘Not if you let yourself be a doormat for these women. You’re too nice, Ben.’

‘That’s not what’s happening here.’

Jeanie raised an eyebrow. ‘Then what’s happening?’

‘Mainly, this insane town forced me to go up there and then I offered to check the heating in that old house. That’s it.’ He decided not to mention the computer help, cabin inspection, and potential Santa audition he might have also signed on for. Jeanie and her friends were already looking at him like he was a wounded animal that needed to be put down.

‘It’s not what you think,’ he insisted. ‘She doesn’t even like me.’ Even as he said it, he was remembering the look on Kira’s face when they’d collided, the surprise and then the warmth in her eyes.

‘Everyone likes you, Ben.’

‘Not her. She finds my helpful nature to be very annoying. But I couldn’t leave her up there all alone and cold…’

Annie gasped like she had solved some great mystery. ‘You like her!’ she squealed. ‘You like the grumpy tree farm lady!’

Bennett cleared his throat. ‘What is this, middle school?’

Logan rolled his eyes. ‘You get used to it after a while.’

‘I don’t like her.’ That definitely wasn’t true, but he wasn’t about to admit that he did like Kira even though she had tried to give him every reason not to, or that he really wanted to spend more time with her even though that was foolish considering he was leaving after Christmas. Or that he was an idiot for even thinking about any of this, since he’d supposedly sworn off women but had done nothing but think about her since he met her. ‘I’m doing what you all asked me to do!’ he said instead, putting the blame right back where it should be. On his sister and her crazy friends.

‘Oh, right. Back to that,’ Jeanie mercifully allowed the topic to change. ‘So, nothing weird up there?’

‘No. Just trees and an old house. That’s it.’ Not that he’d been particularly thorough about his search. Unless the old man buried his wife under the boiler, Ben probably wouldn’t have noticed, but that was just one more thing he planned to keep his mouth shut about.

The women frowned.

‘What? Disappointed I didn’t find a dead body?’

‘I mean, a little bit,’ Jeanie said, at the same time as Annie said, ‘Definitely.’

Logan just shook his head.

‘Are you going back?’ Jeanie asked and Bennett couldn’t help but scan the crowd for that familiar coat.

The answer should be a resounding no. How would he ever recover from his ‘too niceness’ if he spent all his time up at that farm fixing radiators and searching for dead bodies that didn’t exist? He should start being more selfish right now. He should tell his sister and this whole town he was done playing detective. But what if being selfish meant he wanted more time at the farm? What if doing what he wanted to do meant spending more time with Kira?

‘Well, I do still need a tree.’

He ignored his sister’s smile and Annie’s squeal of delight and stalked off toward the tree-lighting stage to catch a glimpse of the one thing he really wanted for Christmas.

* * *

‘Ten, nine, eight…’

Kira stood awkwardly on the stage next to the mayor as the crowd counted down to the big moment. She hated being on stage. In fact, she was actively trying to suppress the memories of her disastrous early pageant days, from before her mother quit and told her she never had to do one again. Apparently, peeing your leotard during the talent portion was not exactly Little Georgia Peach behavior. If she was remembering correctly, Chloe won Miss Congeniality that year. Because of course she did.

‘Seven, six, five…’

She scanned the faces in the crowd and tried to conjure up some holiday excitement, but it wasn’t working. All she saw were strung-out kids, hopped up on candy canes and days of counting down for Santa, and the exhausted parents trying in vain to rein them in. Frankly, it looked like a nightmare. No wonder her parents subcontracted all the holiday nonsense to professional decorators, party planners and various nannies throughout the years. Although, she and Chloe had always managed to make their own fun, sneaking cookies, and in later years booze, to their room to eat under their covers, hiding from their parents’ odious friends during the slew of holiday parties leading up to the big day.

How could Kira possibly have a good Christmas without her sister?

‘Four, three, two, one! Merry Christmas!’ The mayor shouted as he hit the switch and the tree behind her lit up with thousands of colorful lights. The crowd cheered and the high-school band charged right into an enthusiastic, if not technically adept, rendition of ‘It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas’.

Kira attempted to turn her wince into a smile, but probably just looked like she was in pain. Which of course she was. Christmas carols were bad enough but played by a bunch of out-of-tune teenagers, they were a whole other level of terrible.

Her gaze snagged on a familiar, too-perfect face in the audience. Bennett smiled at her, and she really wished she still didn’t like him. If only her first impression of him as an arrogant asshole had been correct. Things would be so much simpler. But instead, she found that his smile made her feel better. Just like that. She felt less lonely, less sad.

And if she didn’t know he would also leave her in a month, she might have explored that feeling further. But he was leaving and Kira couldn’t deal with another departure right now. Not when the last one had wrecked her so completely.

She turned away and found the mayor handing her the microphone.

‘Um, hi.’ The mic squealed and she hastily moved it further from her face. ‘Sorry.’ She cleared her throat. Oh, good, she hadn’t gotten any better at this in the past twenty years. Her mother would be so proud.

‘Uh … hi. I’m Kira.’

‘Hi Kira!’ Someone yelled from the audience, followed by more shouts of ‘hello!’ and ‘hi!’ and ‘welcome!’

At least the town was still excessively welcoming, even after she’d acted like a bitchy recluse for the past three months. Maybe things were still salvageable. She took a deep breath. ‘Hi. Um … I just wanted to come here and announce the official reopening of the Christmas Tree Farm. This Sunday at ten a.m.’

Cheers rang out around her and Kira couldn’t help her smile and the relief that flooded through her. This was going to work. She might not have to sell her organs, after all.

‘Right,’ she went on, after the noise died down. ‘And if you can’t make it to opening day, we’ll be open every day after that through Christmas Eve from ten to six. The trees are looking beautiful this year so I hope you will come and pick out the perfect one for you and your family.’ Her gaze had accidentally found Bennett again and his smile had grown at her mention of the perfect tree. This guy. Ugh, how had he wormed his way into her good graces just by being so damn nice! It was sneaky, is what it was. He was like a sneaky, wholesome ninja who had tricked her into actually liking him.

And now she was smiling like an idiot right back at him.

‘Oh, and follow the farm—@mychristmastreedreams—on all your socials!’ She quickly handed the microphone back to the mayor before she could do something crazy like burst into a round of ‘Jingle Bells’, or something equally horrific.

‘Thank you, Kira,’ Mayor Kelly said, beaming at her like she’d just fixed world hunger. ‘I’m sure the whole town will be out in the next few weeks to get their trees. I hope you’re ready for us!’

Me, too.

Kira forced her smile to stay put even as her insides clenched in panic.

‘Now,’ Mayor Kelly clapped his hands. ‘Chanukah is still a few days away but we have our menorah ready to go, so look for those lights to go on soon and don’t forget to come out for our winter concert on the solstice!’

If the concert was being performed by the school band, Kira wouldn’t be going anywhere near that, but she just kept on smiling until finally the local choir from some church or another took over the stage to lead the singalong. At which point Kira hightailed it out of there like her faux fur was on fire.

She may have warmed up to the local nice guy, but there was no way in hell she was participating in a singalong.

She raced down the stairs on the side of the stage and ran headfirst into something solid and warm. Something that said ‘Oof!’ when she hit it. Something that smelled like peppermint and Stroopwafels.

Kira’s body was flush with Bennett’s and for a split second she didn’t want to pull away. She wanted to burrow further into his warmth. She wanted him to wrap his arms around her and keep her there.

She jerked back and out of his grip. ‘Sorry.’

‘Hey, where are you running off to?’ Bennett asked.

‘Uh … I have to get home.’

Bennett’s face fell. ‘Oh, already?’

This Christmas music had obviously broken her brain because she wanted to stay. All of a sudden, she wanted to stay at this absurd display of Christmas cheer. With Bennett . That was when Kira realized that this nice guy, this Mr. Fix-It, Clark Kent, was far more dangerous than any of her fresh-out-of-prison boyfriends.

‘Yep, I made my announcement, so that’s it. No reason to stay.’

‘That’s too bad. I thought we could go see Santa.’

‘Santa?’ He couldn’t be serious.

‘Yeah,’ he said with a laugh. ‘He’s set up over there. I thought you could talk to him about spending some time at the farm.’

‘You’re just trying to get out of doing the job.’ Damn it, she was smiling again. And this was actually another good idea.

Bennett stepped closer, a little smirk on his face. ‘Hey, if you have a Santa kink, I’d be happy to…’

‘A Santa kink!’ She put her hand on his chest to push him away, but her hand forgot to push and instead just stayed there, flat against him, soaking in his heat. ‘Is that even a thing?’

He chuckled and it rumbled through her fingertips. ‘You’d be surprised. I’ve been doing some interesting reading lately.’

‘I don’t even want to know what that means.’

‘There’s this local book club…’

‘Nope, no need to explain your strange habits and sexual perversions.’ She grinned and that damn hand was still there, pressed into him and he was so solid and warm in his cream-colored sweater. And now she’d said, ‘sexual perversions’ out loud and her mind was happily galloping down all sorts of perverse paths. She definitely didn’t have a Santa kink but she wouldn’t mind if Bennett put her over his knee and…

‘So … do you want to go talk to him?’

Kira’s face flushed hot. Right. Santa. Regular, not kinky, Santa.

She pulled her hand off the nice man’s chest.

‘Yeah, uh … yes. That’s a good idea, actually.’ She started to stride away toward the little gingerbread house on the other side of the square and Bennett fell into step beside her. ‘You don’t have to come with me.’

‘Oh, I have a few things to ask for anyway,’ he said, flashing her that smile. Despite her best efforts, she was starting to hate it less.

‘And what are you asking for?’

Bennett glanced toward the sky as they walked. ‘Snow.’

‘Snow?! More cold! Veto.’

He huffed. ‘It’s Christmas! Don’t you want a white Christmas?’

She shrugged. ‘I’ve never had one before. I don’t know why I would start now.’ Her family was never the sort to head to Aspen for Christmas. Her mother hated the cold as much as she did.

‘Well, I’ve missed snow out on the West Coast. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without it.’

‘Australians have Christmas without snow every year.’

‘Okay, fine, but it doesn’t feel like Christmas for me. I’m not Australian, you might have noticed.’

‘So you’re asking Santa for snow?’

‘Among other things.’

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. ‘Like?’

‘Can’t tell you or it won’t come true.’

‘I don’t think that’s how that works. That’s only for birthday wishes.’

‘Really? I don’t know. Might be different down South.’

She laughed. ‘You just don’t want to tell me.’ They’d reached Santa’s house and the line was long and filled with crying children. Two elves were handing out candy canes and trying in vain to keep the line somewhat orderly. The little girl in front of them had laid down in the cold dirt wearing her full Christmas outfit, frilly skirt and all, in some sort of peaceful protest. Her mother just gave them an exhausted smile when they got in line.

‘Correct, I don’t want to tell you,’ Bennett said, picking up their conversation.

‘Is it more weird books?’

He shook his head, his smile growing.

‘Some kind of Boy Scout badge?’

‘Okay, first of all, I told you I was never a Boy Scout. And secondly, you have to earn those. You can’t just ask for them.’

‘For someone who was never a Boy Scout, you sure know a lot about them,’ she muttered and Bennett chuckled. ‘Hmm … new tools?’

‘I have plenty of tools and why wouldn’t I want to tell you that?’

‘Because then I would live in fear that you would come back and try to fix more things.’

‘I forgot how traumatic that was for you.’

‘Truly.’ She pushed away the memory of Bennett crouched next to her radiator, sleeves rolled up, forearms flexing. She would not find this man attractive. She could not. ‘A new puppy?’

‘As much as I would love one, I think I’m at my max with three.’

Kira huffed. ‘I give up.’

He held her gaze for a second too long and heat rushed to Kira’s face. ‘I guess you’ll have to wait and see if I get it.’

‘I guess so.’ Why was her voice so breathy? Why was he looking at her like she was what he wanted?

The mother in front of them lifted her still prone daughter and moved her a few feet forward and then placed her back in the dirt. The little girl smiled up at her with the face of an angel. Kids were terrifying.

‘So what are you asking Santa for?’ Bennett asked as they shuffled forward, the moment broken.

‘Weekend afternoons at the farm from now until Christmas. Hopefully he doesn’t have other gigs that pay better. I can’t offer him much.’ An elf walked past and handed them each a candy cane. ‘Thanks,’ Kira said, quickly unwrapping hers and sucking it into her mouth. Sweet and sticky. She sighed a little. Maybe Christmas wasn’t all bad.

When she glanced back at Bennett, his gaze was fixed on her mouth and the candy cane she was sliding in and out between her lips. Whoops. She slid it out with a distinct pop and Bennett blinked like he was emerging from a trance.

He cleared his throat. ‘Uh… What are you asking for yourself?’

‘For myself?’ Kira’s laugh came out harsher than she meant it to. ‘I’ve had plenty my whole life. Too much, really. So I’ll just settle for the essentials this year. Heat. Some new windows would be nice. Maybe fix that leaky…’ She trailed off, realizing she was just listing all the shit that was wrong with her house. She was probably triggering all the fix-it impulses in Bennett’s brain.

But to his credit and Kira’s surprise, he just nodded.

‘And… I wouldn’t be mad if he threw in some cozy socks. Can never have too many of those,’ she added, and Bennett smiled.

They were nearly at Santa’s candy-covered house now and the little girl ahead of them was standing in front of him listing all her wishes out on her fingers, one by one. The back of her dress was streaked with dirt, but even Kira had to admit that she still looked cute as she stood beside Santa for her picture.

And then it was their turn.

An elf ushered them into the small house and over to Santa’s giant chair. He was a pretty convincing Santa. Round belly, rosy cheeks, even his white beard was real. He would do.

‘Hello, uh … Santa.’

‘Ho, ho, ho! And what would you like for Christmas, young lady?’

Okay, apparently we’re staying in character.

‘Um, right. Well, I own the Christmas-tree farm and we’ve just reopened, and I was hoping to hire you, actually.’

The old man chuckled, holding his belly and Kira couldn’t really remember how she’d gone from her life of parties and blowing her parents’ money to negotiating with a man who thought he was Santa in a house decorated with fake candy. Oh, wait, reckless decisions about real estate.

‘Here’s my card,’ Santa said, pulling a business card with holly around the edges from his pocket. ‘Give the office a call and I’m sure we can work something out.’

He smiled. ‘Now, what do you two want for Christmas?’ he asked, raising his big bushy brows at her and Bennett. ‘Perhaps some jewelry?’

Kira just rolled her eyes and pointed to Bennett. ‘I’ll take a pair of socks, but this guy wants snow.’

‘Ho, ho, ho, that’s a tall order but I’ll do my best.’

‘Thanks, Santa,’ Bennett said as they left the gingerbread cottage. As much as Kira hated being cold, it was nice to be out of the stuffy house. It smelled like wet wool and children in there.

‘Oh, you didn’t get to ask Santa for your other gift,’ she teased as they walked away.

‘That’s okay. I decided I don’t really need Santa’s help with it.’

‘Really?’

His arm brushed against hers as they walked. ‘Yeah, I should probably do it on my own.’

She glanced at him from the corner of her eye and a secret smile played around his lips. They paused when they got to the edge of the square, back to the craft booths.

‘Too kinky, huh?’

He laughed. ‘Yeah, that’s it. Too kinky for Santa.’ He stepped closer. His warm body obviously exerted too much gravitational pull on her because she stepped closer, too.

‘Well, I hope you get what you want,’ she whispered.

The corner of Bennett’s lips tipped up in a smile. ‘Me, too,’ he said.