Page 15 of A Gift for her Festive Firefighter

Cade swore loudly and turned to walk away – only to turn back around and do the one thing that would not help his case in the slightest.

He lost his temper.

“Heaven help your husband,” he hissed angrily, pointing a finger at her. “And if you aren’t married, I can see why! Whatever has your knickers in a twist – fix it.”

He saw her eyes shutter as she gave him a dead-pan stare, unmoving. The silence between them was staggering; each drip of brake fluid from the oil pan onto the ground sounded like a loud plop. He could hear the tick of the clock on the wall of her shop, and his heart hammered in his chest.

“Are you finished?”

“Are you going to get me an estimate to fix my car?”

“Nope.”

Cade stormed off without uttering another word.

Chapter 6

HOLLY

October

Holly watched the temperamental man walk off with something akin to heartbreak and sadness overflowing within her. That man had the most beautiful features and combined; he was staggering to behold. It was like the angels had plucked every single unknown attractive element she wanted in a man, mixed it all together, talked it over with Karma, and then deposited all that beauty on the ugliest soul possible.

My goodness, could anyone be more hateful?

She ignored the tear that crept down her cheek, ignoring his painful words as they echoed in her mind. No, she wasn’t married. She certainly wasn’t dating, and it probably wasn’t for the reasons he imagined. The fact that he’d said it aloud – oh, how it hurt. That and for the last two days, all her fragile sense of self whispered to her soul was two words.

Creature-Feature.

Cade thought she was unbearably ugly, a creature and the irony was not lost. He was the one who was ugly on the inside, not her. Treating her like garbage, pushing his way around, and bullying her was not going to get his car repaired anytime soon. Oh yes, Holly was a big enough sap that she’d already ordered the pulley, belt, and was already searching for a new radiator for his car – but would never admit it.

Walking out from under the car where she’d been changing the oil, feeling absolutely disgusting because she was hot, sticky, and had oil run down her arm into her arm pit, she stared at his departing figure, swallowing back the urge to call him back. No, her feelings were still hurt, and while she desperately wanted to have people like her, to find someone to share her life with – she had her pride.

She was never going to let someone treat her like garbage, and if he did? Was he even worth knowing?

Sighing heavily, Holly went back to finishing up the oil change on the car so she could get it off the lift. Yeah, she was still in a snit and was honestly quite surprised to see him show up.

Maybe the weather was getting to all of them because she was really ready for the heat to break. This was the third or fourth bout of a blistering heatwave that Texas was known for before things finally cooled down.

Growing up, she remembered trick-or-treating with her parents as a young girl, dressed as a witch and melting under the nylon hat, green wig, and itchy dress. Running around in unbreathable fabric when it was ninety-five degrees at dusk was rough – and it didn’t get any better as you got older, she mused, looking at her sweaty coveralls.

“C’monnnn Fall,” she muttered aloud, half-joking and half-begging if someone was listening Above. Their autumn would last maybe three weeks before they got their cold snap – dropping things down into the forties or fifties. That was the time of year that she lived for. Open windows, a breeze, pull out the blankets, dig out a jacket, heck. If it got chilly enough, she might light the chiminea on the back deck and roast a marshmallow or two.

The Harvest festival always signaled the town to take a collective breath because the weather was about to break. People came out in droves to see the pumpkin patch set up in the town circle near the wishing well. Kids bobbed for apples, and some shucked colorful ears of corn to proudly hang on the front door of the house, while others were just there to snag a few free samples of pumpkin ice cream from Scoops, caramel apple flavored coffees, and other delicacies.

Yes, she liked Fall, but only because it heralded the Christmas season. If the change in weather brought out the pumpkins and smiling faces, the Season of Giving opened their hearts, minds, and homes.

Christmas was a thing of beauty and hard to put into words. It wasn’t just the decorations and the trees but a feeling of goodwill that seemed to emanate from the town itself. People laughed, hugged, bonded, talked, and there wasn’t one Scrooge to be had among them.

“Until now, I guess,” she grunted, frustrated that the bolt she was working on was cross-threaded and the heat had zapped her energy – not to mention her unexpected visitor had left her drained. Yeah, she really didn’t have the heart to tap out the bolt and heli-coil the threads right now.

Nope.

It could wait until morning – just like contacting Cade.

Two days later, Holly was in the middle of doing a tire rotation and nearly dropped the tire and rim on her foot as a thought crossed her mind unexpectedly. She forgot to text Cade about his car – and the man was obviously stubborn enough to just leave it to see how long it would take her to reach out.

“Dang it…” she grunted, putting the tire on the ground and hurriedly digging out her phone from her pocket, wincing at the grime on the screen. She hurriedly wiped it across her T-shirt under her coveralls a few times to get it where it looked somewhat decent and began typing.

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