Page 3 of Christmas Criminal

He raises his eyebrows. "I'm notparticipatingin community service. I'm facilitating it."

"Right, but like, why? Are you actually a reformed criminal who went through community service yourself and realized his true calling was helping the degenerates of the world?"

He laughs, shaking his head. "That's an interesting story you've crafted."

I wait for him to continue. "I'll tell you why I'm here if you tell me why you are."

He pauses, crossing his arms and leaning against one side of the trailer. He fixes me with his gaze. "I work here."

I raise my eyebrows. "What are you, the grand marshal of the Christmas parade?"

He shakes his head. "No. I'm a teacher."

"Oh," I say, realizing that little bit of information should have beenobvious. He's wearing a school T-shirt for Christ's sake. "What do you teach?"

"Math."

I raise my eyebrows. "You'rea math teacher?"

"What's that face for?"

I fix my expression, struggling to hide my surprise. This man is entirely too attractive to be a math teacher. Gym teacher, maybe. But math teachers are supposed to have frizzy gray hair. Moles in strange places. Potbellies under blazers with ripped elbow patches.

"You don't look like a math teacher. And why are you here doing community service if you're a math teacher?"

"What, exactly, does a math teacher look like?"

He knows.Fuck, he knows I think he's unfairly attractive and I'm suddenly incredibly embarrassed about the poor decision-making that landed me here even though I don't regret a single moment of it.

"Not like you," I say, trying to keep things succinct as I turn to throw another sheet in the pile in an attempt to shield my reddening face.

He hums, and a moment later, he's right next to me, adding another.

"You didn't tell me why you're doing community service," I prompt, once I'm sure my face has returned to its normal color.

He turns to me, shrugging. "I like Christmas. I'd be doing this myself anyway, so when Hank asked if I had any ideas, it just seemed… serendipitous."

I laugh, the sound popping from my mouth in a definitely unattractive way. "Serendipitous?"

It's only when he raises his eyebrows with no hint of laughter that I realize he's serious.

I nod, swallowing down the laughter that so desperately wants to spill out.

"Serendipitous," I repeat.

He nods. "And apparently that's very funny." He cracks a small smile as I turn to detach a flattened streamer and a pile of silly string from one side of the float.

"That's more because you like Christmas but we're doing…this," I say. "Why would you ruin something youlikeby bringing degenerates into it?"

He shrugs. "I have never regretted inviting a person to help with the Christmas float before. Or the parade or the Christmas play or the Christmas concert. There have been a number of people who have come in to help who haven't wanted to, and every single time they've gotten something worthwhile out of it. And that's rewarding to me."

He walks around the float to grab an oversized broom that he uses to collect the bits of trash we're dropping to the floor.

"I thought you said you don't have many criminals around here."

He grins. "That's true. You're my first criminal," he says. My cheeks flush with his possessive wording. "But I have a lot of students who don't have the best home life, and giving them a bit of a reprieve from that during the holidays can sometimes work wonders. Or it can blow up in my face, but we don't focus on that possibility."

I nod. "That's... nice."

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