Page 15 of My Secret Santa Mason

“Oh, before I forget,” Rae said, turning to me while she put down her bag. “I nominated you for something else.”

“What!?” I cried out.

Rae didn’t look at me, busying herself with something. Maybe she was scared of my reaction.

Fuckinggood.Because this nominating business was really starting to piss me off.

“We’re doing a parade just before Christmas with a Santa’s chair and kids can take photos. I thought you’d make a good Santa, you know, with your burly size and your beard and all.” She finally looked at me with big, innocent eyes.

“I’m not playing Santa,” I snapped.

Rae smiled at me. “Come on, you love kids. I’ve seen how you are with Hunter.”

I glanced at the kid still in his stroller, happy to be there despite being home. Rae left him there while she sorted out a few things, and Hunter chewed on a rubber teething ring.

“I like Hunter because he’syourkid,” I said gruffly.

And the fact I didn’t have to do much, I could just look at him and someone else would do all the hard work. But playing Santa? Entertaining them?

“Look, it’s just for one day,” Rae said.

“What are you doing to me?” I complained, but I knew I wasn’t going to say no to Rae.

She smiled at me, knowing full well I would agree in the end.

“If you really don’t want to, I’ll talk someone else into it. Maybe Hank. But you’re really perfect for the job, Mason. And people actually like having you around, you know.”

I wasn’t so sure about that, but I didn’t argue. Arguing with Rae was pointless, anyway.

I sighed, exasperated, and shrugged out of my coat, not wanting to argue anymore.

“Tanner around?” I asked instead and tossed my coat over a chair. I needed to talk to him about the strangers in town, see if he’d noticed anything off.

Tanner was on high alert all the time, just like I was. When you were trained to be that way, it wasn’t the kind of habit you got rid of. We could live for years in a safe town where no one knew about our past, but when the first sign of danger showed up, the reflexes kicked in again as if no time had passed at all.

If anyone understood, it would be him.

Rae shook her head. “He’s out running errands, but he’ll be back soon.” She lifted Hunter out of the stroller and put him in his playpen. She walked to the kitchen and prepared something for him to eat. She glanced up at me while she worked. “What’s up?”

I leaned against the counter, crossing my arms. It had taken a while since I’d learned that I could trust Rae—trust didn’t come easily to me these days.

“I saw a few faces around town I didn’t recognize. Sketchy characters, looking like they were just making trouble. Didn’tlike the look of ’em. I just wanted to find out if Tanner had noticed anything. Has he said anything to you about it?”

“Nothing,” she said, cutting a sandwich into the tiniest little triangles. “And you know he would have seen if something was out of place.”

I nodded. She wasn’t wrong, but something still didn’t feel right.

“They’re probably tourists,” Rae added before she started making herself and Tanner something to eat. “Are you having lunch with us?”

I shook my head automatically. I would see them from time to time but I wasn’t here to join in on the family fun, like the crazy uncle Mason. I respected Tanner, and I was happy he’d found his woman, but that was where I drew the line.

“What are they doing here?” I asked. “It wasn’t like this last year.”

“Cami’s been working hard to get people interested in coming here for the holidays. She’s been posting about all the events online, and it’s really drawing a crowd.”

I frowned. That was news to me. “Posting online? What, like social media?”

Rae nodded. “She’s doing a pretty great job at it, too. Here, look.” She pulled out her phone and showed me one of Cami’s recent posts. It was a picture of the decorated town square, all decked out in lights, looking like a postcard.

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