Page 4 of Inherited Holiday

“But don’t worry,” he baited, leaning back into his seat. “I’m on that list every year.”

Playing along, I stated, “You must have a lot of coal.”

He grinned again. “It keeps my tools clean and nice and sharp.”

“Your tools?”

“Yeah.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table. “I help fix and build things around town.”

“Like a handyman?”

He nodded.

“Hmm… you didn’t want to work at any of the businesses your family owns? I mean, they do run everything in this town.”

I’d never forget what he said next. “If there’s one thing you need to know about me, Noelle…”

I cocked my head to the side, realizing he knew my name too.

“Is that I don’t do anything I don’t want to. Especially when it comes to Mistletoe Town.”

“Ugh!” I groaned, realizing I just stuck the cake mixer into the bowl when it was on. Flour suddenly flew everywhere, including in my face and on my body. “Great! Just great!”

Throwing the mixer on the ceramic counter, I quickly slid off my long-sleeved dress at the exact moment the door to my shop dinged open.

“Oh my God!” Instinctively, I shot around until my feet stopped dead in their tracks, almost giving me whiplash in the process. I came face-to-face with the guy who still haunted my dreams.

Nicholas’s stare went wide, gawking at me like it was the first time he’d seen me in my lacy bra and panties. What made things worse was that I wore a black garter belt with stockings and heels. I was literally dressed in lingerie. What could I say? I was the kind of girl who loved to feel sexy in matching sets under her clothes.

When our eyes met, I was dragged to another place and time where he looked like a boy compared to the man he was now. Even after all this time, I was still physically affected by his mere presence. He was as handsome as ever with his bright, piercing green eyes and shining red hair and facial hair he was sporting. It only made him appear more distinguished and refined, but I knew better. Though it was the first time I’d seen him with a beard.

For the past thirteen years, I’d bent over backward for his family by running the bakery to the best of my ability. To seeNicholas in the place I called my second home was a situation I never thought I’d find myself in.

As I took him in, my mind raced with questions I had no answers for. I hadn’t seen him in so long, and there he was…

Standing right in front of me with a familiar yet unfamiliar expression and aura. It wasn’t unusual to feel like I couldn’t read him. If he didn’t want me to know what he was thinking, feeling, wanting, or needing, then that was the end of it.

He was always in control of his emotions, even back then.

After what felt like forever, I finally broke the deafening silence between us, squealing, “Nicholas!” I grabbed my apron off the counter to cover my body, finally snapping out of whatever fog I was in.

He held his hands up in the air. “I… I...”

“Turn around!”

He immediately did. “Noelle, this isn’t how I wanted us to?—”

“I’m not normally naked in my bakery.” I threw on the apron instead of just covering my body with it.

“Your bakery?” he questioned, turning around, but he took one look at me and gestured to my outfit. “This isn’t any better, Elle.”

He grinned in that shit-eating way I always hated.

Those five words had the effect he sought, making me remember the spark that had always been there between us and hadn’t disappeared after all this time. We were best friends and did everything together, except we never crossed that line until a few weeks before he suddenly decided to leave Mistletoe Town a couple of months after graduating from high school.

He didn’t call me.

He never texted me.

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