Page 26 of Deck the Fire Halls

“Hamish’s dead certain that it’s gonna be another one of those Christmas Cupid things. Hope you’re ready.”

I snorted. “He’s been here for a matter of days. We should probably give him some time.”

“That wasn’t a no,” Colson said. “Are you interested?”

Jesus.

“I don’t know what I am. Intrigued, maybe,” I allowed, because that was a safer bet than just admitting I was interested. “He’s a nice guy.”

Colson glanced over at him again, then met my eyes. “Sexy older nice guy,” he whispered.

I nudged him with my elbow. “You’re not supposed to notice these things.”

“I’m a deputy. It’s my job to notice physical attributes about people.”

I snorted, shaking my head at the ridiculousness. “There’s something about him,” I murmured. “But I don’t want to read too much into it.”

“Why not?” Colson shrugged. “Read away, my friend. Take whatever you can get. You never know how long it will last, and sometimes you gotta jump in with both feet and see what comes of it.”

“Is that the best advice you got?”

“Look where it got me,” he replied. “Braithe and I were just supposed to be a casual fling for a few weeks, and look at us now. Same with the others. None of us were supposed to be here, or stay here. Certainly weren’tsupposed to find the love of our lives.” He shrugged. “But sometimes we have no say in it at all. This town has other ideas.”

I scoffed. “You don’t believe in that Cupid shit too, do you?”

“I didn’t.” But then he looked around the group of us, at the couples. “Kinda hard to ignore it, dontcha think?”

I ran my hand through my hair. “I dunno. He’s... he’s been through something,” I murmured. “And he’s here to regroup. Pretty sure he’s not looking for anything.”

Colson shrugged with a sigh. “And I’m pretty sure that old Hartbridge Christmas magic doesn’t care. And itisthe first of December.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help but smile. “You’ve been hanging around with Hamish too much.”

Colson laughed, but he was called away by the sheriff, who I realized was talking to the mayor, and to Doug, my boss. Seeing Rob was deep in conversation with Gunter and Clay, I made my way over for a quick hello.

And then Chuck found us and I got busy talking shit with him and his girlfriend, Delaney, and it wasn’t until the mayor called for everyone’s attention, so they could flip the switch on the lights, that I headed back to Rob and the others.

I saw him looking around, looking for someone, and he smiled when he saw me. “Sorry,” I whispered. “Had to say hello to my boss and the sheriff.”

“Thought you’d bailed on me,” Rob said quietly.

“I’m not the bailing type,” I replied. Not meaning it how it sounded, but not taking it back once it was out.

I was trying really hard to put what Colson had said out of my mind. I didn’t want to pressure Rob into anything he wasn’t ready for, and the man had only been in town for a few days. I needed to chill the hell out.

This was absurd.

One gorgeous, smart single gay man turns up in town and I’m all over him like a dog in heat.

But then they flipped the switch on the lights and the huge fir tree came to life in gorgeous pastel colors against the dark night, and Rob gasped beside me.

His face lit up too, smiling and bright, the Christmas lights reflecting in his eyes, and I swear the world stopped turning. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.

It took a few seconds for me to snap out of whatever spellthatwas, and I ignored the way Hamish and Jayden were smiling at me. Ren from the hardware store clapped my shoulder with a laugh.

“Merry Christmas, Soren.”

Hmm, yeah. Right. Sure.

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