Page 11 of Deck the Fire Halls

“Your boss must be a very patient man.”

Soren snorted. “He’s the opposite of that. But I’ll take him back some pie and he’ll be fine. And Chucky.”

“Chucky?”

“Yeah, Chuck. He’s like my work partner. Well, his real name is Danny but his surname is Norris, so...”

Chuck Norris. I nodded. “Makes sense.”

I had to make myself break eye contact.What the hell is wrong with me?

I looked back to Jayden and gave him a nod in thanks, to find him standing with the guy Soren had come in with. He had dark hair and a beard and was clutching Jayden’s sleeve, staring at Soren and me as if we were the most wondrous thing he’d ever seen.

“It’s happening again,” he whispered, nudging Jayden.

“I know,” Jayden replied. “This needs to be studied.”

Um, what?

“What needs to be studied?” I asked.

Soren intercepted and ushered me to the door. “Nothing. Ignore the Australians. They get a little crazy this time of year.” He opened the door, and all but shoved me out onto the sidewalk into the cold. “Say, how about I come over to your place. I’ll bring dinner. Seven o’clock? Perfect. See you then.”

The door shut in my face, and the man with the dark beard let out some kind of squeal and I heard Soren shush him.

That was weird.

And what was even weirder was that Soren had just invited himself to my place for dinner.

And I . . .

Well, I could go back into the diner and tell him no.

But I wasn’t going to.

To be honest, mid-afternoon I was back at my desk andstillthinking about the whole interaction—and whatever the weird thing was with the Australians, as Soren had called them—and I still wasn’t even mad about Soren inviting himself over.

Was I looking forward to it?

Undecided.

Liar.

Pardon?

Liar, liar pants on fire.

I shook my head at my own subconscious.

Okay,so I was excited for conversation. Excited for a meal and having an actual conversation that didn’t revolve around a medical case or insurance and copays and legalities.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done that.

Med school, maybe?

Far too long.

And I was neither blind nor stupid; I could see Soren was interested. He wasn’t shy about flirting. Hell, he’d admitted it to my face that he’d followed me to the diner.

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