Page 10 of A Little Merry

I had to get out of this store.

Now!

Fortunately, the counter was high enough so Mr. Peterson couldn’t see what was going on with my hardware. The guy always liked to tease me when I was growing up, especially about the girls in my life. He’d been gentle about my lack of any kind of steady girlfriend, but I knew damn well, he wouldn’t be gentle about my ever-growing erection.

“Nice belt,” he said. “One of our best. Gonna do some heavy work today, are ya?”

He was a tall, thin man with graying thick hair and a snarky smile that could wither anybody who got on his wrong side. He had to be in his seventies, just like Mrs. Peterson. He loved that woman like nothing else, except for maybe this store.

“Yes. Helping Ethan get his booth up,” I told him.

“And who have we here?” he asked, gazing over at Merry, who wore one of those big, bright smiles that lit up the entire store.

She stuck out her hand. “I’m Merry.”

“You sure are,” he said, taking her hand for a moment, then he rang up my belt and a box of clips I’d picked up when we first arrived. I slid my card into the machine and felt relieved that I’d made it past him without one of his wilting comments.

The time it had taken for the transaction had given my dick the chance to calm the fuck down.

But of course, just when I thought I was home free, he couldn’t let it go. He had to give me one last warning shot right across the jaw. “You two have a nice day now, and Lucas, try to keep that dangtool of yoursunder control. Nobody wants to see how excited you are about escorting this nice young lady around town.”

I didn’t respond, nor did I even acknowledge him, the old fox.

As soon as we stepped outside, Merry said, “He seems like a nice man… a bit too observant maybe, but a nice man.”

“Shit. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. You kept staring at my…tool belt.A man can only take so much, especially after that kiss you laid on me last night.”

“I laid on you? I think it was a mutual kind of thing.”

“Ah-ha! So, you admit it.”

“I don’t admit anything. Just stating the facts.”

“Anytime you want more…facts,just let me know.”

“I’m a package deal,” she said, grinning. I hated it when she smiled like that. It warmed my insides, and I hated warm insides. They caused me to do and say shit the grump part of me didn’t want to do or say.

So, yeah, she had me curious now. “And what’s in this package? Anything naughty? I’m good with naughty… it’s the nice part that doesn’t work for me. The nice usually lies andpretends to want to please me, whereas I understand naughty… that’s something I can get excited about, sink my teeth into… and anything else that might be… around.”

“You’re disgusting,” she said with a smile. “But I’m not giving up on you. I think you have potential.”

“Potential is highly overrated. For all you know, I’m a loser, a complete waste of humanity… if you even want to refer to me as a human. Some folks call me a rat or a louse or better still, sinful, which means I’m full of sin. Still think I have potential?”

“I do.”

“That’s going to be a problem. I don’t. No matter what it is, I don’t want it.”

“So, you don’t want my package deal?”

“That’s yet to be decided. You haven’t told me the contents, yet. I may change my mind to maybe. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

“Okay, I’m all about Christmas music. Christmas decorations. Christmas eggnog. Christmas gifts and stockings hung by the chimney with care, garland and ribbons, sweet apple strudel, snowflakes that stay on your nose and eyelashes, ornaments and all the Santas all over the world.”

She opened her arms then, tilted her head back, and spun around like a kid. The woman exuded happiness and joy. I had to have shit for brains if I let myself get sucked into her web of elation. It was a trap. An endless pit. A journey to the happy side.

This woman represented everything I’d come to hate, to loathe, detest, despise… and yet… why the fuck was I getting a boner just talking to her?

“Okay. Okay. You like Christmas. I get it.”

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