Page 42 of Candy Canes & Peppermint Kisses

I grunted, the small noise encouraging him to go on.

“She graduated with some degree in art but couldn’t deal with city life, not that I fucking blame her.” He went back to work on the engine he was tinkering with. “You know she’s a fucking dancer, man? Ballet. Not that I know anything about that, but I thought it was pretty fucking cool. Never knew a professional dancer in my life. Anyway,” he said and tossed the wrench he’d been using into the toolbox and got a different one. “She couldn’t find a job and was homesick, so here she is, back in Cherry Falls.” The clank of metal on metal proceeded his words. “Said she’s only staying with her dad until she can find a place in town. Said he’s got one room and no way in hell she’s sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future.”

He chuckled, and I could hear how he was already smitten with her. How could anyone not be? Not only was she beautiful, she was sweet as sugar and kind as fuck. If I didn’t know for a fact he wouldn’t try anything on her for the simple fact he knew my feelings regarding Dolly, I would have beat his ass for the tone in his voice.

I stayed silent as he kept talking, telling me what she looked like now, which grated on my fucking nerves because I knew how beautiful she was, and hearing Ryker talk about that fact made the jealous, possessive side of me rise up fucking brutally. I found myself growling and narrowing a glance in his direction, which had Ryker chuckling and holding his hands up in surrender, but he was grinning.

“So what do you plan on doing?”

I grabbed a rag and wiped my hands, avoiding Ryker’s gaze because I felt him watching me closely. “What am I going to do about what?”

I tossed the rag aside and went back to working on Dolly’s car, but I was getting nowhere because my thoughts were consumed with Dolly and what Ryker said. Of course I knew what the fuck he was talking about, but I didn’t want to go into it, especially not with him.

“Dude, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

The hard tone of his voice had me glancing up at him and straightening to my full height. Although I glowered down at him, he wasn’t moved, showed no fear. He was one of the only people who I couldn’t intimidate with my height and size alone, which I’d done shamelessly back in my old life.

“What are you gonna do now that Dolly’s back in town for good?”

I lifted an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. He rolled his eyes and exhaled.

“Listen, I could give two shits what you do with your personal life, and you may have been drunk as shit when you confessed how you felt about her, but I remember that night pretty fucking well, Tristan, and I’ve never seen you spit poetry over a female. Hell, I’ve never seen you speak that passionately over anyone or anything before.”

“I was drunk,” I said matter-of-factly, but he and I both knew it was a load of shit. I meant every single word I’d said to him that night, how I told him looking at her made my heart feel funny, how it beat for the first time in my fucking life. The very thought of hernotin my life was almost painful, like if I didn’t have her as mine I wasn't fully living.

I shouldn’t have thought any of this. I shouldn’t have played with the idea of trying to get her to be mine.

But I told that inner voice to fuck off, because right then and there I devised a plan to make Dolly mine.

3

Dolly

It was a beautiful day despite the frigid weather outside and the promise of a snowstorm coming through later tonight, and even if there was a shit load of stuff in my life that could have brought me down.

I liked to think of things in a positive way, so although I’d been back in Cherry Falls for over a week now, still hadn’t found a job, and was currently crashing on my father’s couch—even if he’d all but demanded I take his bed and he’d take on the sofa, which I declined—I was trying to look “on the bright side.”

So that's what was happening every morning as I spread the morning newspaper in front of me, cupped my mug of tea, and scanned the classifieds looking for a job, while also looking for a place to live.

My savings could only get me so far, so I didn’t have many options where rent was concerned, and even if my father would have been deliriously happy with me staying with him, I would be lying if I said things weren’t cramped.

I looked around my father’s tiny cabin, the main room making up the kitchen and living room. There was an “upper level,” but that was mainly just where his bed was, then a small bathroom down a short hall with a sink, toilet, and one-person shower stall.

When my father decided to move out of Cherry Falls’ city limits and off-grid, I hadn’t fully understood how “off-grid” he planned on going. The cabin itself was pretty isolated on three sides of his house, and his electricity came from a generator and his water from a cistern. And although I knew he was lonely in a sense, I could also see how much freedom he had and how he embraced that.

A part of him thrived with that. I knew that.

But still, this wasn’t the type of living I wanted, even if he’d had a spare room to offer.

I turned my attention back to the paper and scanned the classifieds. There wasn’t anything dance-related or anything that I could use my degree on, so my only option was entry-level work. But that was better than nothing at this point.

Once I had stable employment and was saving up money, I could look at the bigger picture, the longer path to fulfill my dreams.

I flipped to the sales and rentals in Cherry Falls. Over the last week, none had really stood out, nothing that I could afford, anyway. I was about to close the paper and then head into town, do a little storefront to storefront walk by to see about any jobs that may not have been made public in the paper, when I spotted a new classified ad for a room for rent.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but as I read the information, I was exceedingly excited. It almost seemed tailor made for me.

Room for Rent

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