Page 4 of Under the Mistle-Foe

“I meantyoushould go enjoy the ceremony. Us old folks will be hiding away from the crowd at Rob’s tonight. I’ll be enjoying kicking Rob’s ass at cards.”

“I thought you were still angry at him for telling me about your fall in the storage room?” Rob was Dad’s best friend—and lived a few houses down from us—and was currently on his shit list for going behind his back and informing me about Dad’s accident.

“And that’s why the perfect revenge is torobhim blind in cards.” He shot me another one of his signature toothy grins. “Get it?Robhim blind?” he repeated and laughed at his own pun.

“Ha-ha. Aren’t you a little tired of making the same joke for the past twenty years?” I stood and collected our plates to take to the sink.

“Hey, blame it on your Uncle Rob for having such a punny name,” he replied. I shook my head and focused on cleaning up. “Back to the main point. Close up shop early and go enjoy yourself.”

I doubted I’d be able to have fun, not when going to the tree lighting used to be our family’s annual tradition. But I couldn’t burden my dad with my gloomy outlook on the holiday season, so I gave him the most half-baked answer.

“Sure, maybe.”

CHAPTER 2

REMY

Lunch wasthe busiest time for the diner. Atlas was calling out orders faster than we were putting them out.

I wasn’t as good of a chef as my dad, but growing up at the diner, I’d mastered most of the items on our menu. And for the dishes I couldn’t handle, I’d leave them to Rory, the chef who’d been working alongside Dad for years now.

The heat in the kitchen had gotten to me by the time the lunch rush died down. I used to work long shifts at the diner back in high school, but the years of studying and then working at a desk job took more of a toll on my stamina than I’d like to admit. I made a mental note to sign up at a gym once I returned to New York.

After cleaning up, Rory ended his shift and said his goodbyes in a rush, probably hurrying home to get cleaned up to attend the tree lighting with his family. The residents in Christmas Falls took what was essentially the opening ceremony of the holiday season very seriously.

I did one last check around the kitchen, making sure we were all set before sending everyone home. Atlas poked hishead through the swinging door we had separating the kitchen and dining area. “You have a guest, Remy.”

“Who is it?” I asked. I wasn’t expecting anyone today, not that I got many visitors generally. I’d only stayed in touch with a handful of people after leaving town.

Before he could reply, brown hair popped through the door and Kaysen’s smirking face came into view. “Well, hello there, stranger. I was starting to think I’d never see you back here again,” he said, his arms crossed.

“Hey, man! What are you doing in town?” I wiped my hand with a towel, then went in for a hug. Kaysen was one of the few people I’d kept in touch with all these years, and from our texts, he’d told me he’d been splitting his time between visiting his boyfriend in a neighboring town and helping at the family farm, so he was rarely around anymore.

Kaysen’s family ran the Milton Falls Christmas Tree Farm, named after the town’s old name before the boom of Christmas decor manufacturing sprang up in the area and it was renamed Christmas Falls. The tree farm was located just outside of town, near the waterfall.

“I very well can’t miss the tree lighting, now can I? It’s tradition,” he said, shooting a smile at Atlas. Atlas nodded in agreement, which reminded me to tell the staff they could leave for the day so they could enjoy the festivities too.

With Kaysen and me the only ones left in the shop, I grabbed us a couple of drinks before sinking into a chair. It was the first time I’d been off my feet all day, and my sore legs were complaining about it.

“So, I was hanging out in town and a little birdie told me you dared to skip this tradition, so Ihadto come by and knock some sense into you,” Kaysen piped up as he watched me.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why do I have a feeling thislittle birdiethat’s chirping in your ear is my father?” Dad hadleft The Shack with Rob not too long ago for their card night.

“Imighthave run into him earlier,” he said with a grin. “So, you gonna come to the event with me?”

“I’m busy,” I said, taking a much-needed gulp of my drink. My body still hadn’t cooled down from the heat of the lunch rush. I undid my little ponytail to let my shoulder-length hair release some of that heat now that I was finally in the AC.

“Soooo busy,” Kaysen deadpanned. His gaze swept across the empty room. He had a point. Everyone in town was at the tree lighting, and business would probably be slow for the rest of the day, but Kaysen didn’t need to know that.

“Why aren’t you going with your family?” I asked, avoiding his gaze.

“Don’t feel like third wheeling,” he said with a shrug. I’d heard his oldest brother, Bruce, had gotten a boyfriend. One who was the complete opposite of his grumpy self.

“So really, you’ll be doing me a favor by keeping me company,” Kaysen said, batting his eyelashes. He finished his guilt-tripping with puppy-dog eyes. Being the youngest of three brothers, I was sure those eyes got him anything he wanted growing up. I tried looking away, I really did, but those sad eyes got to me.

“Fine,” I gritted out, and he instantly replaced thosecoercion weapons with a wide smile. I imagined Dad wearing the same exact smug expression when he found out he’d gotten his way after all.

The small park was filled to the brim with people, as I’d expected it to be. A fucking ginormous Christmas tree stood in the middle, unlit, with probably a thousand and one Christmas lights hanging on it. That was what everyone was here to see: the magical scene of all these lights to start off the holiday season.

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