Page 23 of The Holiday Fail

I was stupidly happy on the walk home after listening to a little girl excitedly tell me about all the hidden doves she’d found around the B&B.

The Doves of Destiny was a known symbol here, representing the love between the two founders of our town. Usually, it was depicted as two doves with their beaks touching, as if kissing, but the doves’ motif was used as decorations in general.

I wasn’t sure who’d started it, but doves were hidden in the most random places at the B&B. There were the obvious ones, like the statue of the kissing doves in the reception area, but there were also dozens, if not hundreds, of tiny doves hidden in plain sight. On the baseboard of the stairs, the decorative topper on the door hinges—those were my idea—little sun catchers on windows that shone pretty spots of rainbows inside.

The little girl was absolutely brimming with energy as she told me she’d counted at least fifty and listed every place she remembered seeing one. It was little things like that, tiny moments of joy from our guests, that really lit up the fire inside my heart to continue bringing my best to the B&B.

Humming a happy tune, my head was in the clouds through my shower routine. It wasn’t until a knock came on my bedroom door that I realized I’d forgotten something.

Towel still wrapped around my waist and water droplets tickling as they slid down my skin, I opened the door to find Andy standing there all dolled up in tight pants that deliciously hugged his thigh muscles and a long-sleeved casual sweater that made his forearms look even bigger.

I could just drool.

“Ready?” he asked, his voice low and smooth.

Had our day apart made his voice somehow sexier?

Fuck! Despite looking forward to it all day, the last couple hours chatting with the guests had me forgetting all about our date.

Not a date, Levi! Get it together!

Chapter Eleven

ANDY

“Give me five minutes!” Levi stammered out before shutting the door in my face.

The way his eyes bulged out when he saw me, then his frantic movements, had me unable to contain my chuckling. I’d obviously caught him by surprise.

I heard him return home earlier, humming some chipper tune and looking like he was in his own little world. I gave him an hour before checking in on him since I’d made reservations at a restaurant in town.

I wasn’t expecting him to still be in only his towel, nor had I expected my reaction to seeing those sexy tight muscles he’d had hiding under his clothes.

Levi was all man—there was no doubt about that—but there was something sensual about the hot slide of condensation down his bronze skin. And the slight tint of red I caught peeping on his neck right as the door closed?

It was like he knew exactly how to activate a man’s sex drive.

Which was exactly the thing I shouldn’t be thinking about.Levi was one of my bosses, and tonight was all about helping him, not ogling him while he was naked and deliciously wet and warm from the shower…

I shook my head and glared at the now slight bulge in my pants. Maybe I should change to a pair that wasn’t sotight, but then I remembered the way Levi’s gaze lingered on my thighs, obviously checking me out, and the thought of changing completely left my mind.

The attention felt good. I didn’t consider myself an attention whore, but it had been a while since I had eyes likethaton me.

I hadn’t tried going back to the town’s only pub to pick someone up because, well, living with my boss made the whole hook-up thing a bit more difficult. Perhaps I needed a drive into the city on a day I wasn’t scheduled to work…

As I was thinking about plans for my next day off, the door opened again, and Levi reappeared. This time, he wasn’t naked under his towel, but his new outfit might as well be just as deadly.

If I thought my pants were tight, they had nothing on him. His black biker pants looked almost painted on andaccentuated that he wasall man.

I didn’t know if men were size queens as some of the women I’d dated, but if they were, he definitely didn’t have any issues on that end.

And his top too! The man obviously knew how to dress, which was a surprise considering I’d mostly seen him in casual blue jeans and T-shirts this past month, but there was none of that tonight.

He had on a button-up with the top buttons undone to show his prominent collarbone. The little sexy sneak peek was wrapped up with a brown cardigan, which he’d also left the topbuttons free. He looked both cozy and tempting at the same time.

I didn’t even know cardigans on men were a thing, and now I was wondering why more men weren’t wearing them.

“Do I look all right?” Levi suddenly asked. He played with a loose thread hanging from the edge of his cardigan.

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