Page 5 of Flake It Til You Make It

“Absolutely not. Doesn’t that festival thing start soon?” Oliver asked.

“Yep. Tonight, actually.”

“There you go,” Oliver said. “Go. Participate. Be part of the community. I know small towns. You’re a stranger. Once you’re not a stranger, you’ll be part of them, and they won’t hold the pumpkin spice thing against you.”

“I don’t know,” Rocco said with faux gravity, “people take their pumpkin spice pretty goddamn seriously.”

“Exactly. And now you know that. You’ve learned your lesson, and you won’t make that mistake again.” Oliver paused, and Rocco knew him well enough to know he was smiling. “Listen, being a business owner? Honestly, it’s just making one mistake after another. The difference between successful businesses and the ones who don’t make it? The owner’s ability to learn from their mistakes and not make them again. And you’re smart and you’re flexible. You’ll get there.”

For the first time since things had started to go badly, Rocco felt like this situation could actually be salvaged. Like he might really turn this whole thing around.

“Really?” he asked.

“Yeah. Absolutely. I wouldn’t lie to you,” Oliver said seriously. “And, if all else fails, I’ll send Luca out there to fix you up.”

“No!” Rocco yelped. He didnotwant Luca Moretti, the now de facto head of the Morettis, Oliver’s husband, and the culinary business genius of the family to come fix him. He wouldn’t live through it—theybothwouldn’t live through it, probably.

Oliver cackled in delight at his vehemence. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t.”

“Can you . . .” Rocco hesitated. He didn’t want to tell Oliver to keep a secret from his husband, but also . . .he wasn’t ready to tell Luca he’d screwed things up here. Maybe when they were already on their way to being fixed, he’d be willing to tell his ridiculously competent cousin about it.

“Don’t worry, I won’t breathe a word to him. This stays between us,” Oliver said. “You’ll tell him when you’re ready.”

“Thank you,” Rocco said.

“But don’t be a stranger, either. You need help, you call me, okay?” Oliver’s voice was kind, empathetic even, but there was the ring of steel beneath it.

“I will,” Rocco promised.

“Good,” Oliver said. “Now go out and mingle, okay? Charm the pants off some hot guy.”

“Oliver!” Rocco squeaked, but Oliver just laughed.

“You young kids didn’t invent sex, you know.”

“I’m notyoung, and you’re notold,” Rocco said.

Oliver chuckled. “No, not even close. But still. Have fun, okay?”

“Okay,” Rocco said and flopped back on the couch after he’d hung up. He should get up, take a shower. Fix his hair, even though all he’d end up doing was shoving a hat on top of it, in deference to the cold Illinois weather.

But he would, in a minute. First though, he was gonna enjoy this warm feeling—the feeling that told him that this wasn’t over, not by a long shot.

Chapter 2

“Taylor! There you are,”Mona Grayson, the mayor of Christmas Falls, exclaimed as he approached where she was standing back from the stage, set up in front of the still-dark tree.

“Right here, boss,” Taylor said. “What’s up?”

His old college friend, Joey, always joked that his deputy mayor job was little more than a glorified personal assistant, even though he knew better. When Taylor had listed out all the projects he’d spearheaded during his four years here, even Joey, who made a living not only being an in-demand business consultant, but a sarcastic smart ass, had been impressed.

He hadn’t used the phrase,you’re a shoe-inregarding the soon-to-be-empty city manager job, but Taylor had read between the lines and had let himself feel optimistic.

At least until the latest round of Mona’s concerns.

“Oh good, you’re here,” she said. “I’ve got to have someone keep Heath Kelly from running away.”

She gestured towards where Heath Kelly, former soap actor, Hallmark heartthrob, and when they’d finally gotten their conservative heads out of their even-more conservative asses, the male lead in their last three queer-themed holiday movies, stood.

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