Page 86 of A Merry Mountain Christmas

It’s always been different with Zach. He can be annoying and overbearing, but he’s also my friend. He knows the adult I’ve become, not just the little girl stuffed into a series of uncomfortable but pretty dresses.

“That must be nice,” I admit, running my hand up his chest, saying hello to each delicious ridge of muscle. “But is there anything you like about Highland Hills itself?”

He looks down at me, grinning. “You ask the hard questions, don’t you?”

I can’t help but laugh. “If there’s nothing you like about it, why don’t you go somewhere else?”

“Because nowhere else would have the iron-grip of a home I didn’t ask for or want but can’t leave because it would kill me.”

My laughter fades a little, mostly because I’ve never felt that way about home. Like it was a part of me I couldn’t quit. The only place that’s come close is Olive’s apartment, where she still lives with Nanny Rose and her brother.

“Plus, my sister just started dating the bartender at Ziggy’s, so I drink there for free. Can’t complain about that.”

“I’ve never been to Ziggy’s,” I say with a sigh. “I’ve hardly been anywhere in Highland Hills. I only got a day to wander around before they said I had to stick to the house. It’s so beautiful, though. It’s like a winter wonderland.”

“You’re not missing much,” he says, blunt as ever, but there’s a gleam in his eyes that suggests he actually loves this town, for all his complaining. He loves it and hates it.

“Tell me more about what I’m not missing.”

“Well,” he says as he runs his fingers through my hair again, the repetition of it soothing, like I’m a cat basking in the sun. “The worst place in town is Christmas All Year Coffee. You’d love it.”

Laughing, I bat at his chest like I’m that cat I was imagining. “Why do I sense you mean that as an insult?”

He smiles at me with wry amusement. “Because you’re one smart lady. They’ve got a Christmas tree in that place from January 1 to December 31, but they decorate it differently for each holiday.”

“Tell me more,” I say, tipping my head to get a better look at him. “I want to knoweverything.”

“I thought maybe you did. They play only Christmas carols, and they’ve got a drink called the Three Wise Men that tastes likehoney going down and gives you a hangover that lasts two days, easy.”

“It sounds wonderful.” I sigh, letting myself think about going there with him, out in the open—two people with nothing to hide. We’d bring Jester on a leash, and if this place is everything Rowan’s made it out to be, then maybe we’d be able to buy my canine baby an ugly Christmas sweater, and—

“It’s hell on Earth,” he tells me, his fingers stroking gently through my hair again. “But I’d take you there and be happy for it. I’d feel like the luckiest man alive.”

My heart cracks open, because I know he means it. Going therewouldbe hell for him, but he’d do it…for me.

“You’re really something, Rowan, you know that?”

“Does this mean I’m going to get laid again?” he asks, a twinkle in his eye.

I sit up and straddle his waist, feeling a surge of womanly power. “I think we could arrange that.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

ROWAN

“Where do you see this going?” Holly asks, gesturing toward me with a fry. I’m reminded of eating here at Ziggy’s with her a couple of weeks ago, undergoing a very different interrogation. Then, I was trying to destroy the show from the inside. Now?

I’d still like to destroy that show, don’t get me wrong, but I won’t do it if it fucks things up for Kennedy.

“I don’t know,” I grumble. Because I don’t like to be reminded that the woman I’m enraptured with is technically being courted by other men. That’s the kind of thing that’s a real blow to the ego. “It’s only been a couple of days since we started talking again.”

“If that’s what you call it,” she says with a huff.

I scowl at her. “We’re taking a wait and see approach.”

Holly guffaws and drops the fry. I deepen the scowl.

She throws a gesture toward Harry and Oliver, who are eating in a booth a few tables away. Harry looks happy. Relaxed. Like he’s not constantly writing a mile-long pro/con list in his head, even though I’m guessing that’s exactly what he’s doing. “Harry took a wait and see approach after he crop-dusted Oliver in Asheville,” Holly says, “and look what happened there. They could have started dating months ago.”

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