Page 8 of Getting Wrapped Up

There was no way the Ghost of Christmas Future would mess with him here. Levi felt a huge grin stretch across his face. Simply breathing the air here was making him a better person. He didn’t even mind the nearly thirty degree drop in temperature or the fact he could see his breath. It was refreshing. Exactly what he needed. Sweet beyond description.

There was mistletoe around here somewhere. He just knew it.

Grinning like a damned idiot, Levi headed into the store and grabbed shampoo and the other toiletries he hated to pack and headed to pay. He was aware that he was drawing attention from the other shoppers and store employees and he gave them all his most sincere smiles. He had to behave here. This was Joe’s hometown. No hitting on the cute girl shopping in aisle three. No flirting with the beautiful forty-something buying apples. No making the young—very young—cashier blush.

Back in his car, he started toward Joe’s place. He had instructions printed off from Joe’s email. He knew Joe and Phoebe lived out in the country outside of town, and Levi couldn’t wait to see this. Sapphire Fallswasthe country as far as Levi was concerned.

He’d only gotten about a mile outside of town and turned onto the dirt road when he realized that his brother no longer drove a sports car, not because he’d matured and no longer put his self-worth in material things, but because a low-slung coupe was impractical on roads that were gravel and mud and snow.

Creeping along, praying as he went that he wouldn’t get stuck out here where he had no one to call and no idea how exactly to get to Joe’s on foot, Levi made it another mile before there was another road. He glanced at the directions in his lap. He didn’t dare actually stop the car for fear of not getting it going again so he kept moving as he read the tiny type. Why hadn’t he increased the font size? He was supposed to go another hundred yards and he’d find Joe’s driveway.

One hundred yards later there was another dirt road. This was narrower, bordered on both sides by big old trees and with two deep ruts running from the road up to the house he could see in the distance. Deep ruts that were obviously caused by truck tires.

Awesome.

He turned in, grimacing as he heard and felt the crusty snow underneath dragging along the bottom of the car.

He finally made it to the house, pulled over onto a flat slab of cement beside the garage and turned off the ignition. Thank goodness.

At least, he hoped this was Joe’s place. And he hoped that his brother’s truck was here and that they’d left the keys.

The front door key was under the ceramic frog as Joe had said it would be, and a minute later, Levi let himself into the farm house with his suitcase and grocery sack.

He let the bags fall as he took in a big lungful of air. The house smelled amazing. It was neat and homey. There were no Christmas decorations up yet, but it was only the twentieth and Joe and Phoebe were supposed to be home on the twenty-second. They’d all decorate together. Levi felt a surge of happiness. Pure, unadulterated happiness. It had nothing to do with a winning poker hand or a shot of alcohol or a woman’s cleavage. It was about feeling at home, warm, safe, cared about.

Levi Spencer would never ever admit it to anyone, ever, but when Joe had invited him to Sapphire Falls, Levi had felt his heart actually swell. The organ he’d thought shriveled like a raisin long ago had thumped in his chest, reminding him that it was there and working.

Joe and Phoebe were the only people in the entire world that Levi could say with absolute certainty cared about him.

Joe’s invitation had meant more to Levi than he’d realized. He was even a little choked up.

If that wasn’t the damnedest thing, he didn’t know what was.

He hauled his bags up the stairs to the guest room. He was even more shocked when the choked-up feeling increased when he passed his niece’s bedroom. The scent of baby powder and the sight of a purple stuffed elephant sitting on the seat of the rocking chair made his cold, dead heart thump again.

Damn.

Who knew he was a big pile of mush underneath the Rolex and Armani?

It had to be the concussion. He must have jarred some feeling loose when he’d banged his skull into the car window.

The guest room was the third door on the right. Levi pushed the door open and threw his bag on the bed. Then he turned a full circle. The quilt on the bed was…a quilt. He had never slept under an actual quilt in his life. Levi would put good money on the fact someone Phoebe was related to had made the thing. The bed was a four-poster queen. The bedroom floor was refinished wood with a huge woven rug on top to keep it from being cold. There were two big windows in the west and north walls covered in simple cotton curtains that matched the maroon color in the quilt. There was an overstuffed reading chair in the corner, an armoire on one wall, and the remaining wall held a collection of black-and-white photographs that were clearly of Phoebe’s family over the generations on the front porch of this very house.

Again, Levi felt something that could have been emotions clogging his throat.

For fuck’s sake. It was like a dam had broken open. He needed to get a handle on things. He couldn’t be all weepy and sentimental. Joe would send him for further medical work-up for sure.

Levi riffled through his bag, planning to change into something more Sapphire Falls appropriate. He was heading to the Come Again. Not because he needed a drink—even though hesoneeded a drink—but because that was where he was meeting his date for the Christmas formal. The woman who was going to keep him from being a complete and total asshole who thought of women for only one thing. Okay, two things—sex and his ego.

Surely recognizing that he was a womanizing ass was a step in the right direction.

He pulled out his phone and thumbed through to the message from Joe sent earlier that day.

She’ll meet you at the Come Again at eight. Built blonde in a red dress. You won’t be able to miss her.

Built blonde. Red dress. This was already a good idea.

Finding nothing quite right for the tiny bar in the tiny town in his bag, Levi headed for the master bedroom. He dug through a dresser drawer and found a pair of blue jeans and a black cotton T-shirt. In the closet, he found a pair of black Oxford shoes. The leather was soft and they obviously weren’t new, but it was those or a pair of brown work boots.

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