Page 6 of The Christmas Tree Farm
Bennett turned just in time to see a dark-haired man wiggle his fingers in a wave at Annie. When Bennett turned back around, she was glaring daggers at the man.
‘He’s here again. I thought he’d stopped coming to these.’
‘That’s Mac,’ Jeanie whispered for his sake even though Annie could obviously still hear her. ‘Annie’s arch nemesis. We’re all waiting for them to finally sleep together and put us out of our collective misery.’
Annie huffed. ‘How dare you?’
Jeanie just laughed and shrugged. Ben knew when it was best to stay quiet and now when he had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on seemed like a good time.
‘Attention, everyone,’ the mayor tried again but was cut off by a shrill whistle. The crowd flinched. ‘Uh … thank you, Mindy,’ the mayor said, and the power-suited, menorah-wrangling lady gave him a serious nod before taking her seat in the front row.
‘We have a lot to discuss this evening with the Tree Lighting rapidly approaching, the children’s pageant in just two weeks, and the toy drive that began yesterday, so let’s get started.’
The rest of the meeting went by in a blur of logistics, volunteering, arguing, and a very odd vote about whether or notDie Hardwas a Christmas movie. Bennett tried to keep up, but following along proved to be impossible. Instead, he found himself scanning the room, trying to match faces with stories Jeanie had told him over the past year. He spotted the book club pretty easily since he’d seen and heard them in the background of his phone calls with Jeanie. They’d even left a copy of their latest read on his doorstep as a welcome gift and a hint that they wanted him to attend their December meeting.
He’d taken one look atDaddy Decemberand was already thinking up ways to be busy that day. The last thing he needed was to read about sex when he hadn’t had any in months. He needed something about monks or meditation or suffering or something like that. Not Santa smut.
And why did thoughts of sexy books bring his thoughts back around to that Christmas-tree farm owner? She was so … so rude to him. Not sexy mean. Just plain mean. And … well … sure he’d been trespassing, but he hadn’t known he was, and he did offer to help with whatever computer issue she was clearly having and she’d just shut him down completely. It was … well … it had gotten under his skin for sure.
Like a splinter.
A splinter he couldn’t seem to stop picking at.
What was her deal? Why had she been out there all alone? Why had she been wearing a blanket instead of a proper coat? Was she cold? Did she want someone to keep her warm…
Nope. Bad. Not going down that road with this strange woman. He knew nothing about her and he was not going to let his overdeveloped need to fix things get in the way of his holiday. He didn’t even live here.
Kira North was nothing but a quirky character to add to what he knew about Dream Harbor. Nothing else.
He would absolutely stop thinking about warming her up.
The room had gone quiet around him. He may have let his mind wander a bit too far, because at some point the meeting had taken a turn and now he found himself the center of attention.
‘Uh…’
‘I was just mentioning that you met Kira yesterday,’ Jeanie said with a smile that chilled him to the bone. If he’d been eight and she’d been ten, he’d have flushed her Barbie’s head in the toilet all over again.
‘Wonderful!’ the mayor was saying, oblivious to Bennett’s revenge fantasy. ‘We could really use a neutral party to go up there and check on her.’
‘Neutral party?’ he echoed. ‘Wait. Check on her?’
‘The town has been trying to welcome Miss North,’ the mayor went on. ‘But she’s been … resistant to our efforts. But you, you’re just passing through. You’re neutral! She wouldn’t question your motives.’
Well, that certainly wasn’t true. ‘And why does she need to be checked on exactly?’
‘Uh … well…’ the mayor’s face flushed red.
‘Just in case there’s any dead bodies up there,’ someone offered from the back of the meeting hall.
‘Dead bodies?!’ What the actual hell was going on?
Jeanie grimaced beside him. ‘It’s not as bad as it seems,’ she whispered.
‘We have no proof that there’s a dead body,’ the mayor said.
‘We also don’t have proof that there isn’t,’ Noah piped up helpfully, earning a smack on the thigh from Hazel. He just laughed and kissed her cheek.
‘Alex tells it best. Where are they?’ The mayor searched the crowd until a person with lavender hair stood up.
