Page 1 of The Holiday Boyfriend

ONE

JIM

Joy made a breathy whinny sound as she gobbled the sugar cube from my hand. Her blunt teeth and saliva soaked my palm as she searched for more of the sugary goodness.

I patted her brown mane as I wiped my other slobber-covered hand on the towel I'd tucked into my back pocket for this very reason. “No more for today, girl. You know you can't have too many,” I said, as I made long, rhythmic strokes down her neck and shoulder. Her hair was getting thicker as her winter coat slowly started to come in.

She snorted through her nose as if rejecting my words. I chuckled and slipped another sugar cube from my pocket as a peace offering, which Joy happily slurped down like it was the most delicious thing she’d ever eaten.

I could never say no to her. Besides, we all needed cheat days, and four cubes today wouldn't hurt her. Giving her one last pat, I finished cleaning out her stall before going to finish my other chores.

Being early October, the farm wasn't as busy as during our peak in the winter months.Snowfield Farm hosted visitors during our off season and also led tours and pick your own fruits events, but I usually didn't have to help out with those events or deal with the guests. The owners, Alice and Trish, liked the community aspect of owning a farm—it was one of the reasons they created Snowfield Farm—so they were usually in charge of taking care of visitors while I looked after our furry and feathered friends and made sure they were happy and healthy.

After collecting all the eggs from our hardworking hens, I protected today's plunder while I tried to escape Big Boss's pecks. It was our daily routine. I came to steal the eggs, and he chased me out of the chicken pen while taking shots at my poor ankles. His wings flapped as he chased me out of the pen area.

“Sorry, Big Boss. Another win for me today,” I called over my shoulder after making sure I was out of his reach. The rooster made angry crowing noises and made sure to stomp his tiny feet so that everyone knew exactly how pissed off he was.

I laughed as I carried my spoils inside the farmhouse. Alice looked over from her desk. Her hand paused from what she was typing on her laptop. She looked up and grinned at my expression. “You fought with Big Boss again?” she asked with a raised brow. She didn’t even have to ask. My tussles with the rooster were part of the daily routine at this point.

Get the eggs, tease the cock, and rinse and repeat.

Placing the large egg basket on the table to be inspected and packaged later, I turned to face Alice and gave her a shrug. “He's always had it out for me. If I don't come back one day, you'll know who did me in,” I joked, but I had a feeling that the damn bird would celebrate if such a day ever came.

For whatever reason, Big Boss had hated me ever since he stepped foot onto this farm, which was strange since everyone usually loved me. But not Big Boss. He tolerated the others at the farm, but when he saw me, it was like he was staring at his life's greatest nemesis. He wouldn’t be satisfied until I was pecked full of holes.

Alice smiled as she tucked a piece of her brown locks behind her ear. She'd had the same short bob hairstyle for as long as I'd known her. Despite being in her fifties, she had a youthfulness about her that had many others believing her to be younger than my twenty-eight years of age.

It had to be her signature bob giving her the youth. That or I just looked old, and Irefusedto believe that. I made a mental note to ask Austin when I got home. As my roommate and best friend, he was legally required to tell me the truth, and I knew that he would be brutally honest too.

“I thought we had two groups coming in the afternoon?” I asked. We had a schedule of the daily events printed out and tabbed to our cork board. While the owners loved leading the groups, they could only do so much with the two of them, so the schedule system was set up to help plan our days accordingly in case someone needed to sub in.

Alice took a sip from her coffee mug, scrunching up her face as she stood and dumped out the contents. I understood. Lukewarm coffee was the worst. “Trish is taking care of one of them, and the other group's flight was delayed until late tonight.”

I never understood why people would take a whole ass flight to visit a farm. It was good for business, but it wasn't something that I would personally do. After being in Wintertown for over ten years, I'd learned to appreciate being surrounded by nature and fresh air, but as a teen, living in a small town that held no entertainment for an energetic youth had no appeal to me.

I liked being around people, but sometimes the small town life was a bit too much for me. Everyone was always in everyone's business, and there was truly never any peace. As a teen, the only peace I knew was when I was in the presence of my best friend. While I’d learned to find peace in other things—like hanging out with Joy and the other farm animals—the peace Austin brought me still hadn't changed.

She refilled her mug with fresh coffee, then turned to face me. “Actually, I wanted to ask for your opinion on something. The couple is worried about finding a ride since it'll be the middle of the night. I told them I'd ask around, so I was wondering—”

“You want me to pick them up? Sure, no problem.” Asking me to pick up our visitors was a first, but whatever made the customers happy, right? I snatched an apple from the basket they had out for the staff at the farm. If I was going to have a late night, then I needed fuel to keep my energy up.

“Well, actually, I was wondering if you could ask Austin since he's, you know, a taxi driver,” she said with a pointed look.

I stopped mid bite. The crispy, sweet piece of fruit hung in my mouth as I froze. It was true that Austin drove a taxi for a living and the extra work would be good for him, but he'd had a lot of late nights and long hours these past few days since tourists were coming for the fall harvest—apparently picking your own fruit was a trend these days on social media and the rich were willing to travel far to experience the true farm-to-table life.

Austin was a grown man and could make his own choices, but I couldn't help but worry about him. He was my best friend, and after knowing him for over a decade, I knew he had a tendency to suffer in silence instead of saying something. From how little he'd been home these days and the deep dark circles that had marred his baby face, I sensed that he was close to his limit.

Still, it wasn't my place to turn down potential income on his behalf. I could only relay the job offer to Austin and see what his thoughts were. Hopefully, he would confide in me if things were too much. I was unsure if he actually would, since Austin could be stubborn about certain things. He had his pride and if he wanted to handle things himself, then as his best friend, it was my job to support his decisions.

TWO

AUSTIN

“And then he just left me standing there in the rain. Can you believe that?”

I made a soft gasp to display the appropriate amount of shock to the story my current passenger was relaying about her last date. I peeked in the rearview mirror and saw her lips curl up in satisfaction at my reaction. She launched into the rest of the story of how she’d swore off men and found her way to our tiny town for, as she put it, a “soul-finding” trip.

I let her continue her monologue and made sounds of acknowledgment and comments every so often to show that I was paying attention to her story. After years of being a taxi driver, I'd come to learn that what most people wanted was someone to listen to them, and that happened to be my specialty.

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