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Chapter One

“I’ll pay somebody fifty bucks to take my place,” Cole Aaron offered his fellow firefighters at the Pine Hill Fire Department.

What were the odds that he would be the one to pull the “winning” green candy cane from the fuzzy red stocking he and the guys had passed around? Not that he felt like he’d won anything. If anything, getting stuck in the role of Santa felt like a huge mistake. Did they really think it was a good fit for a former tough-guy Marine turned firefighter to dress up as Santa in the Pine Hill Christmas parade?

He didn’t have any Christmas cheer whatsoever. Christmas generosity, perhaps, such as when he’d offered to pay for poinsettias for the nursing home residents—but trying to make up for all the bad things you’d done in life didn’t suddenly make you qualified to be Santa.

“This one is all you…Saint Nick,” Andrew snickered.

Of course, his best buddy Andrew would find humor in the idea of Cole donning a red suit, fake belly, white beard, and wig. Had the roles been reversed Cole would be cracking up, too. Only, Andrew hadn’t gotten the short end of the stick, er…candy cane, in the “Who Gets to be Santa on the Rescue Truck for the Christmas Parade?” lottery. Cole knew they should have gone with rock, paper, scissors. He was good at that.

He turned to Ben, another of his close friends.

“Don’t look at me,” Ben advised, continuing to help Jules and another firefighter decorate a ten-foot tree to “give the fire station a festive spirit,” as the chief had put it. The Christmas music blasting over the intercom system all week had also been Chief’s idea. As if to taunt Cole, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” came on.

The guys all snorted with laughter.

Cole groaned. “I look nothing like Santa.”

“Which is what that’s for.” Andrew gestured to the red suit Chief had sat on the table where Cole had been doing a crossword puzzle just minutes before, trying to ignore how Christmas was taking over his beloved firehall. “Come on. You know red’s your color.”

Glaring at his best friend, Cole peeled the plastic wrapper off the offending green candy cane and stuck the end in his mouth. Yuck. He couldn’t even determine if it was green apple, watermelon, spearmint, or some horrible combination of all three. It certainly didn’t taste like peppermint or anything to do with Christmas.

“That bad, eh?” one of the other firemen asked, looking just as amused as Andrew and Ben. The entire crew found it funny that the new guy had to be Santa. Or maybe they were all just ecstatic they weren’t the one stuck with having to put on the red suit and go around saying, “Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas.”

Not Cole’s idea of a good time, either.

Any of the other crew members would be more qualified than Cole to spark the magic of Christmas for the kids at the parade. He suspected most of the guys would even like playing Santa, but were enjoying ragging him too much to step in.

Cole hadn’t even celebrated the holiday in years. How was he supposed to pull off being Santa to this full-of-Christmas-spirit small Kentucky town?

“Not nearly as bad as having to wear that.” To prove it, he stuck the tip of the candy back into his mouth—and immediately regretted doing so. It should be against the law for candy canes to come in any flavor other than peppermint.

Or for guys with tainted souls to play the ultimate Christmas good guy.

“Come on, Cole. Model the suit for us,” Jules said from where she stood on a stepladder placing an ornament of a Dalmatian in a fire helmet on the tree.

Ben handed another ornament up to Jules as he added, “You do need to make sure the costume fits.”

Glaring at his coworkers, Cole bit off a piece of the candy and crunched the disgusting stuff between his teeth.

“Ben’s right,” Chief confirmed, his salt and pepper mustache curling upward as he rocked his six-five frame back on his heels. “Last year, the pants had to be hemmed for Bob. I suspect you’ll have to have the extra length let back out.”

“Or maybe Bob should just be Santa again this year,” Cole mumbled, wondering how long the candy’s bad taste would linger in his mouth.