Page 12 of Promise Yule Be Mine (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

12

NOVA

T wo days later, there was still no word from Jenna and I had postponed my flight so much the admin fees for the changes could have bought me a brand-new flight.

But my work in Christmas Falls wasn't done. Not until I was sure everything was in order, especially with Kody's and Jenna's unique magical ability to spring new challenges on me.

Besides, I'd made a promise to Karim and I wasn't going to rest until it was fulfilled. I'd spent the next day and a half spreading the word about the library, though to my surprise, most people seemed to know about it, which begged the question how on Earth the library didn't have any donations yet.

When I woke up on Friday morning it was to a text message from Kody and I couldn't help but smile.

Kody: Hey. I've got some time before work. Do you want to come help me go through the attic and find books for the library?

I replied with a resounding yes before I jumped into the shower and made my way to Jolly Java, which had become a tradition at this point.

"Nova! If it isn't my favorite customer. What flavor do you want today?" Rocco, the new owner asked me.

I one-potatoe-two-potatoed between all the different syrup and topping flavors before I turned to Rocco.

"I think I'll have chocolate mint with extra cream today," I said. "To go."

Rocco started to smile but it turned into a pout.

"Oh no. You're abandoning me? And I was looking forward to watching you work this morning."

I narrowed my eyes, and with a smirk I said, "Are you outing yourself as a creep, Rocco? And here I thought you were one of the good ones."

Rocco laughed. "Guilty as charged. But you can't blame me. You're one of my favorite customers, seeing as everyone else hates me."

I rolled my eyes. "They don't hate you. Trust me. Unless you creep up on them in which case…" I let my sentence hang in the air and Rocco laughed again.

"Right. Let me get your order, you traitor."

I fake-gasped.

"What? If you're going to call me a creep—twice, might I add—I have a right to call you anything."

"Fair," I put my hands up and watched him make my coffee.

There he was. Such a handsome, loveable guy, available as far as I knew and yet I couldn't even flirt with the idea of…flirting with him. Or of asking him out. No. I was still obsessed with the only unavailable guy in my orbit.

I was hopeless.

"Here you go," Rocco said two minutes later and handed me my coffee and a greaseproof paper bag.

"I didn't order that," I pointed to the bag.

He shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It's on the house. Both of them."

I took the bag from him suspiciously and the scent of cinnamon sweetness hit me before I even saw the cinnamon roll inside. "Oh my God!" I moaned. "That smells delicious."

"Thanks. It tastes better," he said.

I wasn't usually a breakfast person but when it smelled so good, I could be swayed. "Fine. But I'm paying you."

He shook his head. "Nah. We're good. See you tomorrow."

I raised an eyebrow. "You can't be serious." He was. "Do you do that with everyone who calls you a creep? Because I can keep doing it."

"Hey, if it keeps bringing you back, be my guest."

I thanked him with a chuckle and went on my way. I wasn't sure if he was flirting with me or if he was just that good at customer service but for, like, the hundredth time I wondered why people didn't like the guy when he was clearly very good at what he did.

The streets were white with snow, but also slippery so I had to be extra careful on my way to Kody's but when I got there and knocked on the door I was immediately enveloped in toasty warmth and doggy cuddles.

"Oh my God. Are these your dogs?" I asked and went down on my knees to pet the white and ginger poms fighting for my attention.

Despite our conversation at the museum the other day, I still hadn't had the opportunity to meet them, which was a crime in and of itself.

"No, I borrowed them for the day," Kody said.

I took pause to look up at him and glare. "Ooh, Mr. Campbell. Was that sarcasm? Are you okay? Are you coming down with something?"

Kody laughed and knelt down too and watched me play with his dogs. "So…I'm guessing this is Milk." I pointed at the white fluffball. "And this is Cookie?" The ginger one licked my lips and I giggled.

They were adorable.

"Your guess would be correct."

"Aw they're so sweet and friendly. How old are they?"

"They're three. I've had them since they weaned off. Jenna's mom took the third of the litter."

Milk started sniffing the bag with the cinnamon roll and I held on tight to it. The last thing we needed was a trip to the vet's

"You took them in at the same time? Wow. Don't they usually say you should avoid adopting siblings or similarly aged dogs to avoid them bonding with each other over you?"

Kody shrugged. "I know. But I did my best to avoid littermate syndrome and as you can see they don't have a problem."

"Nicely done. Bar manager, excellent crafter and dog whisperer. Is there anything you can't do?"

He huffed a laugh and rolled his eyes. "Trust me. There's a lot I can't do."

I narrowed my eyes and hummed. I was sure that wasn't true, but I wasn't going to say anything. I didn't need to. Kody was a client. Not a prospective date. I didn't need to compliment him any more than I already had, right?

As we left the dogs to their own devices and made our way upstairs, we bumped into Kody's mom.

She was a short, kind and vivacious woman. She'd been the life of the Parade of Lights last week, waving her glow sticks and cheering every float, dancing to the music, singing along. In a way, she reminded me a lot of my Momma.

"Oh Nova! Hello, dear. How are you?" she asked, trapping me in her embrace almost immediately.

"I'm great, thank you, Mrs. Campbell."

She exhaled as she let go. "Please, sweetheart. Call me Shelly. None of that Mrs. Campbell stuff. I don't need to be reminded of my age."

I nodded with a chuckle and Kody showed me up the stairs to the attic.

"Oh thank you so much for all the help, sweetheart. I don't know what these two would do without you. It's as if they don't even care about this wedding," Shelly said just before we climbed the stairs.

"Mom!" Kody groaned but I winked at her and followed him upstairs.

It would’ve been a lie if I didn't admit I'd wondered the same myself many times since I'd arrived in Christmas Falls.

The attic was large and dark, stretching the entire length of the house with various piles of things buried under sheets scattered across the room.

Kody turned the lights on although it did very little to illuminate the attic, but he'd thought of that already as he handed me a torch.

"I'm pretty sure we put everything on that side but I could be wrong." He pointed to the far end and I followed him, lighting our path. "It's right above my room so we thought we'd put my stuff here to keep somewhat organized."

I helped him take the sheet off. There was a disassembled children's bed, an old-fashioned—but in perfect condition—crib, a little desk and boxes upon boxes all marked with different names. Clothes split into age groups, books split into grades and a box that practically made me melt into a puddle.

"Stuffed toys!" I lifted the first teddy bear from the box and hugged it.

It was a matted old brown bear with an eye missing and a few loose threads but it was what made it adorable.

"Ah. I see you found Mr. Tummy. That's embarrassing."

"Embarrassing? Are you kidding? He's so cute."

"He is?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Of course he is. Don't let him hear you." I covered the teddy's ears and Kody laughed. "My Dad used to love stuffed toys. He had a whole collection that he pretended was for us, but we all knew he loved them himself."

"Used to?" His smile dropped and he stared at me.

I sighed and bit my lip. "Yeah. He passed away a long time ago." I hugged Mr. Tummy tighter.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "I know," I said. "It's okay. I've had years to come to terms with it."

Kody looked into the box and retrieved a long, powder blue stuffed centipede and shook its face in front of mine.

"Does someone ever come to terms with such a loss?" he asked.

I giggled away from the playful centipede and took another deep breath. "No. Not really. But you learn to put one foot in front of the other and go on, at the very least. I mean, I had five younger brothers to look after. Especially after my older brother left to join the Navy."

"Five? That's a big house."

I chuckled. "That's a loud house. Not sure about big. But yeah. There's seven of us. All but Slade, that's my oldest brother, live at home still."

"Wow." Kody's eyes widened. "And you guys get along?"

"Most days. We love each other. In a way my dad's loss brought us closer. I don't know if we'd all still live at home if he hadn't died. We all love our mom so much we didn't want to leave her alone."

"That's very sweet of you. And a relief."

"A relief, why?" I raised an eyebrow and finally let Mr. Tummy go.

"Because you also still live at home so you won't think I'm pathetic for doing the same."

I glared at him. "I would never think you're pathetic," I said before I could stop myself.

He smiled and raised the centipede to my face again. The fluff and dust of the toy made me sneeze and Kody laughed.

Why did he care what I thought of him? Why was he being so playful with me when he barely knew me? Did he…did he like me too? And what did that mean for Jenna? Was this a lavender marriage? Was Kody hiding his homosexuality by marrying her? Was that why they hadn't been better prepared for this wedding?

I turned my attention to the boxes marked as books but couldn't help sneaking glances at him, studying his face as if I could read his mind and find out the truth.

We managed to find a whole treasure trove of books that could be appreciated by the children of the town, so Kody got a couple empty boxes and we filled them to the brim with books.

"I think Karim will be very happy with these," I said.

Kody's smiled wavered a little.

Was it because he was jealous of me, or Karim? Did he have any right to be, considering he was getting married at the end of the month?

"I'm sure he will," he answered a few moments later and he carried one of the boxes to his car when a ginger cat started rubbing against my legs.

"Oh. Hello you. Where did you come from?"

Kody chuckled and came around as I picked up the cat.

"Pumpkin! What are you doing out here? You'll catch your death, you silly boy."

He was the fluffiest thing ever, with a pure white bib and toes. From the looks of it he was a Maine Coon.

"Sorry. They're escape artists sometimes," Kody said and took Pumpkin from me but I didn't miss his touch, or how it made me feel.

Or how he paused too.

Was he as affected by me as I was by him?

Kody took the cat back inside and I tried to shake off whatever had gotten into me. Whether Kody liked me or not, it didn't matter because I'd never betray Jenna like that. She had been my best friend for longer than I remembered. It didn't matter that we hadn't caught up in years, she still was. I would never, should never, could never do anything about my attraction to her fiancé. Whether he was gay, straight or otherwise.

"All okay?" he asked me when we were on our way to the library and I nodded.

"Sure. Yeah. Why?"

"You've been very quiet."

I forced a smile on my face and answered him. "Yeah. Just thinking. I'm fine."

He didn't ask any more questions, which I was grateful for because the last thing I wanted to do was tell him what I was thinking about. I was never very good at lying.

"Woah," Kody said a few minutes later and I looked up ahead.

There was a traffic jam in both directions.

"What is going on?" I asked.

"Beats me."

We soon found out.

When we eventually got to the public library we saw people carrying boxes into the building and Karim standing shell-shocked by the door, shaking everyone's hand in utter disbelief.

"Hey Karim," I said when we walked up to him with our boxes. "What's going on?"

The whole reception behind Karim was stacked with boxes. I put mine near the front.

Karim shrugged with an almost panicked expression. "I know as much as you do. I opened the doors today and people have been flooding in with donations."

"That's great," Kody told him.

He nodded. "Sure is. I guess this might have something to do with it." He gave me a card he'd been holding.

It was a holiday card with a snowy town on the front. On the inside was a handwritten note.

*I heard you need books so I put my elves to work for you. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. X Secret Santa .

"Secret Santa, huh?" I asked.

"It's not you, is it?" Karim raised an eyebrow.

"I'd love to take credit but definitely not."

"Weird. I mean I spread the word, but I didn't think I'd reached so many people."

"Maybe someone was looking out for you," Kody suggested.

Karim nodded. “It seems so. I just wish I knew who it was so I could thank them."

I handed the card back to Karim and smiled. "I'm sure if they wanted to be known they would have put their name down. I think they just wanted to do a nice thing."

"Yeah. That they did. The kids will be so happy. I could even do a reading time for them in the lead-up to Christmas."

"I'd love to help," I said. "If you need a hand to organize the events. I'm a wedding planner so I know a thing or two about events." I handed him my card.

Karim smiled. "I might take you up on that."

When I turned to Kody, he was beaming from ear to ear, staring at me.

"What?" I asked him.

He shook his head and glanced at Karim. "If you need space for the readings you can have them at the snug in The White Elephant if you want. If there's still water damage.”

Karim put his hands together and gave us a bow with shimmering eyes. I hugged him.

"You know," I said when we walked back to the car. "I'm starting to think leaving this place will be harder than I thought."

"Oh yeah?" Kody asked.

"Yeah. There's a sense of community here I haven't felt before. It's very…very endearing.”

"It certainly, certainly is," he replied, staring at me with an expression that until yesterday I would have said was unreadable but I was becoming able to interpret it. And I didn't like it. I didn't like at all, as much I wanted to.

Because it was dangerous.

And I didn't know how much stronger I could be in the face of such feelings.