Page 4 of Promise Yule Be Mine (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

4

NOVA

“ T his is your captain speaking. We will soon be landing in Christmas Falls. The local time is 2:45pm and the temperature is a gentle fifty-five degrees with a clear sky and ten percent chance of rain.”

This captain must have lost his freaking mind if he thought fifty-five degrees was gentle, considering I was already cold but I guessed it wasn’t his fault I sucked at winter temperatures. Even gentle ones like fifty-five.

I readjusted in my seat and continued my book while everyone around me started messing around with the overhead bins and clicking in and out of their seatbelts.

E.S. Maxwell’s newest cozy mystery was a fantastic start to his new series. I was always hesitant of my favorite authors spinning off their series as sometimes they couldn’t pull it off or sometimes it felt like reading the same book with different characters, but I had to hand it to him. He’d done a great job with this one. I couldn’t imagine it being easy to write twenty-five books in one series, let alone writing something completely new but also just as comforting and amazing.

I only closed the book when the person next to me stood and pulled their bag from the overhead bin.

Damn it. Just as it was getting good.

But as usual, I had a job to do. So I followed suit, picked up my bag and made my way out of the plane onto the tarmac where the gentle fifty-five seeped into my bones like a harsh thirty-five.

It was a good thing I loved Jenna because if it weren’t for her, I’d be hightailing it out of here on the first available flight.

I’d much rather have New York’s gentle fifty-five than Illinois’s. For one thing it stung less.

I spotted Jenna on the way into the terminal, wearing a lanyard that identified her as airline staff and she jumped at me with both arms.

“You made it!”

“Did you have any doubts?” I raised an eyebrow.

She giggled. “Well…I don’t know what happened to you in the last fifteen years. Maybe you became a flake.”

I gasped and she giggled again.

“Come on. Let’s get going before Gray finds me out here.”

“Gray?” I asked as she dragged me inside, into the warmth of the airport terminal.

Before she could answer, a man came to stand in front of us and glared at Jenna.

“Were you out on the tarmac Ms. Torres?” he asked.

Jenna rolled her eyes.

“I love how I turn to Ms. Torres when you’re annoyed.”

“It doesn’t exactly answer my question, Ms. Torres. You know flight attendants are not allowed on the tarmac unless it’s their flight.”

“It’s my airline.”

“Are you on duty?”

Jenna made a mocking face and slapped the man’s chest.

“Oh relax, Gray. I was barely out there for a minute and I was picking up my friend. Here, see? He’s picked up. Now can we go back to our business?”

“Your business is my business when you’re in my airport. Especially when you’re off-duty wreaking havoc.”

“I hardly qualify this as havoc, but whatever helps you sleep at night, sweetie. Say hi to the missus for me.”

Gray huffed as Jenna dragged me away from the grumpy man and chuckled.

“That was funny because he doesn’t have a missus.”

I narrowed my eyes at her and readjusted my bag on my shoulder. “Are you going to get in trouble?”

She rolled her eyes again. “Pfft! With who? Gray? He’s a cute plushie wrapped in grumpy clothes. He’s a friend.”

“That’s a friend?”

“Oh yeah. That was him being friendly.”

“I’d hate to see him when he’s not.”

She chuckled and looped her arm around mine, leading me out of the tiniest airport known to man and to her car. I slid into the passenger seat and took in the beautiful scenery that gave way to a picturesque town looking like something from a holiday-themed pop-up book.

The presence of Christmas was apparent despite it still being October and not winter just yet. I guessed it was necessary to live up to the town’s reputation but while I knew several people who hated how much earlier Christmas came each year, I wasn’t one to complain. I loved the holidays, the Christmas sweaters, the hot drinks and liquor-filled chocolates, the songs, the fairy lights. I may not be a fan of the cold, but I was a fan of the magic of Christmas.

“I take everything back,” I said after a while, unable to peel my eyes from the window. “This is gorgeous.”

“I told you you’d like it. You always had such a soft spot for the holidays.”

I still did. And I wasn’t the only one. Most of my family loved the season and we all went above and beyond both with Christmas dinner and gift-giving. It was part of our love language.

“Ready to meet Kody?” She came to a stop in a small parking lot beside a large building with a gable roof. A huge sign stood at the end that read The White Elephant beneath a cartoon of the aforementioned animal with a blanket of snow and a red present on its back.

“Always ready, darling,” I said and got out of the car.

This time, I didn’t mind the cold as much. Probably because I was surrounded by buildings but also because, how could I hate something so idyllic?

I looked around me, at a little cozy store called The Snowflake Shack next to a larger building, Ginger’s Breads, and a smile crept up on my face.

Something told me this town was a little treasure after all.

Jenna showed me inside The White Elephant. It was a large, open kind of bar with a tiled floor and furniture upholstered in dark greens and reds. People in uniforms walked back and forth between high tables, booths and the bar carrying all sorts of drinks and food that all looked very appetizing.

Jenna bypassed the host and led me to the back, to a smaller room with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and a lit fireplace that kept the area toasty and warm.

“Take a seat. I’ll go get him.” Jenna went back out of the room and I had the opportunity to look around a little more. There were framed black and white photos hanging on the wall behind me. They were young and gorgeous in a couple of photos, then there was a baby in their arms in another. As the frames progressed, the baby got bigger until he stood next to them and another baby joined them in their arms. All were taken outside The White Elephant. I assumed they were the owners.

A moment later, a waitress approached with a menu and I perused it while waiting for the groom-to-be, trying to decide on my meal when Jenna appeared and sang my name.

I put the menu down, stood up and looked at Kody.

I almost froze. I almost choked on my own words. I almost shivered. But I did none of those things. Instead, I raised my arm and shook the hand of the most beautiful man I’d ever laid eyes on.

He was tall and white, with curly dark brown hair and a thick, perfectly groomed mustache that made his smile super comforting and inviting. But his eyes? His eyes were a bright gray that reflected the light of the fire and burned holes in my own eyes.

“H-hi, I’m Nova. Nova Myers. It’s uhm…nice to meet you,” I said.

That was better than the jumble of words in my head but still not professional enough. So instead of gawking at my friend’s fiancé, I decided to peel my eyes off him and take my seat.

Jenna sat opposite me and Kody eventually sat down but all I could focus on was the fabric cover of the green menu. Because if I didn’t, I’d look back at the hunk across from me and God knew what would happen.

“So…Kody. Jenna. Let’s talk about your wedding!” I managed to say and walked them through the consultation brief I did with all my clients.

Kody remained quiet for most of it. He only seemed to speak up near the end and after being served a big glass of beer, along with our meal, but even then, he kept his words short and addressed to Jenna, which suited me just fine because I had a feeling if he looked at me, if he spoke to me, I’d just turn into a puddle of goo and who would save me from embarrassment then?

With all that wrapped up, Jenna and I left Kody behind to continue his shift at what I found out was his place, and showed me around town, including the venue they’d picked for the ceremony, the place we would order the cake from and other places that didn’t have anything to do with the wedding and everything to do with the charm of Christmas Falls.

Just before sunset, she drove me to her apartment and I stayed the night until early morning the following day when I caught my flight back home via Chicago.

Only when I stepped foot in New York did I feel like I could breathe again. Back at Christmas Falls I was afraid a gasp, let alone a full-blown inhalation, would give away how much I couldn’t stop thinking about the man with the mustache who had stolen my heart.

“I’ve got to figure out how to do this wedding without lusting over him.”

“Why?” my brother said when we were alone in my room.

“What do you mean why? Because he’s the groom, Rhett! And to make matters worse, he’s Jenna’s fiancé!”

Rhett laughed.

“No one said you had to steal him from her. I’m sure you can lust after a guy and still plan his wedding.”

I cuddled my giant Stitch plushie harder and sighed.

“I don’t think you understand just how gorgeous this man is. It took me all day yesterday and all day today to get his image out of my head and you know what? I’m lying. He’s still in here.” I jabbed at my head.

“Jesus. Someone’s got it bad. How handsome can a guy be? He certainly isn’t more handsome than Keaton Sinclair.”

“Who?” I asked. The name sounded familiar but I was still so dazed I couldn’t place it.

“Seriously? Keaton Sinclair? Billionaire extraordinaire? Inventor of Cinderfella? The man who’s dating my best friend?”

“Oh.” I said and looked at the man on the screen. A handsome silver fox white man. “Meh. He’s not Kody Campbell.”

Rhett pulled his hand back and typed furiously before whistling.

“I wouldn’t kick him out of bed,” he said.

“What?” I grimaced and pulled Rhett back down on my bed. “What are you talking?—”

I stopped when I saw Kody smiling back at me. My heart beat faster for a second or two and my mouth dried instantly.

Great. As if it wasn’t enough I couldn’t look at the man in person, I couldn’t even look at his picture. How mature of me.

“I can see why you would love the guy even though he’s not my type. I prefer them older and preferably in twos.”

It took me a second to register what he said before I snorted.

“Jeez, Rhett. I don’t love the guy. I hardly know him. I just think he’s hot.”

Rhett blinked rapidly.

“What?”

“I don’t see the difference,” he said.

“What difference?”

“You said he’s hot. So you love him.”

“Those are not the same thing.”

“They aren’t?” Rhett cocked his head to the side with genuine confusion.

That managed to get me out of my funk long enough to glare at my younger brother.

“No?” I said. “What the hell are you on—oh!”

“Oh what?” he asked.

“Nothing.” I shook my head. “I just understood your whole love life all of a sudden.”

“What do you mean?” He looked so confused yet so innocent, I realized he wasn’t kidding. He could not see the difference between love and attraction. Which explained so much about his dating woes.

But I wasn’t my brother. In fact, I was probably the polar opposite. Just because I liked Kody—like really , really liked him—didn’t mean I was in love with him. I gave it another day before I even forgot what he looked like, because the one thing I would not let myself do, was obsess over my friend’s boyfriend.

The groom was off-limits.