Page 2 of The Christmas Tree Farm

The man following them skidded to a stop.

‘Elizabeth, heel.’ His voice was stern and harsh and the biggest dog loped happily to his side. ‘Good girl.’ He patted her head.

‘Odie, Pudgy, heel.’ He tried to get the other two dogs’ attention with the same stern tone, but it was far too late for that. Kira was already squatting to pet the two little wiggly bodies at her feet.

‘Look at you, sweet babies,’ she crooned. ‘Little angels.’ The smallest dog, some sort of Westie mix with wiry white hair, pushed its cold snout into her palm, huffing in excitement. The other one, who must have been at least a hundred years old in dog years, waited patiently for scratches between its floppy ears, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.

‘What good doggies you are, so sweet,’ Kira went on, petting and scratching and so generally delighted to have such precious babies on her property that she’d nearly forgotten the man until he was towering over her.

‘Uh, sorry about that,’ he said. ‘I didn’t realize… I mean, I thought this place was abandoned. Otherwise, I would have had the dogs on their leashes.’

‘It’s okay,’ Kira said, still crouched low, but now paying proper attention to Elizabeth who was starting to whine at not being part of the lovefest happening with the other dogs. ‘Look at you! What a beautiful girl you are,’ she told her, and it seemed the larger dog smiled at her. Kira smiled back, for the first time in days. It was nice.

Until she finally stood and looked at the man who had brought the puppies to her farm. The smile dropped from her face. He was staring at her with a mix of confusion and horror.

It was then that Kira remembered her unwashed hair and her red eyes and her blanket-as-outerwear fashion statement. Ugh. This day, this town, these people! They were everywhere!

‘Yes, well, actually, I own this farm,’ she said, standing to her full height. ‘So, you are trespassing.’

Elizabeth whined and Kira scratched between her ears. ‘Not you, sweetheart. You didn’t know.’

‘To be fair, I didn’t know either,’ the man said, a slight smirk on his face.

‘How is that possible? Everyone in this nosy town knows about it.’

He shrugged. ‘I don’t live in this nosy town.’

Kira frowned. ‘Then what are you doing here?’

‘Visiting.’

She didn’t like his tone. Or his face for that matter. It was too … too … handsome. But in like an obnoxiously conventional way. Too much symmetry. Too much perfect dark hair. It was annoying. And entirely uninteresting.

Too wholesome.

‘Well, whoever you’re visiting should have told you that I own this land now, so you can’t just traipse through here on your little hike or whatever you’re doing.’

The man’s obnoxiously straight smile grew. ‘Little hike or whatever?’

‘I don’t know! What’s with that vest? You look like you’re going on a hike.’

He looked down at his puffy vest and dark jeans and hiking boots and then let his gaze wander over Kira’s ensemble.

‘You’re wearing a blanket,’ he observed.

‘Yes.’

‘And you’re making fun of my vest?’

‘Yes.’ She crossed her arms over her chest, not that he could see that since they were tucked under her blanket, but still. Her stance was defiant. She was pretty sure that came across. She didn’t like this guy and his teasing smile. And his light eyes with dark lashes. Really? Ugh, could he be more basic?

Kira only went for men that had ‘bad idea’ tattooed across their forehead (sometimes literally) and this guy looked like the model for ‘the guy your mother wants you to bring home for the holidays to sip cocoa under the tree in your matching pajamas’. Highly undesirable. Downright unattractive in every way, really.

Except for maybe the way his thighs were filling out those jeans.

But that was neither here nor there.

‘Sorry again for the misunderstanding. We’ll get going.’