Chapter Eight
Krampus
It’s almost four in the morning before we finally finish the last of the baked goods for Mindy’s next opening.
All of us are beat, especially Amber, who’s practically half asleep with her head down on one of Mindy’s tables, sitting next to Gremlin, who keeps yawning loudly and blinking to keep his eyes open.
Mindy has a smudge of flour on her face and a small dusting on her nose. It’s adorable, and it takes everything in me not to wipe it away.
“I can’t thank you guys enough for helping me last night. I don’t think I could’ve done all this on my own.” Her eyes wander the room, staring at the stacks of baked goods that are ready for her to open in a few hours. There’s more than enough to make her a profit today.
“It’s the least I could do after messing you up by buying everything on your shelf.”
That smile. Fuck. It’s dismantling. And her giggle…
God, if I were any other man, it would have me on my goddamn knees pledging my life to her. But not me. Not the man who’s gone his whole life without ever having more than a casual fling.
My thoughts immediately go back to Zoe, the girl that I briefly dated in high school, only to find out that she was dared to date me, and it was all a joke.
Apparently, the longer she lasted in a relationship with me, the more money she earned from her friends.
The pot got up to a thousand dollars at one point, but it was her second dare that was really fucked up.
To me, that night we shared together was special.
I had given her pieces of me that I had never given anyone before, my virginity a sacred treasure I desperately tried to hold on to, vowing to only give it to a girl worthy of owning my soul.
She had me fooled. She made me believe she actually loved me, but then I walked in on her telling her friends how hideous she thought I was, and if it weren’t for the money, she would’ve never slept with me at all.
It was cruel. It was crippling. It hardened me to the point of wanting to crawl in a hole and hide there forever.
But there’s no point in hiding anymore. I’m always going to be disfigured and ugly, and there’s not a single woman in this world who will ever view me as anything other than a monster.
“Are you going to try to get some sleep?” I question, my heart doing something weird inside my chest the second our eyes meet, and the golden hues of her hazel-colored eyes twinkle in the overhead light.
She nods. “A few hours, maybe. I open at nine, so that’ll give me at least four hours of sleep.
I can function on that.” She takes a deep breath.
“I think.” She yawns, stretching out her arms, her mouth widening just enough, making me envision putting something inside it I shouldn’t.
My cock twitches in desperation. Down boy.
A girl like her would never fall for a monster like us.
The way her smile warms my heart has me wanting to reach out and touch her, but I refrain, knowing that my secret thoughts will remain locked and hidden away.
“Has anyone ever told you that you have the most alluring blue eyes? They’re gorgeous.”
It’s a compliment, but I don’t handle them well.
“People don’t usually give me compliments,” I growl, the mood turning prickly.
She frowns. “That’s unfortunate. People are so mean sometimes. That’s why I’m always complimenting people as much as possible. I like making people feel good. Happy people make me happy.”
Her smile falters when she sees my frown.
“People say I’m never happy.”
“Well, are you ever happy?”
My gaze drops to her hand now resting on my bicep. The softness of her palm is a stark contrast to my cantankerous exterior. She smiles again, but it’s quickly erased when I rip my arm out from under hers. She’s getting too close, almost like she’s pitying me or something.
I can’t stand fucking pity. I’ve grown up with it for far too long.
“Did I say something wrong?”
She looks genuinely concerned, and part of me feels bad about it, but the other part of me is still haunted by my past and the cruelty of others.
“I should go,” I deflect.
Her bottom lip juts out and quivers just a tad. “I really didn’t mean to make you angry, Krampus.”
“You didn’t.”
“I can read people. You’re mad at me. You wouldn’t have jerked your arm away if you weren’t.”
“I just don’t like being touched.”
She nods, but still seems unsure. “That may be so, but you look angry.”
“I said I’m not angry!” My voice rises to the point that it wakes up Amber and Gremlin. “Just drop it, okay?”
She takes a cautious step back and frowns. “Okay, I’m sorry.”
“Rich…” Amber starts.
“We’re leaving, Amber. It’s early, and I need some sleep.”
She nods, but not before she walks over to Mindy and gives her a friendly hug. She whispers something in Mindy’s ear, both of them looking at me strangely, before she says, “I’ll be back later today to help you prepare for tomorrow.”
“You don’t have to do that, Amber.”
“Girl, I’ve been where you are. You need the help. Consider it an early Christmas present. Once you get on your feet with a steady flow of customers in the shop, you can hire some staff to help you out more.”
Mindy has tears bubbling in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll keep baking these badass sweets, sweetheart,” Gremlin pipes in. “Especially those damn cinnamon rolls.”
My hand raises, ready to smack the shit out of him.
This time, Gremlin takes control of his own reprimand, smacking himself so hard, it whips his head to the side, a fresh red handprint etched into his cheek. “I’ll get it one day, VP,” he says with a grin, rubbing at his cheek before giving me the finger.
“I can’t thank you guys enough. Honestly, I couldn’t have done this without you.
” She holds my gaze for far too long. Seconds I can’t give her back.
Nobody should look at me the way she does.
I’m a monster. There’s nothing attractive about me, and yet…
there’s something there that wasn’t there before.
Once outside, Amber grins widely. “She likes you, Rich.”
“She does not,” I grump, settling into the driver’s seat as Gremlin slides into the backseat, smacking on the cinnamon roll Mindy gave him before we left. There’s already frosting on his lips and mouth, and he’s so lost in the treat, he doesn’t even notice me glaring at him in the rearview mirror.
“Why are you always so negative about everything, Rich? You’ve been like this since high school, especially around new people, women in particular. Is it that hard to believe that a girl might actually like you?”
“Have you looked at me, Amber? Like really looked at me? People aren’t nice to me because they like me; they’re nice to me because they pity me.
I saw the way she looked at Voorhees yesterday when he came in to help.
There’s a difference. She looks at me like I’m a charity case, the poor guy who was disfigured as a boy and nothing but a monster now.
But him… she looked at him like he was fucking sex on wheels.
There’s a difference, Amber, and I know it when I see it. Guys like me don’t get girls like her.”
“So, you do like her!” Amber shouts, knowing damn well I do.
“Shut up.”
“No, no. We aren’t doing this, Rich. You like her. Probably more than you’ve liked a girl in a very long time.”
“Just drop it.”
But the woman is persistent; she turns to me with that knowing look, the one that sees through the bristled backbone and thorns that keep everyone out. She’s analyzing everything about me, and I hate it.
“Face it, Rich, you like her. Now you just have to build up your confidence, and realize she likes you too, despite you being an asshole to her this morning.”
“I wasn’t an asshole.”
She laughs, patting me on the shoulder like she’s scolding me. “Keep telling yourself that, big guy. Whatever makes you sleep at night.”