Chapter 4
Colin
I stood back to admire my work, grinning so hard my face hurt. I was really proud of the way my house looked, with the trees and bushes dripping in lights, the house with its shooting stars and icicles, and the animatronic Santa figure waving from next to the driveway.
As I surveyed my progress, trying to decide if I needed to add or adjust anything, Dakota came out of his house, carrying a big roll of what looked like fencing wire in both arms. He dropped it to the ground in the middle of his yard and headed back inside.
Curious, I lingered, making my way to his yard and standing next to what was in fact flexible chicken wire.
There was a small stack of pieces of plywood, looking freshly-cut, a thick wooden dowel, and various other supplies.
A few moments later, Dakota emerged from his house holding a Styrofoam head, a dress form under one arm.
I smiled and waved as he approached. “Hey there, neighbor. What’s all this?”
Dakota gave me a cynical smile. “A princess winter wonderland, apparently.”
“Oh?”
With a nod, he gestured toward the house. “Lina got so excited about your lights that she convinced me to do a display of our own. Princess themed.”
I raised one eyebrow and looked skeptically at the stack of supplies. “This doesn’t look much like a princess.”
“Don’t worry, it will. Eventually. I hope.” He placed the dress form on the ground and wrestled the roll of wire upright before clumsily trying to wrap it around the lower half of the form.
“Speaking of Lina, where’s your little princess today?”
He stepped back and sighed deeply at his handiwork. “She’s inside watching cartoons. She wasn’t especially interested in helping make the princess winter wonderland.”
I watched him for a few more moments before chuckling and stepping in. “What’s even happening here?” I took the roll of wire from him and handed him the loose end.
“Robbie thought it would be a good idea to wrap this fencing wire around the dress form. Well, he actually suggested the dowel, but then I remembered that my ex had this thing and thought it might be a little easier than trying to create a princess from scratch.”
“Your ex?”
He nodded. “My ex-wife Beth. Caroline’s mom. We’re still friendly… ish.” As he spoke, he walked the wire around the body of the dress form once before stopping. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
With another chuckle, I nodded. “I can see that. What if we cut long sections of the wire and wrap them around individually, instead of doing the whole roll at once?”
“That’s probably much smarter. Here.” He reached into his back pocket and passed me a pair of wire cutters.
As he did, our hands connected. His fingers were soft and warm where they brushed against me and my breath caught in my throat.
A moment of hesitation passed before he pulled his hand away. “Sorry,” he mumbled.
“No worries,” I said quietly, feeling a little flustered.
We worked together to get the wire cut and shaped around his dress form, and soon it had taken on the shape of an A-line dress. He precariously balanced the foam head onto the top of the dress form and then rummaged through a bag to find a tube of gel super glue to affix the head in place.
“Well, aren’t you Mr. Prepared?” I laughed.
He grinned and raised his eyebrows playfully. “I try to be.” The next thing I knew, he was opening a box of strand lights and pulling them out in one big bunch.
“Careful,” I warned. “Those get tangled pretty easily. Here, let me help.” I reached out to take the lights from him and our hands touched once again, heat racing through me despite the chill in the air.
“So, you know a lot about me, but I don’t know much about you,” he said as we worked together to drape the lights around the wire, a light princess taking shape slowly.
“What’s there to know?”
He grinned again. “That’s what I’m asking.”
I thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I’m pretty boring. I’ve lived in Port Grandlin most of my life. This was my parents’ house when I was a kid, and I inherited it when my mom passed away.”
“I never see you having visitors. No pets that I’ve noticed. Are you just a solitary guy? A loner?”
I let out a startled laugh. “Not a loner. That makes me sound like a secret serial killer. As for pets, I have two cats, but they don’t make appearances outdoors.”
He nodded and grabbed zip ties to secure the lights to the skirt. “Two cats. What are their names?”
“Edgar and Poe.”
A chuckle escaped him. “A horror fan, I take it?”
“Actually, I am. He’s my favorite author. Besides, they were found near where Edgar Allen Poe grew up.”
“Okay, so you’ve got two cats. What else? Are you a professional lights-display-er or do you have a day job, too?”
“I wish. No, actually I’m a grant writer. I work with nonprofits to help them get funding.”
He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. “That’s pretty cool. Do you like it?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I really do. It can be tedious, but it’s worth it. What about you? Day job?”
“I’m the manager at the library.” He stood back and admired the princess. “One last thing and she’ll be complete. Be right back.” Dakota hurried inside and a couple of minutes later, he emerged with a large cutting of white fabric. “For her princess dress. To cover the wire,” he explained.
“That’s really clever.” I helped him drape the fabric and secure it. “Which library? Here?”
He nodded. “I started as the librarian for the teen section, but eventually I worked my way up. Now I run the whole show.”
“That’s great. You must be good at what you do.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and shrugged. “Thanks. Now, what do you think of our light princess?”
We stood back and admired her. “Go plug her in,” I said. “Let’s see how she looks all lit up.”
He nodded and grabbed the end of his extension cord, plugging in the strands of lights. A moment later, the princess lit up. Even I had to admit, she looked pretty good—for a first-timer.
The sun was setting, dipping low in the sky, and the air was much chillier than when we’d started. I looked over at Dakota and realized his gaze was on me. He blushed a little when we made eye contact, glancing away. It had been a great afternoon and I didn’t want it to end.
“Hey, would you want to, I don’t know, get dinner or something?” My face burned with a heat that crawled up my neck and warmed my ears, too. Did I want him to think I was asking him for a date? Was I asking him on a date? I was just being friendly… right?