Chapter 13
Cora was chronically early. Like, the kind that made it awkward when she was meeting people for the first time.
She gave off the creepy, stalker vibes as she hung back waiting for the person she was meeting to show up.
At least at Winter Wonderland, it was her own event so no one thought it odd that she was here a good forty minutes before anyone else.
She’d tried to break her perfectionist habits, but she couldn’t shake them.
She walked up the path from the parking lot to the center of the festival where the large pine had been transformed into a gorgeous Christmas tree. She adjusted garlands that were twisted around the streetlights where she could and straightened bows so it all looked exactly right.
Last year she’d invested in an extending arm grabber and it made this part of her job so much easier. She took photos of anything too big or too high for her to deal with herself and drafted an email to send to the head groundskeeper.
The stage sat beside the towering tree like an altar to the season, framed in thick swags of pine and magnolia, threaded with velvet ribbons.
Lanterns flickered at either end, their glass panes catching the pale afternoon light, while thousands of tiny bulbs lay dormant in the greenery, waiting for dusk.
Tiered risers dressed in evergreen stood ready for the choir, and at center stage a brass music stand gleamed beneath a gilded star mounted high above.
Even unlit, the entire space hummed with anticipation, as if holding its breath for the moment the tree would blaze to life.
Cora climbed the stairs and checked the setup of the chairs they had for local dignitaries like the mayor and city council members.
Everything looked to be in order on the dais and all that was left was the tree.
She’d never had a proper tree in her home growing up.
There had been one at her dad’s after he got married but this tree here, at Winter Wonderland, was the closest she came to one of her own. That’s why it had to be just right.
Standing at the base, she walked slowly around, checking the placement of each ornament and light. Of course, she wouldn’t be certain that the lights were perfect until the switch-on.
She noticed that someone had put three round red ornaments right next to each other. Shaking her head as she snapped a quick photo, she tried to use her extending arm to move them but couldn’t quite reach.
Glancing around, she noticed one of the large boxes that had been painted to resemble a present.
That should give her the added inches she needed.
Carefully climbing up on the box, she stretched and was able to remove the first ornament with no problems. She swapped it for a blue one that had been lower on the same side, then she took the other red one off and leaned to the right to grab a gold one when she felt her foot slipping.
Putting her hand out to try to balance herself, she touched nothing but empty air. With a yelp, she felt herself falling off the box … and straight into Nick’s arms.
“Gotcha.”
It felt so good to be back in his arms. Better than it should, given he was dating other women and wanting to get married.
Get your emotions in check! His cologne was subtle, stirring memories of the last time she’d been this close to him.
Her lips tingled. If she turned her head, they’d brush against his jaw line, they were that close.
That snow globe in her tummy was tumbling and turning again. She’d missed him. It had only been twenty-four hours since she’d seen him, and she already missed him. What was up with that?
“Thanks. What are you doing here?” she asked. He didn’t strike her as an early bird. Most of the time he showed up right on time.
“You invited me,” he told her, blue eyes twinkling.
“I meant, why are you here so early?”
Putting her back on her feet, she found she missed his warmth. “Figured you’d need me. Where are you trying to place that?”
“Over there,” she said, pointing to the spot. “Someone clustered three red ornaments together!”
“Horrifying. When’s the trial and will you ask for the death penalty?” he joked, easily placing the ornament where she’d indicated. “Krampus would be all over that.”
“Make fun all you want, but visual aesthetics are important,” she warned him, stepping back to observe the tree. “What exactly is Krampus? I mean, I know he’s the holiday baddy but is that it?”
Nick took a deep breath. There was an opportunity here and he couldn’t squander it.
“Krampus is the traditional counterbalance to Saint Nicholas. One rewards generosity, the other enforces consequences. Most of it is folklore now but the idea stuck around because people understand something simple: behavior changes faster when bad choices cost them something. The trick,” he said quietly, “is not letting the shadow overrun the season.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad. There should be consequences. Is that all he does? Enforce consequences?” she asked.
“Not quite. He forces anyone on the Naughty List to relive the moments when they messed up over and over again. The method causes most people to stay on the straight and narrow, and the majority don’t offend again.”
“That sounds…”
“Dangerous? A world in which people only do the right thing out of fear isn’t one you’d want to live in,” he said.
“Luckily we don’t have to, because it’s just a story.”
“Right. Like Santa Claus.”
“Exactly.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off Nick. His thick chestnut hair had been styled to fall to the left and a red Santa cap perched neatly on his head.
His beard looked thicker today, though was still nicely trimmed.
He wore his leather duster-style coat that was decorated with hand-tooled imagery.
Leaning in, she ran her finger over an image of eight reindeer pulling a large sleigh. The detail was breathtaking.
“Like it?” he asked.
He was being too agreeable. She already liked him more than was smart and nothing would change the fact that they wanted different things. Last night had been torture, thinking of him out on a date with another woman.
Remember that, Cora.
“How’d the hockey date go?”
He shook his head. “It was a bust. She didn’t really like hockey.”
“Oh, is that another deal breaker?” Sports weren’t really her thing, which was totally fine since she wanted to take him to bed, not marry him.
“It is.”
“Yet another reason why we aren’t right for each other,” she said. “I don’t get the obsession with watching other people do something … anything really. It’s not just sports.”
“A lot of people would disagree with you,” he said, a cheeky grin on his face.
“That’s what makes me unique.”
“That’s not the only thing, Cora.”
“What else do you like about me?” She couldn’t resist flirting with him when he seemed so willing to hand out compliments and looked so cute doing it.
“Your tenacity, your legs, the way you strive really hard to make Christmas special for Pine Falls,” he said. “And that’s just for starters.”
She couldn’t help preening under his gaze. “Oh. There’s more?”
“My turn. What about me?”
“What about you?” she teased, though she knew very well what he was asking.
“Anything that makes me special in your eyes?”
Too many things to list. She almost wished she could go back to seeing him as just an annoyingly hot but old-fashioned toymaker because now she saw the way he cared about everyone, how he gave one hundred percent to everything he put his mind to, and, most importantly, how he was always there when she needed him.
She cautioned herself not to get used to it. Right now, their goals aligned. Once Christmas was over, he’d be out of her life. And then what would she do?
There was no way this … this feeling had anything to do with the Magic Coffers or the Nice List. Last night’s date hadn’t worked out because she wasn’t Cora.
It was that simple. He hadn’t planned on coming to Pine Falls early today, but he’d given in to temptation when he saw her in the Yuleglass.
The Yuleglass was the ancient mirror that allowed him glimpses into the mortal world and when he’d seen how lonely she seemed, he’d wanted nothing but to be by her side.
This conversation was dangerous. It added fuel to a fire that he should be trying to put out.
But was fighting a losing battle. He wouldn’t win today—maybe not ever.
He wanted her. He wanted her so badly. He wanted her under his Christmas tree, a fire roaring in the large hearth warming their naked bodies while shadows of the flames danced over her creamy skin.
He wanted everything that Cora had to give and he wanted her to want him the same way.
She was not unredeemable. She was just hurt and sad, and he wanted to make her happy.
“I don’t mind your distinctive taste in flannel shirts.”
She winked and he got hard. That was all it took.
“That’s it?”
“I like your ass in those jeans,” she admitted.
“Everything you like about me is physical?” he teased as he stepped closer to her.
“Seems to be.”
She leaned toward him.
That peppermint and vanilla scent that he now associated with Cora wrapped around him, inviting him closer to her warmth.
For a split second he almost kissed her, almost pulled her into his arms and plunged his tongue deep in her mouth but they were standing in front of the Winter Wonderland gates.
He heard the sounds of people coming up the path so instead he took a deep breath and groaned internally as her scent filled his nostrils.
The struggle to keep his eyes on her face and not on those fantastic legs of hers, showcased by the thigh-high boots she wore, that struggle was real. Her red velvet miniskirt trimmed in white faux fur ended a good two inches above the boots and it was driving him crazy.
“You’re dangerous.”
His eyes widened. “Me?”
No one had ever described him as dangerous before. He wasn’t sure he liked it.
“You make me believe in things I know don’t exist.”
Ah, that kind of dangerous.