Hot Cocoa Kisses: A Clean, Small Town Christmas Romance (Reindeer Ridge Book 4) by Macie St. James

Author:Macie St. James [St. James, Macie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

14

Slade had never disliked having to work. It hadn’t bothered him to work nights, weekends, holidays, or even times like New Year’s Eve, when everybody was having fun but him. But tonight, it really bugged him.

He was happy to see Christmas having fun with her friends, of course, but he wanted to join them. Instead, he found himself walking the outskirts of the crowd, looking for trouble. He didn’t expect any problems to break out, but he had to be alert just in case, and one thing he couldn’t be when Christmas was nearby was alert.

That couldn’t have been clearer when he walked up behind her. Having her so close again . . . It had just reminded him of how much he’d missed her.

Meredith climbed up on stage to introduce the band—a fifties cover band that had played here the past few New Year’s Eves. He watched as Garth and Carolyn laughed and danced to the music and couldn’t help but smile. There weren’t enough kids who lived locally—one of the hazards of life in a tourist town—so he loved seeing children growing up and having fun here like he had.

As midnight drew closer, Slade grew increasingly anxious. It happened every New Year’s Eve, but it was worse this year. It was one thing to remember their midnight kiss tradition when Christmas was on the other side of the country. But she was somewhere in this crowd. He couldn’t see her, but he knew she was out there.

Around the time Meredith stepped up to the stage to start the countdown, Ivy appeared from out of nowhere. There was something immediately familiar about Ivy approaching him just a few minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve. This had happened before.

“You need to go back there,” she said, pointing toward the far left back corner of the square. “There’s something going on.”

Ivy was up to something, and he was pretty sure he knew what it was. “What is it?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

She just gave him a smile that told him what he suspected was correct. This was about Christmas.

Slade froze, not sure what to do next. Yes, he could head straight back there and see what Ivy was up to. Or he could refuse and walk away from the situation once and for all. If only he had that kind of willpower.

“I’ll check it out.” He gave her a parting nod without smiling. A true professional. He was on duty. He was just going to check out a potential issue he needed to deal with, that was all.

“Good luck!” Slade heard her call out as he made his way along the outskirts of the crowd.

On stage, Meredith was going through a long list of thank-yous to everyone who’d put this event together. The countdown clock read two minutes and ten seconds. He tried to calculate the time it would take him to get back to the bench in the very back corner of the square before midnight.

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