Winter Wonderland-North Pole Anthology 2 by Noelle Fox

Author:Noelle Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Noelle Fox

Clara opened the door to the Cup of Cheer café. She ate lunch here every day. The owner, Amelia Beckett, was the best cook in town. Not that there was much of a contest.

North Pole had restaurants. It was a tourist town; it had to. But at this time of year the only ones open were the café, Yukon Cornelius Pizza and The Figgy Pudding, which was a nice enough place but more expensive and only open for dinner in the off-season.

Amelia served seasonal specials that were to die for. Winter brought spiced acorn squash soup and a grilled juniper pork and sauerkraut sandwich on rye, which Clara adored. By the time she reached her customary table, Amelia had delivered her Diet Coke and placed her order on the wheel.

“What’s today’s donut?” Clara asked.

Amelia had received a donut maker from the Secret Santa, and she made good use of it, creating amazing donuts daily. Clara admitted she’d never met a cookie she didn’t like, but since Amelia started making donuts, she hadn’t been able to resist them either.

“In honor of Valentine’s Day, chocolate with cherry icing.”

Clara’s mouth watered.

“Valentine’s Day was last week, honey,” Wes Curtis pointed out.

Wes was Amelia’s sweetie. He'd moved to North Pole from New York not so long ago and started making handcrafted furniture. Conveniently he was Amelia's neighbor, and the two had helped each other out when she'd gotten stranded in North Pole last year.

Romance had blossomed, and they were so cute together they made Clara both happy and sad. She was glad they’d found each other, but sad that she was still alone. She should be used to it by now. She was headed downhill toward sixty. She wasn’t getting married anytime soon. Although she'd begun to hope that maybe she might not always be alone.

The bell on the door jangled, and Rudy came in. Clara’s cheeks heated. Ever since he’d jumped in front of Kody’s dogs to protect her, she’d been having dreams about him. Dreams that made her wake up both excited and embarrassed.

“Clara.” Rudy sat next to her.

No less than a month ago, Clara had still been sitting alone at the counter. Rudy would sit several seats away, a practice that marked him as an oddity in North Pole where everyone knew everyone and, mostly, got along.

He would grunt a few words, Clara would try and get him to grunt a few more. Then one day he'd sat next to her. A few days later he'd started a conversation. Shortly thereafter, when she'd arrived for lunch, he'd been at a table and waved for her to join him. They'd been sitting together ever since.

Amelia brought Clara’s lunch. She deposited a glass of milk in front of Rudy. “You want the special?”

“Turkey, mashed, no gravy.”

Amelia rolled her eyes. “I thought we were past the foods that are white fetish.”

Rudy had very bland tastes. Amelia had tried to get him to branch out, managing on occasion, but you couldn’t change the stripes on a zebra.

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