Baby It's Cold Out Bear Holiday Bundle by T. S. Joyce

Author:T. S. Joyce [Joyce, T. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wicked Willow Press
Published: 2020-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter One

Hadley watched the giant man unfold himself from a rusted-out green Chevrolet pickup truck. Leaning on the counter, she clutched her cell phone in both hands. Colin was parked across the street from her flower shop in front of the post office. He came here every Monday around the same time. Not that she’d been stalking him or anything. She was just curious about the hermit was all.

Curious why he’d paid for her lunch, then showed no interest in coming by the shop to cash in his coupon.

Curious as to what he looked like under that dark beard.

Curious about the sunglasses he seemed to wear at all times, even when he was indoors or it was cloudy.

And she was definitely wondering what caused a man to live all the way up in the mountains alone without the apparent need for companionship. Oh, she’d asked around, and all that had accomplished was the man being clouded in even more mystery.

The northern half of him disappeared as he pulled a stack of small boxes from his bench seat, then he kicked the door closed with a heavy-looking work boot. Long, lean legs were hidden in dark jeans that fit his frame just right and hung perfectly from his tapered waist. She couldn’t tell much about the rest of him because he wore a thick jacket, but she tried to imagine how strong he was underneath.

What did he do up there in those mountains all day?

“Have you checked your profile lately?” Vona asked.

“Uhh, yeah, a little while ago.”

“And?”

“And I’ve made a friend.”

“A friend?” The disappointment in Vona’s voice was almost comical. “Look, Hadley, I’m graduating next year, and I won’t be here to monitor your dating life.”

When Hadley tossed a culled rose at her employee, she ducked out of the way neatly. With a put upon sigh, Vona snatched her phone. “What does this friend look like?”

Colin the Mountain Man had disappeared with the armload of boxes into the post office, so she gave her attention back to Vona. She was a pretty girl. Young and with little need for her caked on make-up. She had a smattering of freckles across her cheekbones, sandy brown hair and dark lashes that made the blue in her eyes look even brighter. Her delicate eyebrows drew down in a severe frown as she studied the profile Hadley talked to most often.

Hadley scrunched up her face and waited for the lecture that was sure to come.

“Bearman28 doesn’t have a profile picture,” Vona observed. “Out of all the candidates, you are choosing to hook-up online with a picture-less profile.”

“We’re not hooking up, Vona. We’re friends. He’s nice to talk to. Funny. He cares about what kind of day I’m having, and it’s nice to have someone to talk to who is also struggling with this dating stuff.”

“He’s probably a serial killer,” Vona deadpanned.

“Probably. Which is why I’m not meeting up with him or telling him where I live.”

“See,” Vona said, handing back the phone. “This is what serial killers do.

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