A miniature barn sat on one side of the square, surrounded by a wooden fence, while a large white gazebo was brightly lit in the center. A hand-painted sign welcoming everyone to Santa’s Village stood near the entrance, and from what she could see, there were booths selling hot drinks, crafts, and gifts. Definitely cute and quaint, country and crafty.
Back in San Francisco, they had Union Square, surrounded by tall buildings, upscale retail stores, a huge tree, manmade ice skating rink, and of all things, rows and rows of palm trees. It was glitzy, glamorous, expensive, and very commercial.
She craned her neck a few moments longer but decided to follow the onscreen navigation system to Plum Street, where Honey and Max had bought a house. Candi’s mouth was still gaping as she stared at the snowmen and snow families in every yard. They were lopsided and crooked with real carrot noses, coal button eyes and twigs for arms, not at all like the plastic lawn ornaments that passed for snow people in the store displays in the city.
She pulled up to a charming house with three dormer windows facing the street. A wooden porch sat under the roofline and led to the front door. A huge wreath hung over the door, and twinkling lights were strung over the entire house.
Strange indeed, since Honey had never decorated for Christmas when she lived in an expensive penthouse apartment back in San Francisco.
Candi pulled the car into the driveway, and before she could step out, her sister came out of the house, followed by Mattie, Candi’s four-year-old nephew, and Sara, who was around a year and a half.
Everyone had their snow boots on and were wrapped in warm jackets and scarves like they’d been waiting for her.
“Kids, Auntie Candi’s here,” Honey said, coming toward her. “How was the trip?”
Candi stepped from the car and gave Honey a big hug. She hadn’t seen her sister since before Halloween, when she went on a vacation with her ex-husband and never returned.
“It was uneventful. But I missed you, Mattie, and Sara.” Candi gave Mattie a hug and picked up her little niece. “I can’t believe this town, and I can’t believe you’re actually living here. It’s like seeing you on another planet.”
“This place is different,” Honey said, leading her into the house. “Max and I have never been happier. So are the kids. They have their friends and little groups of playmates. I can’t wait to show you around town.”
“I’m bushed.” Candi dragged her roller bag to the guest room. “Jetlagged. You name it.”
“Oh, but the night’s still young, and you’re on California time,” Honey said. She pointed to a piece of paper on the dresser. “There’s no time like now to get started with your special project.”
“Can it wait?” Candi picked up the paper, expecting a list of “to-do’s” for Honey’s wedding. “What is this? Sprig of mistletoe from the Come Again, candy cane from Kate and Levi’s Christmas tree, Santa’s boxers? I get that you’re having a Christmas wedding, but why would you need Santa’s boxers?”
“Your job as maid of honor is to help me and not ask questions.” Honey crossed her arms and gave her a close-mouthed smile. “I’ll need all these items by December twenty-third, the day before my wedding.”
“O-okaayyy,” Candi drawled, wondering at the strange country traditions that had invaded Honey’s wedding. “There must be something in the water here.”
“There definitely is.” Honey nodded choppily. “In the air, the water, and the dirt. I suggest you start at the Come Again. It’s the local bar and the location of the first item on the list.”
“The mistletoe sprig hanging over the entrance,” Candi read. “But if I took that, no one would be getting any kisses.”
“Exactly.” Honey rubbed her hands together, smiling and bouncing on her toes. “You’ll be rescuing some poor sap from kissing someone and getting dumped. Remember you told me kissing leads to being dumped?”
“Well, yes, but why should I care if some poor sap gets dumped?”
“Humor me,” Honey said. “I want to make sure no one in Sapphire Falls gets their heart broken until after my wedding. Therefore, no mistletoe anywhere.”
“I’m beginning to think Max and his tricks are rubbing off on you. Has he pulled any disappearing acts lately?” She waved her hand in front of Honey as if she were unconscious. “Is this my sister, Honey, in there or some body snatching alien?”
“Let’s get to the Come Again.” Honey took her arm in a surprisingly strong grip, then called out to her ex-husband and current fiancé, “Max, watch the kids. Candi and I are going out.”
“Okay, Honey!” Her sort of brother-in-law picked up the kids and gave her a wink. “Go get them, Candi.”
* * *
Troy ordered a drink and watched the mistletoe hanging above the doorway of the Come Again. It was more fun than watching the kiss cam at a major league baseball game. It all had to do with the timing, of course.
Guys tried exiting and entering at the same time as a woman they wanted to hit on. Women did the same thing, and it became a game for the rest of the people in the bar to take bets on whether a kiss would ensue.
Not only that, but there was an annoying ship’s bell, and whenever a couple was under the mistletoe together, someone would pull the rope and ring the bell.
Sometimes Sapphire Falls could be so predictable. Especially with the rash of marriages going on lately. All four Bennett brothers had tied the knot. Which meant a traffic jam under the mistletoe whenever the Bennett contingent with their gorgeous wives either entered or exited the Come Again. Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
What was more fun was watching the single guys and gals hovering near the door. It was unpredictable, and not everyone got what they wanted, with people faking each other out, pretending to go toward the door, then stepping back at the last minute.
“Got your eye on anyone?” The bartender slid him another drink. “Who knew a single sprig of mistletoe would bring so much business? Was that your idea?”
“Sorry, can’t claim that one.” Troy watched, amused, as three college-aged guys tripped over themselves to hold the door for a group of women. “It was actually Honey’s idea. She and Hailey seem to want to turn Christmas into another lovefest, as if having a Valentine’s Festival isn’t enough.”
“Tell me about it.” The other man rang the bell, nailing a couple under the doorway. “Hailey brought over a bunch of new drink recipes with names like Love Potion 99, Sex in the Sleigh, and Kissing Elves.”
“Our town has the most serious case of holiday confusion ever. Next thing you know, they’d be wanting to open the haunted house on Valentine’s Day, too.”
“Or do the Thanksgiving parade in July. Hey, as long as it’s good for business.”
“Yeah, business.” Troy mused as the bartender went back to polishing wine glasses. Hanging around the Come Again wasn’t going to get him laid because he’d sworn off local women.
Even though people came to him with their personal problems, Troy was a very private man, and he couldn’t see having everything he did with a woman be analyzed and described in detail around the parlors and cafés in town.
Whenever he had the urge, he’d hit up a bar in one of the neighboring towns and spend the night with a willing woman out of town. The hospital he worked at was twenty minutes away, and he had a few nurses with benefits up that way, too. Nope, he wouldn’t be kissing anyone under any of the many sprigs of mistletoe infesting the newly lovesick town of Sapphire Falls.
His sexual arrangement worked for him and kept his business out of the town rumor mill. It also kept his mother from meddling into his love life, or lack of it, and kept people from gossiping about her condition.
So yeah, sitting at the bar watching other people kiss was about as fun as watching a bride and groom stuff wedding cake up each other’s noses.
There was a lull in the door opening, which was good since every time the door opened, a draft of cold wind came in.
Troy relaxed his vigilance. A little. Honey h
ad assigned him to monitor the new additions to the Sapphire Falls traditions, the Come Again Mistletoe being her first experiment. He didn’t believe her, but she warned that town pranksters would try to disrupt the committee’s work.
Apparently, not everyone thought bringing in tourists and outsiders was a good thing. Among them was TJ Bennett, the mayor who worried about the increase in crime and cleanup costs.
The door opened a sliver as if someone couldn’t decide whether to enter or exit. Whoever was there was probably waiting for a likely prospect to catch up so they could enter together.
Troy took another swallow of his favorite beer and waited. Someone was being sneaky, and that was always the most entertaining.
He narrowed his eyes as an arm clad in a pink parka raised a pair of long barbecue tongs toward the mistletoe and yanked it off the arch above the door.
A prankster had hit. Honey was right.
Troy rushed to the heavy oak door and pushed it hard. It slammed into something solid.
“Ow!” the pink-parka woman exclaimed, and the barbecue tongs and mistletoe went flying.
He caught her before she hit the ground and pulled her away from the door. “Caught you.”
In more ways than one.
He turned her to face him, prepared to chew her out for defacing town property, as if a sprig of mistletoe were the crown jewels of Sapphire Falls.
But he lost his voice as his gaze landed on a set of sky blue eyes, cherry red lips, and a mane of silky blond hair.
“You’re not a policeman, are you?” she asked.
“No, I’m not. Who are you, and why are you stealing our mistletoe?” Now that she’d regained her balance, he had no reason to keep holding onto her, so he bent and picked up the sprig and tongs. He gave her back the tongs, but kept the mistletoe safe.
Part of him wondered if she’d try to snatch it back and give him the chance of more physical contact.
“It was a dare.” She blinked her not-so-innocent baby-blues. “I swear. I’ll put it back.”
He raised an eyebrow, but couldn’t help noticing how his heart thumped along with butterflies taking flight in his belly. The stranger was not just strikingly beautiful, but there was something in her that hit a chord of vulnerability. She’d waltzed into town and taken a dare. Why? Who was she trying to impress?
“You don’t have to. I’m taller than you.” He opened the door a crack, raised his hand, and hooked the sprig back onto the nail it was hanging from.
She watched him, at his side, and that was when the ship’s bell rang. Ding. Ding. Ding.
The blond vision smiled, showing a row of white teeth. She pointed at the mistletoe sprig and the fact that they were both standing under it at the same time.
Troy swallowed and licked his lips. What luck. A beautiful stranger wanted to kiss him. He could kiss her and she’d have no one to talk and analyze it with—at least no one in town.
He nodded and grinned, then bent over to claim his kiss, making the mistake of closing his eyes.
Whoosh. He scored an air-ball, and he felt, rather than saw, her raise the tongs up. When he opened his eyes, the woman was running away from the bar with her stolen sprig and cheating him out of his kiss.
Laughter roared from the spectators in the bar, and rather than going back and facing the music, Troy chased after the dastardly mistletoe thief.
“Hey, you. That’s town property you’re defacing. Come back here.”
Chapter Three
Candi darted down the slippery sidewalk with her stolen mistletoe. Her pulse raced, and flutters surged through her veins. The man at the bar was seriously hot, and he was gaining on her.
She peeked over her shoulder, then stepped off the sidewalk and ran between two large buildings. One of them was modern, cold, and gray, obviously a government building, the other one was an old, three-story mansion. Candi wasn’t given to the creeps, unlike Honey who was afraid of horror movies, but something about this house felt sinister. It was old and lined with wrought iron railings. The roofline was spooky, with a central gable, the kind that harbored bats, towering above two dormer windows at each side. Snow covered the steep roof, as well as the surrounding trees. Their crooked finger-like branches appeared to cast spells at the house.
Footsteps crunched on the snow behind her, and Candi cursed under her breath. The man had spotted her.
“Hey, you there,” he yelled. His voice was deep and strong, just like his hands when he’d caught her. Those few moments of contact had been electrifying, especially with the almost kiss.
Candi had no doubt it would have been a great kiss—one that promised more, curled her toes and hair, and led to complications.
The man was in between the buildings and closing in. There was no place to hide, unless she could get into the house, which was obviously empty.
She ran up the walkway and climbed the steps leading to the porch. She tried the front door, but it was locked. Heart leaping, she clambered down the side steps and skirted the building.
An old, wooden cellar door with rusted hinges lay at the side of the building. Her pursuer’s crunching footsteps were getting closer, and even though she wasn’t really scared of the man—after all, she could just give him back the mistletoe—Candi lifted the door and descended the stone steps. A dark doorway loomed below, but she was not about to explore the cellar of an abandoned building. This entryway would do just fine for hiding. Reaching up, she grabbed the cellar door and closed it over her head.
She was being silly, and she knew it. But after settling her debts and moving her things back to her mother’s house, she deserved to let go and have fun. Sapphire Falls was safe, and the man chasing her was not a raving axe murderer. He was absolutely no danger to her, unless she was stupid enough to fall in love with him.
But she had Dr. T replying to her messages, and he’d told her to take it slow. She’d also read another self-help book which advised playing hard-to-get.
Truth? The man out there was a hunk, but she had absolutely no future with him—an obvious small town boy.
So she’d not only play hard-to-get, but be hard-to-get.
Hard to kiss.
Only she really did want to kiss him.
But Dr. T would be disappointed, and she’d promised him she would report back to him on any developments. Not that there was much in the past week of packing, moving, closing out bank accounts with negative balances, and hounding her ex for money he owed her.
Ugh … She sat on the cold concrete step and rubbed her gloved hands. Here, in the dark, alone and cold, she could finally admit to herself that Boris had been entirely wrong for her. Blond, blue-eyed, with a compact muscular body, and a Russian accent to die for, he’d worshipped her and flattered her until she’d lost her head, then her clients, and finally her business.
It hurt, but it was more her pride than her heart.
Her heart was just fine.
Hadn’t it recovered nicely with the guy outside the bar?
Candi pulled her smartphone from her pocket and browsed to the forum where she’d met Dr. T. She thumbed him a message.
Dear Dr. T,
You should be proud of me. I discovered my heart wasn’t broken because I’m not pining for my ex-boyfriend. I just ran into another man, and I’m like the cartoon character jumping out of my shoes, my eyes popping out, my heart thudding from my chest, and my tongue hanging out. I can’t believe the sparks that flew between us, and I so wanted to kiss him. In fact, I suggested a kiss, but I ducked it at the last second.
I was so tempted, but now I’m proud of myself for not falling into that trap again. You’re right when you say that the external package doesn’t show anything about what’s inside a person.
Signed, Dumped but Proud
Right. She should be proud, but she really, really wanted that kiss. Twirling the mistletoe, she stuffed it into the pocket of her parka. “Sorry, little sprig. You’re not playing Cupid tonight.”
She pockete
d her phone and turned toward the cellar door. The coast should be clear by now.
The wooden door was jammed. Hadn’t she pulled back the hasp? She pushed up with all her strength, but nothing budged. She pounded on the door, and the sounds echoed down the stony steps. She could hear the latch rattling.
“Help. Someone. Help!” she yelled as she kept pounding on the door. Someone had to be nearby. There were booths across the street in the square. Someone had to hear her.
But minutes went by, and no one answered her. Candi put her phone on flashlight mode and crept down the stairs to the basement. If people feared this house was haunted, no one would answer her cries for help.
She’d have to figure a way out on her own.
Piece of cake.
Unlike Honey, she was the brave one of the litter. Theatrics, dancing, and acting were in her blood.
She turned the rusted doorknob. It creaked open, and she entered a dark and dusty basement. Her heartbeat thumped in her ear, and her breathing was shallow, but she shined her light and stared at the props hidden down below. Headless zombies, furry spiders, a green witch, bloody hands that stuck out of walls, old furniture and cobwebbed chandeliers.
The deathly silence was only broken by her echoing footfalls and her rasping breath, but she spotted another set of stairs leading to the main level. She tiptoed toward it between the tombstones and crypts, and crossed under a giant raven with red, beady eyes.
She’d been on the set of Phantom of the Opera and behind the scenes at the Haunted Hayride in Los Angeles. She wasn’t afraid. Not one bit. Opening her phone, she brought up Honey’s scavenger hunt list. There was an item from the haunted house. “Take a skeleton key from a skeleton at the Haunted House.”
She should do it now. Piece of cake. Shining her phone’s flashlight app, she searched for a skeleton with a key, but couldn’t spot one.
Maybe they reposed in the coffins lying on the basement floor. Candi laid her phone down and opened the lid of a coffin.
“Ahhh!” Her heart flew from her throat. A vampire popped up from the coffin, its leathery wings flapping.
Sapphire Falls: Going Toe to Mistletoe (A Christmas Romance) (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 2