“Mom, I want to get on the ride now!!!”
“Can I pet the horse?”
But I couldn’t focus on any of that.
I should run after her. Get her phone number. Maybe even just say hi.
But my ass was glued to the seat of the sleigh, a heavy weight holding me back.
When Chloe was twenty feet away, she looked back one more time. Her eyes were dark mysteries, and I sensed something between us. Another flash of heat, but underneath that, a knowingness. The way Chloe looked at me, it was as though she understood me without even a word passing between us.
I licked my lips, trying to shout, trying to get up, trying to keep her from leaving.
But no words came out. No sound at all.
And I sat there until she dipped out of view in the parking lot.
I’d probably never see her again.
That sat on my chest like a heavy weight. Now that she was gone, I felt even worse than before I’d ever seen her. She hadn’t been a good distraction after all.
Stop thinking about her.
I needed to get my head on straight.
“Get in. There’s no seat belt. We don’t go fast. Come on, Sally, let’s do another round through the woods,” I told the new group, while I tried to work Chloe out of my system.
Whoever she was, she was just a pipe dream.
It was best to focus on the real world in front of me, where uncles get old and sick, and horses, too.
A year from now, both Rod and Sally hadbetterbe around or I’d have to kick their asses straight to Missouri and back.
Chapter 3
Chloe
Three weeks later.
The sidewalk was treacherous. As I got into my car, I slipped on the ice, catching myself on the doorframe at the last second.
My elf hat fell off, and I grabbed it where it had landed in the snow.
On top of my full-time diner job, I’d been moonlighting as a singing telegram. It was a short-term holiday gig, but if my reviews were good, they’d bring me back on board for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
I didn’t have many skills in life, but singing was one of them. I wasn’t half bad. And this paidwaybetter than Uber.
The elf costume on the other hand? What an embarrassment.
You put a plus-size girlie in a tiny elf costume and things looked… different than they would on a smaller woman. I was busting out of the costume. They hadn’t been able to provide me with a bigger size.
But I got a hundred dollars per gig, plus they paid for mileage. All I needed was a decent singing voice and the ability to drivemyself wherever the job was. So I wore the costume without complaint.
It was just odd to get a job all the way out at Red Oak Mountain after going there for the first time a few weeks ago. Especially when you considered that I’d been obsessing over a certain Sexy Santa who lived on that mountain.
Before Astrid and I had gone on the sleigh ride, I’d never known the place existed. It was only an hour away… but it felt like a world apart from my reality.
Astrid had tried to talk me into going back out to Red Oak Mountain, but it hadn’t happened until I found a real reason to go.
