Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m pulling up the main drive to Holly House. As I slow to park, I lean forward over my steering wheel to make sure I’m really seeing what I’m seeing. I throw it into park and step out with a purpose.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I bark, stomping towards the front of the inn.
Looking up, I see Noelle standing on the top of a twelve foot ladder leaning against a window trying to hang up a prelit Christmas wreath.
“Nick?” she asks without turning around. Her arms are extended above her head as she tries to reach the window.
“Get down from there right now,” I demand, walking towards the bottom of the ladder. Not only is she out here without anyone spotting her but she’s also climbed to the top wearing her heels.
“What are you doing here?” She doesn’t pause in her attempt to hang the wreath and instead stretches further to the point where one of her feet leaves the ladder. My heart stalls in my chest as I wait to make sure she doesn’t fall off and hurt herself.
“Sugar, for the love of all things Christmas,pleasecome down.” I’m practically begging at this point.
Unable to reach the window, she drops her arms in defeat. “Fine.”
She slides the wreath down her arm like a purse and starts to climb down. She’s halfway down when one of the wet rungs causes her foot to slip. She fails to catch herself and goes tumbling over the side. Releasing the ladder, I move to catch her before she hits the frozen ground beneath us. My arms cradle her as she falls, and she wraps her arms around my neck as I catch her. She looks at me with wide eyes, our faces only a few inches apart as she works to catch her breath from the fear of falling six feet to the ground.
“Man am I glad you showed up,” she says, looking at me, still holding on tight.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I ask, knowing I could put her down but not wanting to.
“Actually, Nick, yes. I woke up this morning and thought ‘hmm, what could I do today that would scare Nick so bad he becomes the ghost of Christmas’s past?’” she bickers, making a face at me. Her eyes glance to the ground for a moment before looking back at me. “You can put me down, you know?”
“I think I’m okay, actually. We can stay like this all night, I’m quite happy how things are,” I reply honestly.
She begins to wiggle herself free so I gently set her down.
“No, we can’t. Mostly because I have a lot of work to do but also because…” she pauses and gives me a quick once over. “Because I have a lot of work to do.”
I smirk at her, knowing the real reason she doesn’t want me to hold her longer than needed. Because doing so would make it hard to not break the rules she set herself for our little arrangement.
“Well then put me to work, boss. I’m here to help,” I offer, staying close on her heels as she walks towards the porch. It’s full of wreaths, bows, and Christmas lights ready to be hung up. She spins around and screws her face up at me.
“You want to help me hang Christmas decorations?” She seems genuinely confused by my willingness to help her out.
“Yeah? You said it was going to take you forever. I figured if you had a second pair of hands it would only take a millennium instead of forever.”
She raises her brows at me. “You think a step down from forever is a millennium?”
“Well a thousand years feels like less than forever, so yeah,” I shrug.
She laughs and the sound of it makes my skin prickle. “You’re a dork, you know that?”
“You’re talking to a man who draws and calculates numbers for a living. I’m aprofessionaldork, thank you very much,” I hum, bringing my hand to my chest and smiling at her.
Reaching out a hand, she presses a finger into my cheek. It’s something she used to do when we were together.
“I like your dimples,” she compliments, another thing she would do when we were kids. “Thanks for coming and helping.”
We’re standing only a few inches apart from one another and I want something criminal to kiss her. I manage to hold onto any amount of self-control I have and simply smile at her.
“You’re welcome, sugar. Like I said before, anything you need, I’m here for you.”
For the next several hours we work on getting all the wreaths hung up in the windows of the inn. She works on checking that the lights work and that the bows are perfectly flushed while I stand on the ladder and hang them up. The lights from inside are the only thing lighting up the space as we work like a well-oiled machine. Climbing down the ladder after hanging the last one, I take a step back to admire our work. Noelle steps up next to me and tips her head back to take in the inn. My eyes fall to where she’s standing. The light from the fake candles inside the windows paired with the glow of the Christmas lights illuminate her face. Her hair falls down her back in perfect waves and her cheeks are flushed from the cold. After a moment, I notice that her eyes are watery and she’s holding back tears.
“Hey.” I take a step towards her and wrap an arm around her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”
