Chapter One
Clara
“Get fucked you stupid piece of—” I tossed the tartan bow I’d spent the last hour trying to tie just right on this Christmas wreath, trying to get the placement just right.
The rope of jingle bells attached to my shop’s front door announced a customer.
Ignoring the urge to scream and hurl the wreath against the wall, I straightened and greeted them with a smile. “Welcome to Floral Wonderland! Oh—It’s you.”
My gut twisted when Bastion Weber strode into my shop, the door swinging shut behind him with a festive jingle. Wearing that shit-eating smirk of his, he picked his teeth with the candy-cane he was never seen without—always sucked into a deadly point.
“Not exactly a holly jolly greeting, Clara. You greet your customers like that?”
My smile slipped back into a scowl. “You’re not my customer, you’re my Christmas tree guy.”
Bastion’s line of sight dropped to the wreath on my counter, with pine cones and poinsettias scattered around it like a cadaver after a botched operation. “Tough client?”
“This one’s for me. I’m going to put it on my car. I just need it to be perfect. Something’s off, and I can’t put my finger on what.”
“It’s probably fine. You know how you are.”
My eyes narrowed into deadly slits and I drummed my bright Santa red nails against the counter. “Excuse me?How I am?What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
I’d known Bastion since we were little. We’d gone to the same school, raised in the same little Christmas-obsessed, Krampus-themed town nestled in the Cascade mountains.
The handsome bastard, with coal-black hair and conniving eyes, rubbed me the wrong way. He was the only one in this town who saw through the mask I wore every day.
“You like to obsess over the details because it distracts you from the life you spend so long pretending is perfect. And that’s okay. Just because everyone else in this town is so damn cherry all the time doesn’t mean you have to be. Swear all youwant, throw all the wreaths. Just don’t mind me while I get the popcorn.”
“You’re a dick,” I seethed, turning my attention back to the wreath.
“Come on Clara,” his voice softened with an apologetic cadence. “Jokes aside, I’m being serious. Just because we live in a winter-fucking-wonderland doesn’t mean we have to pretend like our lives are perfect.”
Easy for him to say.
Bastion had no damn idea the kind of fresh hell my life was every night I went home to my piece of shit fiancé.
Admitting just how messed up my relationship with Hogan was would quite possibly break me. No. Better to live in a winter wonderland of make believe. The one that allowed me to pretend my life as a florist, running my own flower shop in the most magical, hallmark-Christmas-type town was nothing short of perfect.
“Why are you here?”
He gestured to my shop window, where his truck loaded up with Christmas trees was parked beside the snow-covered curb. “Got one last Christmas tree delivery for you.”
“Shipment isn’t due for another three days.”
Bastion chuckled as he approached my register counter. When his shadow fell over me, I finally looked up from my wreath to see him leering down with a grin. “Decided to drop off the trees early.” He paused for a beat before adding, “Got a good batch. Figured I’d let you have it before all the tree lots swooped in.”
Just like how he could see right through the sun-shiney, “my life is perfect” persona I put on for everyone else, including myself, I saw right through his lies. He was always looking for excuses to come around and check on me.
Maybe I would enjoy his company—he was hot as fuck—if it wasn’t for the fact that Hogan hated him. My fiancé was under the impression that my Christmas tree guy had a thing for me.
Maybe he knew that too, and that’s why he came around… just to get on Hogan’s nerves. I wondered if he’d still do it if he knew just how angry Hogan could get.
“Just leave the Christmas trees out front.” I gestured to the wooden caddy his dad had built for the person who’d owned the floral shop before me. Bastion and his family had been running the local Christmas tree farm for decades. When his father passed, he inherited it.
The caddy was looking bare, with only a dried out tree missing many of its needles. As annoyed as I was that Bastion was here and that Hogan might catch him, I was relieved to get my delivery early.
“Fine. Look, the real reason I came…”
