I’d find out what that was about. But I needed to set her straight about thegirlfriendthing. I was as single as a man could get. No attachments at all, except to her.
And damn it, the next time I saw her, I was going totalk.
And Iwouldask her out. Iwould. No matterwhatwas going on around us.
Chapter 13
Violet
The town was cuter than I’d known.
I’d probably spent too much time hiding in my apartment since I moved here. Just today I’d visited more places than I had in the last six months. And it was all because of my Secret Santa.
Before the Jingle Mingle Market, I’d gone to Beaux Arts. Then Herman’s Foods, followed by the Silver Pines Gift Shop.
Everywhere I went, people already knew me. They even said they’d beenexpectingme. And now I had three more clues, which didn’t tell me much.
One clue was to look for the biggest truck around. But this was a town whereeveryman drove a giant pickup. Aemon from HR was off the list. I’d seen him driving an antique pickup truck, much smaller than the kind they make these days.
Another clue was that, unlike therealSanta, he didn’t have white hair. That knocked Ralph and Tim right off the list.
And the final clue I’d gathered today was that he was an early riser and liked to watch the sunrise. That made me recall a conversation I’d heard in the breakroom a few weeks ago. Javierand Christian had mentioned that they’d gone to the local bar, the Bear Den, that weekend and slept until late in the afternoon. That knocked them off the list.
That left just Peter, Will, Justin, Mike, and Frank.
The list was shrinking.
Once again, I found myself wishing Easton’s name was on the list.
But I didn’t have time to think about that for too long.
I was in the middle of a bustling crowd of shoppers. Snow was on the ground, and a nip cooled the air. I’d walked here from my apartment because my car had made a bad chugging sound earlier this week. The prognosis was that I needed a new transmission to get it running again.
Which made me glad that this town was so small. Everything was within walking distance. Although the cold winter temperatures werenota pleasure to stroll in.
The shop-keepers and artisans at the Jingle Mingle Market had so many tempting things to buy. But my pocketbook didn’t want me to spend a dime. I’d been sending all my money back home to help with my sister Melinda’s medical bills. She’d had a complicated pregnancy a few years back, and the whole family had been pitching in to whittle down her debts.
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” the woman behind the goat milk soap table asked as she packaged up one bar for me. I was going to bring it home to my sister for Christmas.
“Uh, yeah. I relocated for work.”
“Well, I’m Kat and this is my husband, Jake. And over there is our dog, Betty Sue. I think you’ll love it here. It’s a welcoming town.”
Kat and her husband looked like wild mountain folk. But there was something shining in her eyes, like she was more alive than most people.
I wonder if all the fresh air gives her that sparkle?
She handed me the package. “Where did you say you worked again? We don’t have that many businesses, and I’ve never heard of someone relocating to workherebefore. Usually, people leave the mountain to go find a good job.”
“Oh, I’m with Von Renpel Enterprises. They gave me a transfer offer.”
“Is your name Violet by any chance?”
“Yeah. That’s me.”
Kat and her husband shared a side-glance with each other.
Then, with hardly a change in her tone, but one that was noticeable to me, Kat said, “Locals do it better.”
