CHAPTER ONE
Maggie
It was Christmas Eve,and I was alone. Not that I minded. I wasn’t big on celebrating the holidays.
I flicked through the endless channels, not finding anything interesting to watch. You’d think with the millions of Christmas movies available, I’d find something that interests me, but nothing.
Having moved back to town only a month ago, I hadn’t made friends yet, spending a lot of my free time taking care of my older parents. Who had already retired for the night, leaving me to with a lot of free time on my hands.
With a big sigh, I laid down on the pillows on my couch and tossed the remote on the coffee table, settling on theHallmarkchannel. Maybe the plot would spark something in my head.
Something had to work. Fighting writer’s block wasn’t for the weak. Nor was fixing plot holes.
The latest romantasy book I’ve been writing took a serious detour and I sort of wrote myself into a corner. Now I needed tobacktrack and figure out where to go, but that was a tomorrow problem. My brain couldn’t take anymore today.
Nor could my feet, considering I paced around the house looking for some damn inspiration and found nothing except a good workout.
I grabbed a handful of cheese popcorn from the tin on the table and shoved it in my mouth, the salty cheesy taste exploding on my tongue.Yum. The cheese powder is like crack.
Ding!
The chime of my doorbell rang through my small cabin. I glanced at the clock. It was after nine. Who was at my door at this hour?
I sat up with a start, afraid something might be wrong with my parents. They are the reason I moved back home, to be close and help them out, but I checked in on them this morning and all was well.
The bell chimed again, and I quickly hurried to the front door, smoothing down my Christmas pajamas and checking my hair in the entryway mirror. I looked a mess, but oh well, it would have to do.
One look through the peephole and I gasped.
No way. It couldn’t be.
I looked again.
It was him.
Garner.
Out of everyone I would’ve guessed to be standing at my door after nine o’clock at night, it wouldn’t be him.
I hadn’t seen him in years.
What is he doing here?
Instant panic and white-hot lust crashed together, and it was as if I couldn’t breathe. Garner rang the doorbell a third time.
How is this happening?
With a shake of my hands, I opened the door, and there Garner stood. He was no longer a boy. Oh no. The cute high school kid had morphed into a full-grown man. A very handsome, very muscular one at that. I took my time sizing him up, taking him in, and looking over the body I was no longer familiar with.
Snow fell around him, the flakes landing on his beanie hat. But his eyes…still so strikingly blue. I dreamed about those eyes. Hadn’t stopped since he left all those years ago.
Holy hell.
“Maggie, hi,” He breathed, his voice deeper than I remembered. His face now sported a thick, full beard, and the urge to run my fingers through it nagged at me.
“What are you doing here?” I couldn’t help but go on the defense. He showed up with no warning. Out of the blue.
“Can we talk for a minute? Maybe inside, where it’s not two degrees.”
