“Well, if she ever makes it out that way, tell her to call me. I live in the city.”
“That’s good to know. It’d be nice to have someone looking out for her.” He nodded. “Thanks, bro.”
Nic parked the truck in front of a building that might have had paint on it once but was now a sad shade of gray. The lack of color made the girl with the wine-red hair stand out like a rose in a snowfield.
The gorgeous woman was bent over to retrieve something from the back of her car. Her million-dollar curves were stuffed into perfectly fitted jeans and a horrific burnt-orange sweater. Her fashion sense left something to be desired, but she had a body that would look good in anything. Especially my bed.
But then she straightened. The sun turned her maroon hair copper and I recognized her immediately. Little Clara Snow had grown up well. Even better than I had imagined.
I hadn’t seen her since I left for college, and even before that, we never really hung out aside from the five minutes we shared on stage together at the Christmas Spectacular a decade ago. I would have had no reason to think about her over the years except for the fact my brothers never let me forget about that night.
They brought it up at least once a year, which made her impossible to forget. Every detail of that moment was cemented in my brain. I often found myself thinking about what she was up to and if she still looked good in an elf costume. It was just a fun little fantasy, though, nothing I ever considered following up on.
Because of that, Clara Snow had been a huge part of my life, and the funny thing was she had no clue about any of it. Which was probably for the best. She would probably think I was nuts if she knew how often I thought of her.
I wasn’t sure she would even be happy to see me. Nic hadn’t warned her I was coming. A grateful smile lit her face when she saw her brother’s truck roll up but it faded to a look of pure horror when I stepped out of the passenger seat.
That answered one question. She was most definitely not as excited to see me as I was to see her.
Not letting that stop me, I waved at her and shot her a friendly smile, hoping to put her at ease. “Hey, Clara. It’s been a while. How are you?”
She narrowed her eyes at me like I’d just told her she looked fat or something. It was not the usual effect my smile had on women, but she wasn’t just any woman. She was Clara Snow, the hot little elf I’d been dreaming about for years.
“I’ve been better,” she said flatly and I didn’t know how to respond to that. Finding myself at a loss for words was also unusual. I talked on camera for a living, heard by millions of people. And she had shut me up with three words.
Unbelievable.
Before I could say anything else, Clara grabbed her brother by his thick arm and dragged him over to her open hood, which blocked them from my view. I didn’t know what she was saying but the angry whispers didn’t sound like she was telling him about her engine. I took a few steps away to give them space.
A few minutes later, Nic slammed the hood shut and walked back over to me, wiping his hands on his jeans. “That engine is done. It’s not going anywhere today.”
“So what’s the plan?” I asked, noticing Clara was leaning back in her car again. Was she trying to avoid talking to me?
I caught her looking at me through the back window and she quickly averted her gaze. Maybe she hadn’t forgotten about me. Back when I used to swing by the Snow house in high school, she had always blushed around me. I had been under the impression she had a crush on me.
For years, I had been wondering if the candy cane incident had made her crush better or worse. It looked like maybe it had been a memorable moment for her as well.
“Grab some boxes and throw them in my truck,” Nic said. “We’ll take it to the house.”
We made quick work of unloading her car’s backseat. She only had a few carboard boxes. Then we all climbed into the front seat of Nic’s truck. Clara sat in the middle between us. She didn’t say a word to me, only to Nic, and I didn’t push it.The redness in her cheeks could be because she was nervous, or because she was annoyed. I knew better than to poke a hornet’s nest.
On the way, Nic got a call from his girlfriend, Sadie, and he put it on speaker. She asked if Nic wanted to go out to the lake for a bonfire tonight. Nic arched a brow at me in invitation.
“Sure,” I said.
Nic nodded and kept talking to Sadie. I glanced down at Clara, who looked like she wanted nothing more than to disappear. I figured that was her way of saying she wouldn’t be going to the lake. That was a shame.
When we got back to their parents’ house, Nic hadn’t even fully stopped the truck before Clara scrambled to get out. She crawled over my lap on her way and her knee narrowly missed my groin.
We watched her sprint into the house, and Nic murmured, “What the hell is her problem?”
I had the distinct impression thatIwas the problem. Then, the gears in my head started churning.
CHAPTER 6
CLARA
Jessie had given me a ride back over to my apartment to pack more boxes but I was starting to wonder if involving her was a mistake. Instead of helping me gather up my things, she wouldn’t stop begging me to go out with her to the bonfire at the lake.
