I felt heat rise in my cheeks, which was ridiculous. I was a professional businesswoman running a family enterprise, not some teenager at her first dance. So what if the man was devastatingly handsome? So what if he carried himself with the kind of confidence that suggested he was used to getting whatever he wanted? So what if something about him made my pulse quicken so fast I could feel it in my neck?
None of that mattered. What mattered was that he was a potential customer, and based on his appearance, he was a potential customer with serious money to spend. This could be exactly the kind of break we needed. If he liked what we had going on here, he could tell his friends and maybe they would show up too.
“I’ll handle it,” I told Ozzo, straightening my shoulders and putting on my best customer service smile. “He looks like he could afford every tree on the lot. Maybe he owns a hotel nearby and wants trees for every room.”
The fantasy was already spinning in my head as I started walking toward the newcomer. Maybe he was some big shot developer who was planning to open a luxury resort in the area. Maybe he needed dozens of trees for some elaborate holiday display. Maybe he was exactly the kind of high-spending customer who could single-handedly turn our season around.
I could already picture myself going up to the lodge tonight and telling my parents that we’d landed a major client on opening day. I could imagine the relief and pride in their eyes when I explained how this mysterious stranger had placed an order that would cover our operating expenses for the next month.
It was probably too good to be true, but a girl could dream, right?
I was about halfway to the man when he turned and looked directly at me. My steps faltered slightly. Up close, he was even more striking than he’d appeared from a distance. He pushed his sunglasses up on his head and turned his eyes on me.
Oh crap. I looked down to see what I was wearing. A faded hoodie with Northwood Tree Farm on the back. Worn jeans. My snow boots. My hair. I groaned. My hair was in my version of a messy bun that was nowhere near cute and stylish. It was just messy. I had put on mascara and nothing else. It wasn’t like I planned on meeting Mr. Tall, Dark, and Gorgeous. I would have put in a little more effort.
It was what it was. I put on my best saleswoman smile and walked toward him.
CHAPTER 4
KENT
What. A. Shit hole.
That was my first thought as I stepped out of the rental car and looked around at what had to be the most aggressively festive nightmare I had ever encountered. Christmas trees as far as the eye could see, twinkling lights strung up everywhere like someone had vomited holiday cheer all over the landscape.
The drive up here had been a special kind of hell. Two hours of winding mountain roads that got progressively narrower and more treacherous as I climbed higher into what felt like the middle of nowhere. My GPS had lost signal three times, leaving me to navigate by the hand-drawn map my father had given me, which had proved to be completely useless when it came to actual roadways.
Now I was standing in what looked like the North Pole’s low-budget cousin, surrounded by more Christmas spirit than should be legally allowed in one location.
“What in the actual fuck?”
I had traveled the world. Been to quaint inns and luxury hotels. But where I was standing now was so not any of that. It wasrustic. I didn’t know people actually lived like this. Iremembered a movie we watched when we were kids. It was just like this. I honestly believed it was all fantasy.
A beat-up old truck rumbled into the parking area behind me, belching black smoke and coughing. I watched in horrified fascination as the driver’s door opened and a man dressed as Santa Claus heaved himself out, gut first. The guy was wearing the full costume—red suit, white beard, black boots—and he looked like he’d been hitting the milk and cookies a little too hard for the past decade.
The passenger door opened and a young woman dressed like an elf climbed out, complete with pointed hat and jingle bells. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five. She had the kind of aggressively cheerful demeanor that made me want to shake her until she stopped smiling.
Yes, I was a Grinch. Never claimed otherwise.
“Merry Christmas!” Santa called out as they walked past me toward a small wooden structure with a hand-painted sign that read, “Santa’s Cabin.”
“Merry Christmas!” the elf echoed, giving me a wave that made her bells jingle.
I stared after them, wondering if I’d somehow fallen through a wormhole into some alternate dimension where Christmas was a year-round occupation and adults routinely dressed up.
This was where my father wanted me to conduct serious business? This was the location of supposedly valuable oil deposits? The whole place looked like a theme park that had been designed by someone with a severe case of holiday-induced psychosis.
I seriously considered getting back in my car and driving straight back to New York City. I could tell my father that I had investigated the property thoroughly and determined that there were no valuable minerals in the area. I wasn’t even great atbusiness deals but I knew there was no way these people were going to accept a check to give up their weird little fantasy world.
“Fuck this,” I muttered.
I was about to get back in the car when I spotted movement across the parking area.Okay. Alright. This is definitely more my speed.My thoughts of immediate escape evaporated.
A woman was walking toward me, and despite the ridiculous setting, she managed to capture my attention in a way that had nothing to do with holiday spirit. She wasn’t exactly a snow bunny, but there was potential under that country casual look.
She was wearing jeans and a hoodie that was nothing like the skin-tight, designer winter suits that the snow bunnies in Aspen wore. But there was something about her that immediately turned me on in a way that caught me completely off guard.
She had serious curves that even her oversized hoodie couldn’t hide. The jeans she wore were a little tight. When she got close enough for me to see her face clearly, I felt something tighten in my chest. She was beautiful in a natural, unpolished way that was completely different from the women I usually found myself attracted to. No obvious makeup, no surgically enhanced features, no designer accessories.
