“Hey, Chris. What brings you out in this weather?” Joe, the store owner, asked from where he stood, mop in hand.
“You know me, nothing like leaving it until the last minute.” I shrugged, deliberately keeping it vague.
I had no issues with Holly and Noelle staying with me. Sure, it was a bit awkward, and trying to keep myself from saying or doing something stupid when it came to Holly was hard, just like my dick in my pants, but we’d survive. The one thing I didn’t want, though, was the whole town talking about it. They already knew my sad story and Christmas allergy, I didn’t want them gossiping over the eggnog about the new woman in my life.
“Well, there’s not much left.” He shrugged. “People really stocked up this year. Good for me, I guess. Maybe not so good for you.”
“I’ll be fine,” I grumbled, already hating this shopping expedition.
I grabbed a cart and started down the aisle. I made it to the end of the first aisle before I realized the cart was still empty. When I usually shopped for just me, there was no cart involved. I walked in, grabbed a couple of frozen pizzas, a couple of bags of crisps and the necessities, and got the hell back out again. Inand out and done, all under five minutes. I’d learned the hard way, too, if I took any longer than that, someone would stop me and want to chat. I didn’t chat. I wasn’t the chatting type. I was the strong, silent type who preferred to make a donation than man a booth and be forced to interact with people. I might be the Christmas Grinch but my dislike of people ran true all year around.
With a shake of my head, I spun around and walked back up the same aisle again. This time, forcing myself to pay attention. I had no idea how long I’d have guests, and even worse, I had no idea what a kid ate, let alone a woman like Holly. Holly was seriously hot. I had to imagine she ate fruits and vegetables and watched every meal. I mean, she had curves in all the right places, and her tits were the perfect handful, but she obviously took care of herself.
I had no idea.
I was lost.
I started grabbing anything that could possibly make sense. Breakfast cereal. Bread. Cheese.
I dug my phone from my pocket to check the list Holly had texted me when I rammed into someone.
“Ouch!”
“Shit! Sorry, I wasn’t …”
“Looking where you were going,” Mike finished for me.
I was actually relieved he was the one I smashed into, not some little old lady I’d knocked on her ass.
Mike and I had known each other forever. I don’t remember where he’d come from, but I’d met him at the Reindeer Hole one night. It was before Shayna had destroyed my life. We were drinking and joking and mucking around. He was Australian and headed to the lodge to work for the winter. At three in the morning, we were kicked out and ended up back at my place, tossing back the beers and talking shit.
“You Yanks know nothing. Australia’s so much better,” he teased.
The argument had been going on all night. Which country was better? We’d covered sports, politics, health care, but now it had turned serious. Food. And more specifically, chocolate.
“You’ve never had a Tim Tam?” Mike asked, shocked.
“What the hell is a Tim Tam?”
I’d lived in Evergreen Lake my whole life. I’d never been out of the state. When would I have heard of Tim Tims?
“You’re serious?”
“Of course, I’m fucking serious?”
“You’ve never heard of a Tim Tam? They’re a chocolate biscuit dipped in chocolate. You do a Tim Tam slam with them?”
The look on my face must’ve told him everything. Next thing I knew, he was calling his girlfriend Nicole, demanding she get out of bed and bring us down a packet. I didn’t hear her end of the call, but she never arrived, so I could only guess how that went.
After that, Mike and I became fast friends. For the next few years, he’d worked at the ski resort, while Nicole took a job at Evergreen Inn. First, she worked the front reception desk, these days her bossiness had paid off and she was the operations manager, working when she could around wrangling their two kids, Chip and Harvey. And trust me, those kids took some wrangling. I’d been conned into babysitting a time or two, and as much as I loved them, I loved them much better when I just got to swing by, be the fun uncle, cause chaos then disappear again.
“What the hell you doing out in this weather?” he asked.
“Umm … I could ask you the same,” I threw back at him, trying to deflect the attention back onto him.
“Nicole sent me.”
“Of course she did.”
