It’s locked, I told myself.Just go home and stop wasting—
The door swung open.
18
Merrie
“Another terrible sales evening,” I said as I ate the last of my Hershey’s Kiss cookies.
I had been worried I hadn’t made enough cookies for the crowds that I was sure would stream in from the Christmas market in search of the perfect ornament. However, only five people had come into the shop that entire evening. One woman had bought a Christmas tree ornament. The rest of them had taken a free cookie and bounced.
I sat at the counter, staring through the window out at the festival. The crowds had dwindled, and many of the stall owners were packing up.
“You going to call it a night?” Olivia asked me, picking up her cat and wrapping him up in her coat.
“Do you want to stay here and watch Christmas movies?” I asked hopefully.
“Yes,” Olivia said, “but I have to take a call with a client who is off skiing in Switzerland in the morning before she hits the slopes, so I don’t think you want me to be here for that. My car is fine. It’s just until Christmas, right? Then I have my apartment back and a fat stack of cash.”
“Maybe I should try renting out my shop as an Airbnb.”
Olivia patted my arm.
“It will turn around, especially once people realize they saw you onThe Great Christmas Bake-Off.They’ll be lining up to buy Christmas ornaments.”
I kept the shop open another hour while I baked another batch of cookies and drank the rest of the wine. I was halfway through eating that batch of cookies when I decided to call it quits.
“God, this was such a terrible idea,” I groaned as I locked up the shop and turned off the lights. Only the glow from the Christmas tree and the carefully arranged shop displays in the window lit the main shop floor.
I didn’t even bother taking off my makeup and washing my face. That would be future me’s problem. I pulled on a soft camisole and my Frosty the Snowman sleeping shorts. Then the cookies, the bottle of wine, and I crawled into the sleeping bag. I set a Hallmark Christmas movie playing on my tablet as I lay in the nest of pillows and blanket I had arranged on the floor. I ate cookies while yelling at the girl who was trying to open a Christmas quilt shop in the small town where she had just moved.
“No, don’t do it!” I slurred, picking up the bottle of wine and taking a swig. “You’re not going to make it. Turn back, turn back, I say! It’s not worth it.”
On screen, the snow fell as the hunky Hallmark boyfriend took the girl on a romantic adventure at a private ice-skating pond in the woods he had made just for her. This was why I loved Hallmark movies. It felt like I was really there, twirling around on ice skates in the woods with the snow falling. A snowflake landed on my nose. A warm breeze blew over my face.
Wait, I struggled to think.I thought this was a Christmas movie?
I blinked my eyes open.
A big pink tongue licked the cookie crumbs off my face.
“Wolf!” I jumped up, screaming, and raced for the light switch. I collided against a very hard chest.
“Oof!” I rubbed my chin as Matt Frost flicked on the switch, flooding the shop in light.
“I knew it! I knew you were sleeping in here,” he yelled. “I told you not to. I told you it was a code violation I—”
He paused, mouth half open, then his eyes slid down and widened. I looked down at my very thin camisole that left nothing to the imagination.
Matt’s mouth moved. No words came out. Then he finally choked out, “Where are the rest of your clothes?”
“Where areyourclothes?” I shrieked, waving my arms around, which in hindsight, might have been the wrong move—it sent my boobs, which were admittedly large (because I stress ate, goddamn it!), bouncing on my chest.
Matt’s eyes flicked up to the ceiling then the Christmas tree then back to my face.
I put my fists on my hips. “It’s freezing outside, and you’re wearing a short-sleeved shirt.”
“You’re not wearing a…” He pointed at my chest.
