Three blinking stares pinned him with disbelief. Even Laney leveled him with an incredulous look.
“Okay, okay. I will get this tree measured for you, but then you’re on your own. If Sir Noble Fir is going to be center stage on Main Street this year, it’ll be without my involvement.”
But it was entirely too late for that. Holden was already in as deep as the summit snowpack.
* * *
“When didyou take Rachel Joy out on an excursion?”
Holden glanced up from his container of reheated leftovers, his mother’s lasagna tasting every bit as good the second day. Lance stood in the doorway to the back room with a single sheet of paper in his hands and a befuddled look on his face.
“Not sure I know what you’re talking about there, partner,” Holden said.
Lance flapped the paper against his palm. “We’ve got a waiver here with the nameRachel Joywritten at the top. Found it when I was cleaning up the front desk. By the way, our organization around here leaves much to be desired.”
Eyes narrowed, Holden dropped his fork onto the plate and pushed up from his chair. He took the sheet Lance passed to him and scanned the form, his mind drawing a blank.
“I never took…”
Like he’d sucked on a sour candy, Holden’s mouth suddenly tingled with acid. He nearly choked.
“That woman you had your little mistletoe hunt with!” Understanding dawned, and Lance gave Holden’s unsaid revelation words. “That was Rachel, wasn’t it? That’s why you were asking all about her the other day.”
“No,” Holden blurted. “No.” It wasn’t that way. “It couldn’t have been Rachel.”
“What do you mean it ‘couldn’t have been’?” His friend’s steel-gray gaze trapped Holden’s, challenging him. “It was Rachel or it wasn’t.”
“There’s no way that woman was Rachel Joy.”
“Are you trying to tell me you didn’t know the name of the woman you took out on the snowmobile? And that you’re just now discovering her identity?”
If the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus all walked into their rental shop, Holden couldn’t have been more surprised than he was in that very moment. Even toss in a leprechaun; it wouldn’t have added to his shock. Disbelief sucker-punched him in the gut.
“This can’t be.” His fingers speared through his hair. He paced the small break room, head shaking.
“Oh my word. You’re dating Rachel Joy, aren’t you?” Lance’s mouth lifted into a haughty grin.
“I amnotdating Rachel Joy.”
“But you kissed her under the mistletoe.”
Holden’s chin drew back. “What? No! I didn’t kiss her!”
“You’re telling me you went on a mistletoe expedition with a beautiful woman and you didn’t even kiss her? Wasted opportunity, buddy. Big time.”
Holden had a harder time wrapping his head around this situation than he’d had wrapping the lights on his ten-foot Christmas tree, and that had been a huge struggle.
“This can’t be happening.”
“What? That you’re falling for your worst enemy?”
“I’m not falling for my worst enemy! It might not even be the same woman.”
Lance struck Holden with a dubious look. “Blonde hair? Blue eyes? Beautiful smile and cute, little ski slope nose?”
“There are a lot of women who fit that description,” Holden asserted unconvincingly. “And how do you know so much about her appearance?”
“I told you, I looked her up a while back. I was shocked to see how different she looks from back in high school. Hard to believe it’s even the same person. I went down quite a rabbit hole just to make sure it was actually the Rachel we knew way back when. Probably somethingyoushould’ve done before you started dating her.”
