Page 32 of Cooped Up for Christmas

I smiled. “Because they are over a hundred fifty dollars a stem.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Get out.”

“Not kidding. Not even a little bit. Let me help you pull them out. No. Please don’t clink them. One at a time.” Oh lord.

I barely had time to get my pulse back to normal before I spotted Jamison’s mother, Carmella, heading toward me with a very familiar glint in her eye. I knew what was coming. Oh, not the details, but the gist. She wanted something impossible. “Hello there. Veronica?”

“Victoria. Yes. How can I help you, Mrs. Smith?”

“Oh, it’s the boys. They’re missing LA.”

“Yes. I can understand that. It’s very different up here in the Northwest.” There was, like, snow here and stuff.

“It is.” She shuddered. “Is there any way we can have some In-N-Out brought in for lunch tomorrow?”

I gaped at her. “Um, we don’t have that burger chain here.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.” Heavy sigh. Large damp eyes. A flutter of the lashes. “Is there any way we can have it flown in? Yes. That would be wonderful.” She patted me on the shoulder as she passed, not waiting to hear if I would agree to fly a hamburger from LA for her son, or tell her to go fry in hell. Which—let’s face it—would have been fun.

* * *

Of course I flew in burgers for her son. That’s what we do here. But it was a pain in the ass. At least she’d given me a day’s notice.

After I handled that—a simple matter of calling some contacts in Los Angeles to pick up the burgers, locating one of our pilots who could fly the special cargo to a local landing strip, and arranging for the package to be delivered here, while still hot—I headed to the storage shed to see what kind of special china there was for the holiday meal. As one does. Just one task after the other.

The storage shed was a magical place, filled with all kinds of props and extra furniture—such as the extra bunks should the guests return from an outing with the cast of Ben Hur. There were also tons of decorations for all kinds of events, as well as a breakfront filled with special china.

For Christmas dinner, I chose the plates with the silver gilding, because they went best with Ken’s decorations and matched the silver flatware. I found a lovely basket that would work as a centerpiece if we filled it with Christmas ornaments. I also found reflective glass drops to sprinkle on the table.

I was about to gather it all up and head back to the lodge when the door closed behind me.

Not that I was spooked to be in the shed all by myself, but I whirled around, eyes wide.

My heart took a moment to calm when I realized Coop had joined me. Then it started thudding again for a completely different reason. He had that look in his eye.

“Here you are.”

I smiled. “Here I am.”

“I’ve been looking for you.”

“Voila.” When he just stood there and looked at me—like a hungry bear—I added, “What’s up?”

His chuckle filled the room. “Can’t you guess?”

I glanced down at his crotch. Honestly, I have no idea why. But, yeah. Something was up. “Are you horny?”

He stepped closer and took me in his arms. “So horny.”

I laughed and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “But we already did it this morning.” It seemed only right to remind him.

Although why he would need reminding was beyond me, because our night together had been amazing.

His eyes sparkled. “I heard a rumor…”

“What?” He’d said it in a teasing tone, so I kind of knew what was coming.

“I heard that some people do it more than once a day.”