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See? Nothing like a married couple at all.

But if they hooked up again… her traitorous mind whispered, supplying vivid details she had no right to still remember so clearly. The way his hands had gripped her hips like he’d never let go. How perfectly he’d filled her, like he already knew every secret her body kept.

Emily squeezed her eyes shut. Moot point. It wasn’t going to happen.

“Never again,” she said, turning and walking back through to her kitchen.

The words tasted like a lie the second they left her lips. Worse—they tasted like anticipation.

Because deep down she already knew: The next time Cole looked at her with that slow, dangerous smile, she wouldn’t be strong enough to walk away.

EIGHTEEN

COLE

Thursday, December 17th

The snow that fell that night at the tree lighting ceremony was nothing like the blizzard. This was the good kind—fat, lazy flakes drifting straight down through the still air, catching the light from the storefronts along Oak Way, spinning slowly before they settled. This snowfall made everything look like the inside of a snow globe. It was the type of snow Cole had forgotten existed after years in New York, where snow swirled around skyscrapers and clung to the windows.

It was still brutally cold. Subzero, the kind of cold that got into your bones and stayed there regardless of how many layers you wore. But Maple Falls was a midwestern town, and midwestern towns did not cancel Christmas on account of weather. They put on an extra pair of socks and showed up anyway.

Cole would not have been one of them, if he’d had a choice.

Community events had never been his thing. They hadn’t been his thing when he was a kid here, standing on the edges of things that everyone else seemed to know how to participate in, and they weren’t his thing now. He’d managed to avoid most of them since coming back in the fall—the harvest festival, the pie baking competition, the various gatherings that seemed to multiply in a small town the moment the temperature dropped. He’d had good excuses, what with just moving in and getting the department running the way he wanted it.

But tonight it was that very job that forced him there. Christmas was in eight days, and Maple Falls had a tree to light. A very, very tall tree.

Cole had backed the fire truck into position on Oak Way just as the first families were arriving, the street already lined with people clutching cups from the Kettle. The mulled wine was going fast. The hot buttered rum, even faster. He could smell both from twenty feet away, warm and spiced and much needed seeing as his eyebrows were freezing to his face.

He’d have a drink later; right now, he had to fix a tree.

Liam’s family farm had supplied it, same as every year, but Mayor Bloomfield had apparently gotten carried away at the selection and come home with something significantly larger than tradition dictated. The thing was enormous. Forty feet at least, its top disappearing into the snowfall, a spruce so tall and wide it dwarfed the people below.

A regular ladder wouldn’t touch it.

Which was why Cole was there with the aerial truck, its ladder extended to full height, a volunteer from his crew already up there, wrestling the last string of lights while Cole worked the controls from the ground. He’d done this kind of thing a hundred times, on different buildings, at different heights, for different purposes. But never with a crowd like this.

Every time the ladder moved, someone cheered. When he repositioned the truck, people applauded like he’d performed a trick. Mrs. Bishop called out that he was doing a wonderful job. A kid in a snowsuit offered him a candy cane. An older man, whom he didn’t recognize, clapped him on the shoulder and said simply, “Nice job, son,” and kept walking.

Cole stood in the cold and felt something he didn’t quite have a word for. Lighting the town tree shouldn’t have made him feel like a hero, but here he was, feeling more like a local every day. It was the damnedest feeling for a man that had no intentions of staying.

Cole didn’t have time to dwell.

Soon the town was hushing as Mayor Bloomfield stood on the stage in his green velvet suit and gave a toast to this year’s tree.

“I say it every year because it’s true,” the mayor said, “there’s no place more magical than Maple Falls at Christmas time! Even a blizzard can’t dampen our spirits!”

A round of cheers erupted around them.

After a quick countdown from ten and a drum-roll from half the crowd, the tree was lit with all its festive glory—an explosion of whites, reds, and greens that could be seen from two towns over.

Zoe looked up at the display, all bright-eyed. “It’s the most beautiful one they’ve ever had. Worth every foot of it.”

Tyler materialized on Cole’s other side, Emma’s hand in his, her hair in braided pigtails, a bright red stocking cap pulled tight over her ears. The young girl was bouncing on her toes. Cole wasn’t sure if it was because she was cold or from excitement, or both. Her eyes were very wide and very bright as she looked up at the lit tree.

“Is it going to stay on?” she asked Cole, with the directness of a child who wanted accurate information.

“The star?”