But the effect was better than I’d even imagined.

  Six wreaths were staggered at random heights with sturdy twine. I’d cleaned up the branch, stripping it of needles and the sap. In between the wreaths, I’d nestled wooden garland made up of stained beads and stars. I’d pulled some holiday cookbooks for Taylor and she’d arranged them almost perfectly beneath the branch.

  Now the window was filled with interest. Maybe I’d add a bit of that spray snow in the corners to soften it all.

  I rushed inside with my coffee, excited to get to work.

  My aunt was laughing as I came in, a customer in front of her. The man turned at the sound of the tinkling bells and I almost dropped my cup.

  “Speak of the devil. I was just talking to Laverne about your acrobatics yesterday.”

  Aunt Laverne peeked around the man. “That was you?”

  I slid my scarf free. My neck was suddenly quite warm. “I needed the natural branch look for the window.”

  “That’s where you got it? I thought you found it out back.”

  I shrugged. “It was a nice day for a walk.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “It took Beck and Justin both to get it mounted last night.”

  The stranger leaned his hip against the counter, amusement lighting his sharp features. “She almost killed me with it.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” I stalked to the counter and set my stuff down, including my cup before I dumped it over his head.

  “Clay, the cheeky girl before you is Rachel, my niece.”

  He held his hand out. “Pleasure.”

  I stared at his hand. It would be rude to ignore him, but something told me I shouldn’t touch him.

  Scaredy cat?

  I took his hand and shook quickly. There, nothing.

  Little zaps only happened in romance novels.

  Why I read thrillers, thank you very much.

  But then he smiled and my stomach flipped. He had a sharp blade of a nose and dark, hooded eyes. His jaw was softer than I remembered. The scruff seemed heavier in less than twelve hours. And his hair had been…different. It hadn’t been exactly slick the day before, but now it was windblown with curls that made everything about him seem softer. His black leather jacket was definitely not off the rack. It fit him far too well.

  I dropped my hand to my side and resisted the urge to shake it out.

  “You’ll see him most weekends until Christmas.” My aunt was her usual chipper self, making my hackles rise.

  “Oh. You’re not just the money?” I slid my hand behind me and shook it out. It wasn’t tingling. I just wasn’t used to touching people lately. At all.

  “Rachel!”

  I linked my hands behind me with a shrug. “Sorry, I just assumed. Most tree aficionados don’t wear four-hundred-dollar boots.”

  He glanced down at his very worn-in boots. “I believe in quality tools of the trade.”

  “And your designer jeans? I mean they’re nicely broken in, but they’re still pretty high-end for dealing with tree sap all day.”

  His smile widened. “You noticed they were broken in?”

  I could feel my face flushing. I couldn’t help it if he had very nice thighs that did amazing things for his jeans. That was neither here nor there.

  He nodded toward my purse. “And your Marc Jacobs purse says what about you?”

  I twisted my fingers tighter, glad he couldn’t see them. “That I’m a very good Poshmark shopper?”

  “Not me though?”

  I snorted.

  Laverne cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m glad you were there to make sure she didn’t break her neck.”

  “Oh, she can take care of herself.”

  “That’s right.” Wait, what?

  “I just stopped in to see if you would put our newsletter list on your counter, and to talk to you about something.”

  “Of course.” Laverne took the clipboard with the old school pen on a leash deal. But then he offered her a stack of business cards with QR codes on them.

  “Oh, Mary did take my advice,” I blurted before I could stop myself.

  “You’re the marketing guru?”

  Shoot. I really needed to stop offering up advice to every damn person. Stupid stuff was always flying out of my mouth. I picked up my coffee cup to do something with my hands.

  “Rachel is all about the newsletter. She’s even got us doing it too. Of course it’s been great for business.” She beamed at me. “She was right.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Laverne.” I gave him my best customer service smile. “Of course we want to help a neighboring business, especially one that’s doing so well thanks to our customer base.”

  His lips twitched. “I do appreciate that.”

  “I have to get to work. Unless you need something?” I quickly asked when my aunt gave me a sharp look.

  “Not right now,” Clay said. “Glad to connect a name to the face. Even if you tried to knock me out twice.”

  “Good thing you’re so agile. Must be those fancy boots.” I grabbed my apron off the counter, spun on my heel, and headed to the side of the store where I’d stashed the rest of the decorations I needed to go through.

  I could hear them chatting a little more, then finally the bell jangled again as he left. I was deep in a box of star ornaments when a long shadow fell over me.

  “Care to explain what that was?”

  “Explain what?” I didn’t look up at her because she had the uncanny ability to drill out the truth in all things. Then again, I had no idea why I’d gotten my back up when it came to him.

  She crouched in front of me. “You’ve barely said boo to people since you got here this summer. And when you do, you’re beyond polite.”

  “I was polite.”

  “If that’s polite, we might need to chat about how you talk to customers. And I know I don’t need to.” She held up her hand. “Because you’re a grown woman who has her own compa—”

  The look on my face cut her off.

  “Okay, we won’t speak of it as usual. But Clay is a large part of our holiday turnout. People come from all around for his trees.”

  I frowned. “You can get a Christmas tree on any corner in town.”

  “Not those trees.”

  I looked down at the star in my hands. “I’ll be more mindful when I see him the next time.”

  “Good. Because I volunteered you to set up the new hot chocolate stand down there.”

  “What?” I pushed the star back in the raffia stuffing. “When?”

  “Starting today.”

  My heart thudded harder. “Today? I can’t.”

  “You have experience with food and customers.”

  Panic started inching up my throat. “Taylor needs me here.”

  “Actually, she doesn’t. We have the new holiday hires in. You were the one who trained them so well.”

  My heart was thudding louder in my ears. “I barely trained them. That was mostly Taylor.”

  “I get my updates from Taylor, dear. That’s simply not true.”

  “I…” I blew out a slow breath. Do not fall apart, do not fall apart. I looked down at the ornament as it blurred. “I don’t do that kind of thing anymore, Aunt Laverne.”

  She tsked. “This isn’t a senator’s dinner.”

  My gaze flew up to lock with hers. My heart was beating so loud that I couldn’t hear the music playing in the background anymore.

  “You’re more than capable of serving hot chocolate and maybe a treat or two. I have a feeling you’ll love it.” She gripped my hand for a moment. “It’ll be good for you.”

  “What if I mess it up?” I hoped my voice was a whisper. I couldn’t hear it over the rushing in my ears.

  She got up. “It’s time to have a little faith.”

  I stared back down at the ornaments. I didn’t want her to see the tears that were overflowing.

  “Besides, Beck and Justin found a little project that’s right up your alley. Clay thought it was a great idea. You’ll love it.”

  Before I could reply she walked back to the counter, calling out a greeting to someone.

  I twisted my fingers into my apron.

  It was just a hot chocolate stand. A seven-year-old could run one of those.

  I smoothed out the apron until all the wrinkles were gone, then breathed out for a count of four, then drew in for eight.

  I sure as heck could handle that.

  I hoped.

  Chapter 5

  Clay

  Trouble With a Capital VW

  “I can’t believe you found this thing.” Beckett leaned hard against the front end of the ancient VW Bus. “Are you sure you put it in neutral?”

  “I swear I did.” I put my shoulder into it right beside him. Flakes of chrome crumbled under my knee. “Shit.”

  “I swear this was Laverne’s sometime.”

  I laughed and it turned into a groan as the van seemed to slow to a stop.

  “Did we hit a rock?”

  “Boulder?” I swiped my arm over my forehead. “Cliff face?”

  “Just a rock, nerds.” Ransom’s voice came from the large square of dirt in front of the barn. He jogged over and splayed his hands over the middle of the dirty windshield.

  “And where were you twenty minutes ago?”

  Ransom gave me a dead stare. “Never you mind, son.”

  I rolled my eyes. That was Ransom speak for checking the perimeter. It didn’t seem to matter if we were in the middle of Manhattan, Brooklyn, or the rural countryside—the man was paranoid.

  We all managed to rock the tires over a circle of old rocks. Probably an old firepit for camping. Before I’d taken over the property, it had just been a vast expanse of green. With the pine trees as the perfect cover for wildlife, I could just bet people used to try to hunt around here.

  I tried not to think about Bambi or his mom at the other end of a hunting rifle. I’d never seen the appeal, and even with thirty-plus years under my belt, I still couldn’t figure out the sporting angle.

  Finally, the old bus started moving. We were pushing it ass first into the clearing near the trimming station for the trees. I figured it would be a perfect spot for when people were waiting for my staff to do fresh cuts and drills in the trunks.

  “What are you doing?”

  I knew that voice. Prim mixed with outrage and a side of chili flakes.

  The bus was definitely moving now. She ran around to the back and laid her back against it. “You can’t put it there.”

  I peeked around the bus. It really was just one big old rounded box. “Move before you get hurt.”

  Her gaze crashed into mine. The almost black fringe of her bangs didn’t do anything to soften her flashing blue eyes.

  I held up my hand to the guys. “Hang on a second.”

  Ransom sighed and dropped to the ground, folding his knees up to link his arms around them. “I miss the city.”

  Beck dropped down next to him. “Why didn’t you bring coffee?”

  “Do I look like your assistant?”

  Beck shrugged. “You don’t look like his assistant either.”

  I ignored them both and met her by the door of the bus. “What are you doing?”

  “More like what are you doing? You can’t put that over here.”

  “Why not?”

  She put her hands on her hips, which threw her shoulders back and I had to fight to keep my eyes on hers. I did not need to stare at her perfect breasts. I mean, I wanted to, but that was a bad idea.

  “The flow will be all wrong.”

  “What flow?”

  “Exactly.” She backed up and went to the bumper again. “No. See?” She pointed to the barn. “If you put it closer to the barn, then you won’t obstruct flow into the rows of trees you are making.”

  “Yeah, but this is where they do the fresh cuts. It’s like a supermarket checkout—you impulse buy your hot chocolate and whatever treats come from the bakery.”

  “Or you bottleneck the whole operation. Then you have spilled hot chocolate from kids where you guys are cutting. Oh, and not to mention sharp tools near kids drunk on sugar.”

  She had a point. “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh. I see this is why Aunt Laverne sent me over. You obviously need my help.”

  I’d actually asked for it, but now I was rethinking it. Okay, I hadn’t exactly been thinking of my peculiar stranger, but I certainly hadn’t taken her out of the equation when I talked to Laverne.

  I should have known she would be bossy under the odd.

  She stalked to the front of the bus where Beckett and Ransom were sitting. “Are we keeping you?”

  I followed her to find Beck grinning up at her. “Hey, Beans.”

  She flushed and gave him a hard stare. “I hear I have you to blame for this predicament.”

  “Not me.” Beck pointed at me. “He was pulling out the leftover tree stands from last year and found this old heap under a tarp.”

  She tapped her boot.“You helped him, didn’t you?”

  Beck’s grin turned into a wide smile. “Now I have plenty of room for my tractor.”

  “Ugh,” she growled. Then she whirled around to stare at me. “If I’m helping you, I get to do it my way.”

  “That’s not how this works, Miss…”

  She lifted her chin. A shadow seemed to cross her features for a moment before she firmed her mouth. “Just Rachel.”

  “Well, just Rachel, this is my tree farm. I don’t take orders from anyone.”

  “Good luck with the mess you’re going to make.” She turned on her heel and headed toward the barn.

  Ransom leaned out from where he was sitting. “I like her.”

  “You’re an ass.”

  He got to his feet. “So, are we pushing this over there? Or are we going to the barn where just Rachel said to put it?”

  I wasn’t exactly used to taking orders from anyone. Let alone a sprite of a woman with more curves than should be legal. But I didn’t have a lot of time to find someone else to set it up.

  And according to Laverne, Rachel was the woman for the job. I just hoped she was right.

  I didn’t answer Ransom, but I did run after her. She was already past the barn and heading back to the path that led to the main house. For someone who barely came up to my chest, she sure put some speed on those legs.

  “Rachel, wait up.”

  She kept walking as if I hadn’t spoken.

  “I’ll listen to your ideas.”

  She turned around. “I don’t have to beg to be heard, pal. I was perfectly happy at the gift shop.”

  “Were you?” I jammed my cold hands into my jacket pockets.

  “Of course.” She frowned, but she ducked her chin into her scarf.

  “I saw that window. The branch you stole—”

  “Borrowed from nature.”

  “It was my land.”

  “Would you like the branch back? I know where I could put it.”

  “No.” I gritted my teeth and huffed out an annoyed growl. “That’s not what this is about. The window is inventive. Out of the box.”

  “Not that out of the box.”

  “I’ve been doing this Christmas deal for seven years now. It’s out of the box for this little town. Maybe not for the city.” I frowned and gave her a long look. Her boots were definitely high-end, and while her oatmeal-colored sweater could have come off any rack in the world, she certainly walked like she had somewhere to be.

  Not like the slow-moving Turnbull people.

  She looked down at the ground. “So? I like Pinterest, like any other of their twenty million subscribers.”

  “Well, I need that Pinterest interest here.”

  “From what I hear, you don’t need any help here. Best trees in the area, la-di-dah.”

  I couldn’t stop the quick bark of laughter. “We have Toby to thank for that.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, that’s nice that you don’t take all the credit.”

  “Trial run?” I moved closer to her.

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “You know, see if we can work together. We might drive each other crazy.”

  “Too late, already there.” She held out a hand. “Two weeks. Then we’ll see if we can keep this up until Christmas.”

  I took her hand. “Deal.” I held her hand a beat longer than I should have and she detangled our fingers.

  “But you better believe you’re moving that bus.” She brushed by me to stalk back to where the guys were leaning against the bumper.

  Laverne’s truck was outside the barn. She’d shown up sometime during our…discussion.

  “There you are.” She waved a large thermos at us. “I brought some product to try.”

  “Is there a whiskey version?” I called out.

  Her infectious laugh filtered its way out to us.

  Rachel got to her first. She took a paper cup and curled her fingers around it. “Smells amazing. Did you add something to it?”

  “Salted caramel.”

  “Oh.” She sighed and took a long gulp then closed her eyes with a little hum.

  My hands turned to fists inside my pockets. I was not here to notice her sounds or her eyes or her damn hips that made my fingers itchy.

  Laverne held up a cup for me. “Glad you two could figure this out.”

  “We haven’t figured out anything.” Rachel’s voice was prim.

  Ransom held out his cup. “Well, I like it. I need fortification to move the bus again. About that whiskey?”

  Laverne tugged a little bottle out of her pocket. “If you insist.”

  “Oh, I do.” Ransom grinned down at her.

  “Say when.”

  There were far more glugs of amber liquid than chocolate when Ransom finally said when.

  I rolled my eyes. Ransom could drink all of the Manning men and me under the table. I wasn’t worried about a coffee cup-sized bit of infused chocolate.

  Laverne’s laugh eased my shoulders.

  I wasn’t used to being so impulsive about the farm, but I’d heard more than one complaint about no refreshments over the years. Lots of families liked to pick out their trees together and all the locals respected the Mannings and the Ronsons.