12 Dates of Christmas (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

CHAPTER TWO

Nicholas Morgan straightened the pens inside the green glass cup on his desk, oddly nervous about the upcoming meeting.

He’d spent the past month working virtually with Leo Fenner to update his website but they hadn’t actually spoken face-to-face yet. Leo had moved to town a few days ago and had emailed Nick asking if they could have their upcoming meeting in person.

Nick had said yes because Leo had been a lifesaver already.

Nick had started the matchmaking business last year, mostly operating on word of mouth and a few poorly cobbled together Google forms. He had tried to build a website himself, signing up for one advertised as “easy to put together in minutes!” but that was a lie. At least for him. He had no idea what he was doing and had quickly gotten in over his head.

It didn’t do half of the stuff he wanted, and what he’d managed to do looked like garbage.

Nick had reached out to Hayden Bradley for help but he’d taken one look at what Nick wanted, then frowned and shook his head.

“I think you need a web developer. I can make your site look pretty but some of the functionality you want is … well, I’ll be honest. It’s beyond my skills. I know some coding but you want to integrate the in-depth questionnaire and scheduling into your site—you need someone who can build it from scratch and personalize it to your needs. I have a friend I went to college with who does some freelance work though, if you’re interested. He does top-notch, professional work and he’s not crazy expensive.”

Hayden had given Leo’s email address to Nick but Nick had been a little embarrassed to email Leo about what a mess he’d made.

He’d put it off for weeks, but once he finally did it and got a response back, he’d regretted dragging his feet. Leo had been kind and funny in their email interactions, and had immediately put Nick at ease.

After Nick hired Leo, he’d filled out spreadsheets and forms with all kinds of information about his business and what he was looking for.

He loved what Leo had created so far.

But the About Me section was where Nick kept getting stuck. How could he put into words why he’d felt the need to do this?

Why he wanted to help other people find love.

Nick had tried to put a positive spin on the situation, but frankly, it was a little depressing to remind potential clients the love of his life was gone. He’d scare people away, reminding them that even if they were lucky enough to find their soulmate, it didn’t mean they’d grow old together.

With a sigh, Nick sat back and looked around the cozy office Nicole had used to write her books.

They’d put the addition on the house a few years before her death. She’d been a prolific romance author and once her books had taken off, they’d agreed she desperately needed a dedicated office space instead of her desk being crammed into the narrow spare bedroom.

The addition had turned out beautifully with a wide desk, a cozy reading chair, and walls of bookshelves Nick had built for her.

Sorting through and donating Nicole’s clothing and tossing her toiletries with the help of her brother, Ford Donnely, had been gut-wrenching, but dismantling this space filled to the brim with reminders of her and her work had felt impossible. The room had sat nearly untouched for more than a year after her death, until Nick’s older sister had finally held his hand through the process.

But as Nick had sorted through letters from Nicole’s fans and read how her stories had encouraged them to be brave and find love, an idea had begun to grow. An idea to start a matchmaking service.

A way to help other people find the love Nick and Nicole had shared.

It had felt cathartic to build something and his sister, Heather, had pushed him to keep going whenever he got doubtful.

And now, bittersweet as it was, the office space was all his.

He’d slowly redecorated it, keeping the cream-colored walls and the sturdy oak desk, but swapping out the light, gauzy curtains for heavier drapes.

Instead of Nicole’s framed book cover art, there were photos he’d taken of Lake Michigan and other places they’d visited on vacation together.

He’d switched out the smaller green chair she’d curled up in to read for a bigger brown leather chair and ottoman better suited to his height. One shelf was still dedicated to every book Nicole had ever written but it was right next to the thrillers and mysteries Nick devoured.

It had felt right to merge the old with the new, to remember the past without clinging to every last scrap of it.

The exterior door that led to the backyard had allowed Nicole to wander outside when she was feeling stuck on a story. It was now the perfect entrance where Nick could welcome his clients, rather than making them traipse through his house.

Which reminded him Leo would be arriving any minute. A stab of guilt went through Nick. He still hadn’t finished the bio for the website.

He’d written and re-written it dozens of times, driving himself crazy in the process, but he could never seem to find the right words.

He smiled, fond sadness sweeping over him. Nicole would have had the perfect words. She’d have turned his pathetic attempts into something beautiful and heartfelt.

But while Nick was talented at woodworking and photography—the latter of which had turned out to be surprisingly handy when helping clients build their matchmaking profiles—and skilled at knowing which couples would likely hit it off, writing was not his forte.

A quick rap of knuckles on the door made Nick straighten. He cleared his throat and stood. Hopefully Leo wouldn’t be too upset that he hadn’t finished what he’d promised to do.

Nick swung open the door to find a young man on the other side dressed in nice trousers, a sweater, and an unzipped parka.

He had the most striking face Nick had ever seen.

Nick stared at him for a moment before he blinked. “Uh, hey. You must be Leo. Come in.”

He held the door for Leo, who walked up a few steps and beamed as he held out a hand. “Great to finally meet you, Nick.”

Huh . Leo didn’t look exactly like Nick had expected. For some reason, Nick had pictured him as short and mousy with glasses. Maybe some patchy facial hair and an awkward, shy demeanor. Of course, Nick was probably buying into the stereotypes about what computer geeks looked like. Guiltily, he realized he shouldn’t assume anything.

Hell, look at Jett Davis. He was one of Nick’s clients who lived in town, worked as a coder, and was, by pretty much any standard, very good-looking.

Leo was too. He was tall—meeting Nick’s gaze at the same level—and Nick was 6’2”. He was slender but strong looking. His face was clean-shaven, his smile was dazzling and his grip was warm and firm as they shook.

“Let me get your coat,” Nick said, swallowing hard as he shook Leo’s hand.

Leo set a laptop bag on the nearby chair, then shrugged out of the parka. Nick took it and hung it on the antique hooks he’d installed beside the door recently.

Nick had guessed Leo would be about Hayden’s age since they’d gone to school together but it hit him suddenly that Leo was only in his mid-twenties. It made Nick feel ancient.

He’d fallen in love, gotten married, and been widowed already.

Granted, he was only thirty-eight now, but he felt a hell of a lot older than the fresh-faced web developer in front of him. But grief would do that to a person.

“How’s moving in going?” Nick asked.

“Oh, great! I don’t own that much and it’s a small apartment so it’s been easy. Plus, they left me some furniture. I think all I need to buy is a desk.”

“If you’re into antiques or thrift stores, I could recommend a few in the area,” Nick offered. “Merry Memories is outside of town and it’s my favorite.”

Leo’s face lit up. “Oh, that would be great! I’m tired of cheap Ikea shit.”

That smile transformed his look. His face was a little angular, with a long straight nose, strong chin and full mouth. He suddenly reminded Nick of a slightly younger version of the model Nicole had used as inspiration for the main character in one of her stories, A Model Husband .

Nicole had laughed when Nick had walked past her computer and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the guy on her screen. “Damn. Who’s that?” he’d asked.

“Inspo for Damien in the new book.”

“Well, I can see why Kenzie falls for him.”

She’d grinned and swatted at him, then told him to get out of her office and stop distracting her.

He felt a small, familiar pang of missing Nicole before he refocused on Leo. His light brown hair was a tousled mess as he took off his hat and stuffed it into the sleeve of his hanging parka, still smiling.

“Wow, great office,” he said, glancing around, blue eyes dancing. He smoothed down his hair. “I love the vibes.”

“Yeah?” Nick said, a little amused by the enthusiasm. Leo had seemed friendly and warm over email, but he hadn’t expected the bright, cheery tones and bubbly mood.

“It feels nice.” Leo shrugged. “Dunno, can’t explain it.”

“Well, thank you,” Nick managed. “I, uh, it’s a special space for me.”

They stared at each other for a moment until Nick cleared his throat. “How do we want to do this?”

‘This’ being their meeting about the final details of the website.

Leo shrugged. “I was thinking I’d get out my laptop, you can take a look at the changes I made since the latest feedback you sent, then we can go from there?”

“Sounds great,” Nick agreed. “Feel free to set up at my desk.”

It was a giant slab of oak with four straight narrow legs and two shallow drawers at the top so there was plenty of room for two computers and chairs.

Leo looked it over. “Great desk too.”

Nick smiled. “Thanks. It was made nearly a hundred years ago. It belonged to the local library and they sold it when they did some remodeling. My wife and I got it at the antique place I mentioned. Merry Memories.”

“Very cool.” Leo unpacked his laptop and set it on one end of the desk. “Will this work? I think it’s the only spot where my cord will reach the outlet. Sorry, I need a new battery. It dies after about twenty minutes of being unplugged.”

“Sure. We can move the other chair around.” Nick lugged the chair to the other side of the desk, then slipped into his own, the chairs pressed right up against one another.

Leo fussed with a few things before he got situated, his forearm brushing Nick’s as he typed in his login. “Okay, so this should be all queued up for you.”

Nick listened intently as Leo walked him through the website, from the landing page to the how matchmaking works section, and finally to the in-depth questionnaires people filled out with their preferences.

“And here’s the booking section where people can set up appointments for their in-person interviews with you. I think it makes sense for you to stick to local matchmaking for now but if you do eventually decide you want to expand and do this on a larger scale, we can change the wording and add an option for video chats.”

“Perfect,” Nick said, smiling. “That’s so much better than what I had.”

“You mean a badly done Google form and you sending eighteen emails back and forth with your client trying to find a time you both have free?” Leo teased. “No! You don’t say.”

Nick made a face but chuckled, nodding. “Yeah. Yeah. Well, there’s a reason I hired you!”

Leo grinned. It was a little crooked and made a dimple in his right cheek pop out. Nick glanced away, clearing his throat.

“Good thing you did! I’m amazed you had any clients at all with what you were working with before.”

Nick chuckled. “Honestly, it helps that it’s a small town,” he admitted. “I’ve been relying on word of mouth.”

“Hey, I’m not knocking it. And the customer testimonials you included are great,” Leo said. “Clearly you know what you’re doing. But this new site will give your clients a central place to go to get all of the information they need and you’ll have to do way less work going back and forth with them via email. And, again, if and when you’re ready, the framework will be in place for you to expand to a larger market.”

“Fantastic.” Nick hesitated. “And you’ll maintain the website? For a fee, of course. I’m happy to pay whatever your usual rate is.”

“Of course,” Leo said with a wink, then grew serious. “But, yeah, we can definitely do that. And I can make tweaks whenever you need—just try to give me a heads-up so I can work you into my schedule. If you need something added, if you want to change stuff seasonally?—”

“What do you mean by that?” Nick asked, frowning.

Leo clicked over to the home page. “You see right here?” He gestured to the top of the page.

Nick leaned in to get a better look, his elbow bumping Leo’s.

“We could swap the current banner for something seasonal. Like … lots of people get lonely around the holidays. We could do a wintery image with a tagline about finding someone to snuggle up with around the fire. Then swap the image and talk about taking vacations together in the summer … that sort of thing.”

“I do like the idea,” Nick admitted.

“Okay.” Leo typed something into his phone. “Done.”

“Just like that?” Nick asked, amused.

Leo nodded. “Just like that. It’ll take me like half an hour tops, when I get home.”

“That’s great. I’m honestly impressed with your work,” Nick admitted. He would have been leery of hiring someone a few years out of college but Hayden’s work had been stellar and he’d trusted his recommendation of Leo.

The kid knew what he was doing.

“Thanks!” Leo beamed. “This was a fun project to work on. My day job is sooo boring. Hayden maybe has a great point about how nice it is working with smaller clients instead of giant corporations.”

“Yeah?” Nick asked.

Leo shrugged. “I mean, whatever. My day job is fine. It pays the bills and I can work remotely so I can’t complain too much. But setting up a page to sell more yoga pants to people who already own twenty pairs isn’t as rewarding as helping people find the love of their life, you know?”

Nick smiled. “Sure. That makes sense to me. I quit my job as a loan officer to do this.” He gestured at the site.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep. It was hard, crushing people’s dreams when I had to turn them down.”

Leo winced. “That does sound sucky. You must have said yes sometimes too though, right?”

“Oh definitely,” Nick agreed, twisting a little in his chair so he could see Leo’s face better. “I did. And I loved that. Hell, one of the last loans I offered was for Hayden and Joel’s new place, which was a great feeling. It … it got tiring when there were too many ‘No’s’, however.”

“I get that.”

They both fell silent for a moment.

“We’re close to being done,” Leo said as he sat back. “I still need a few things from you though.”

“I know.” Nick reached up, rubbing the back of his neck. Damn it, they’d arrived at the part of the meeting he’d been dreading. “I’m dragging my heels on the bio.”

“If you’re not sure what to write, I could show you some examples of other matchmaking sites. Maybe that would help?” Leo offered earnestly.

But Nick shook his head. “No, that’s not it. I mean, I tried that already. The problem isn’t me having no idea about what I should say. It’s just … it’s difficult for me.”

“Okay,” Leo said slowly. “I’m not quite sure I understand but …”

Nick sighed. “The truth is, I lost my wife, Nicole, three-and-a-half years ago. It was very unexpected. She had a heart defect no one knew about and she was gone very quickly.” He swallowed past the thickening in his throat. “She was the love of my life and I wanted to start this service because—because I hope other people can find love too.”

“I think that’s admirable,” Leo said quietly. “That such a big loss has inspired you to do something kind for other people instead of letting it make you cynical.”

Nick smiled faintly. “I still believe in love. I feel very lucky to have found it. Even if I only had it for fifteen years, I’ll never regret it.”

“The whole better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all idea?” Leo asked with a gentle smile.

“Basically,” Nick agreed. “I mean, it’s definitely trite but at the heart of it all, that’s how I feel.” He glanced at the framed photo on his desk of their wedding day.

Leo’s gaze followed his and he reached out but didn’t touch the frame. “May I?”

“Yeah, of course.”

Leo studied the photo for a few minutes. “She’s lovely. And I know it’s only a photo but she looks … really kind.”

“She was.” Nick smiled, then cleared his throat. “Anyway, you see why I’m dragging my heels on writing this. I worry my story is too depressing.”

“No, not at all,” Leo said, carefully returning the photo to its place on Nick’s desk. “I think you should include it.”

“Yeah?” Nick was doubtful.

“Definitely. Do you mind if I take a look at what you have so far?”

“No, not at all.” Nick leaned forward and jiggled his mouse. “I have it up here in a doc. I was trying to work on it before you got here.”

“Oh, cool.”

Nick opened his mouth to offer Leo his seat but he was already standing. He stepped behind Nick and leaned forward, bracing his arms on the back of Nick’s chair.

He smelled nice.

It was subtle. Nick hadn’t noticed it earlier. But it reminded him of a cool winter day.

The kind where the sun was bright—bouncing off the snow in bright little rainbows of light—and the air was fresh and crisp and alive. There was something woodsy to the scent too, like fresh-cut pine trees.

Then Leo exhaled, brushing Nick’s ear and cheek in a warm gust. Nick shivered.

“Oh I love this,” Leo murmured. “What a great line.”

“Which one?” It came out sounding a little funny.

‘“I believe love is one of life’s greatest joys.’ So good! Hmm, can we tweak the last part a little bit though?”

“Sure,” Nick said with a shrug.

Leo reached out, leaning forward, his arms coming around Nick’s shoulders.

He typed quickly, his fingers flying over the keyboard, but Nick couldn’t focus on the screen in front of him to see what he was writing. He was suddenly aware of Leo’s arms around him, warm and surprisingly strong.

God, when was the last time someone had touched him? Someone who wasn’t his family , wasn’t a longtime friend.

Nick suddenly felt warm, like the temperature had gone up a few degrees.

“How’s that?” Leo drew back.

Nick cleared his throat again and leaned forward. He read it silently, then nodded. “Yeah, that’s great. I like that.”

“Awesome.” Leo rested a hand on his shoulder. “What’s next?”

“In this bio?”

“Yeah.”

Nick scrolled down a little to the final paragraph.

“Okay, hmm. Looks good. I have one more tiny tweak,” Leo murmured as he leaned in, his breath dancing over the side of Nick’s jaw. “And there .”

“Great. That’s perfect.”

“We should be good to go now, as long as you’re happy with the tweaks I made to your bio,” Leo said, shifting away and dropping into his chair again, gone so suddenly it was like he hadn’t been there at all. “It’s very good. You were close.”

Nick blinked. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, once you’re satisfied with the bio, you can drop the file in the shared drive. I’ll add it to the page, then test the site. Make sure all of the forms are working properly. I’ll set up a dummy account and fill everything out like I’m a new client. I just won’t submit the payment.” Leo laughed softly. “Though God knows, I probably should set up an account. I am so bad at finding dates for myself it’s ridiculous.” He shook his head.

“You should sign up for real! I mean, why not?” When Leo looked surprised, Nick hastily tacked on. “I wouldn’t charge you for it, of course. You’ve been so patient with me being indecisive and it’s the least I can do.”

“Oh, no.” Leo looked startled. “I’m happy to pay my own way.”

“No, please. I insist,” Nick said. “Besides, you’re new to town. If you’re serious about wanting to use my matchmaking service, this would be a great way for you to meet people.”

Leo hesitated. “True. And, I mean, I really do want to find someone, but you don’t have to?—”

Nick shrugged. “I know I don’t. But I want to. Please say yes.”

Smiling, Leo shrugged. “Well, why not? That’s why I’m here in Christmas Falls, after all.”

“Yeah?” Nick asked.

“Yeah.” Leo suddenly looked a little shy. “I moved here to find the love of my life.”