Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (Holiday Romance Collection #3)

5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Noelle

M y late night of Christmas movies is biting me in the ass this morning. I never set my alarm last night before falling asleep, so I got the pleasure of waking up to a dozen missed calls and text messages—each one getting more threatening than the last—from my sisters, who have been at Three Blossom Haven since dawn. Oops.

So I’m headed into Beau’s to get a vat of ‘Forgive Me For Over-Sleeping’ coffee to offer up to Val and Willow so they don’t use me as a sacrifice to Krampus later.

Theo is standing behind the counter when I push through the glass door, the full panes frosted over with ice from the cold outside. The snow is still coming down in heavy, fat flakes. The city’s snow removal team is out in full force, clearing the streets and sidewalks, but it’s really no use; the snow is coming down so fast the roads and sidewalks are covered back up with the white fluff almost immediately.

Despite his late night, he looks well rested, his usual grin in place, blue eyes dancing. Instead of his typical backwards ball cap on his head, he’s sporting a faux fur lined Santa hat, the white ball on the end trailing close to his shoulder. A muted red, long-sleeved t-shirt is stretched across his chest, three check boxes with Naughty, Nice, and Tried My Best in bold white lettering. The check is slashed through the Tried My Best option, and I can’t help but roll my eyes as I step up closer to the counter. His grin gets wider.

“What? You don’t like it?” he asks, gesturing down to his chest.

“Oh no, it suits you perfectly,” I laugh, shaking my head. “Santa might skip over you tonight anyway.”

“I doubt that,” he mutters, grinning. He winks. “What can I do for you? No, wait, what can I do you for ? Ah shit, I mean, can I do you ?”

“Theo Collins, you better go wash that mouth out with soap and apologize to Miss Compton—”

Theo laughs out loud, winking at me again as he turns to our second-grade teacher, Mrs. Greene. “I promise you, it’s not what it sounds like—”

“Oh, I think I want to hear this apology, Theo,” I say with all the seriousness I can muster. My lips twitch. He glares at me out of the corner of his eyes, and I roll my lips in between my teeth to keep from laughing, too. “You have been awfully naughty lately.”

He glares at me for a heartbeat longer before grinning winningly over at our old teacher. “Mrs. Greene, I’m sorry you had to hear that. Noelle, I’m sorry for my depravity. I’ll do better.” When Mrs. Greene finally nods and shuffles away with her cappuccino, Theo braces himself on his hands on the counter, leaning over it toward me. He winks, then lets those blue eyes travel down to my mouth before raising them slowly to look me in the eyes again. This stare is intense and heated. It makes my breath stutter and my heart pound in my throat. “You have no idea just how naughty I can be, Angel.”

Oh .

Those butterflies are back, wreaking havoc on my insides. He’s so close, if I just leaned forward the slightest bit, our noses would touch. And if our noses touched, it wouldn’t be that far off to tilt our heads just the tiniest bit until our mouths did, too—

Yanking myself back half a step, I suck in a much-needed lungful of air. My eyes are bouncing between his, my brain not fully processing where my own thoughts had taken me. What the shit is my brain even doing?

He licks his lips, dropping his eyes to my mouth once more, before pulling himself upright behind the counter, putting necessary space between us again. “So, what can I get for you this morning?”

“Umm. Coffee,” I stutter lamely, then wish I could slam my head into the nearest wall when he grins slyly, as if he knows just how much he’s rattled me. The asshole. I shake my head and straighten my shoulders. “Coffees for Willow and Val and myself, please. Big ones. I overslept and they’re threatening to offer me up as a sacrifice to Krampus.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” Theo chuckles, tapping on the large touch screen in front of him. The cashier till dings and slides open, and he closes it swiftly. “Beau says anything you girls get today is on the house.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, dropping my purse at my side. I still stuff a twenty into the tip jar just because. He glowers at me, but I just shrug. “Is he nervous?”

“He’s in the back room compulsively cleaning and organizing the stock racks,” he says, chuckling as he begins making our coffees. “We had a rush about an hour ago but we’re in a lull, and once that hit, he was back to panicking. We’ll get another rush in a bit; it’ll take his mind off of it for a little while. I’m glad we’re closing early, I’m not sure I can handle a whole day of him losing his mind.”

“You know what, when you finally get around to finding some woman that you want to propose to, I’m going to remember this,” Beau grumbles as he stalks out of the back room, a large box of cups and lids in his arms. He sets it down on the counter beside them and starts unloading the contents. “And I’ll give you as much shit as you’ve given me in the last two weeks.”

“Maybe if he got around to asking his mystery girl on a date—”

“Mystery girl?” Beau asks, turning to Theo, who has his back to us as he tops the three coffee drinks with whipped cream and green and red sprinkles. “What mystery girl?”

“I don’t have a mystery girl,” Theo snaps over his shoulder at his brother. I grin over at Beau. Theo spins toward me, pointing one finger at my chest. “And that was a private conversation, you traitor.”

“So there is a mystery girl.” Beau grins, too, folding his heavily tattooed arms across his chest. He isn’t decked out in Christmas gear like Theo, though he does have a red, white, and black flannel pulled on over his usual black t-shirt. The sleeves are pushed to his elbows, and he has on a pair of faded, well-worn black jeans. His dark hair that’s threaded through with silver is worn longer than traditional, falling over his brow and curling slightly at the nape of his neck.

Willow once told us he reminded her of Skeet Ulrich, and I haven’t been able to un-see it since.

Theo turns toward me, coffee carrier loaded down with the three decked out coffees in three of the spots, a handful of wrapped, house made chocolate biscotti standing straight up in the last. I wiggle my fingers together in front of me in excitement. That will definitely get me out of the Krampus Sacrifice. Hopefully, anyway.

He snatches the carrier back before I can grab hold of it, though. He glowers at me. “You owe me.”

“Yes, yes, whatever you want,” I mutter, waggling my fingers outward, silently asking for the carrier.

“That’s a dangerous promise,” Theo murmurs quietly, setting the carrier in my outstretched hands. My fingers brush across the backs of his as I take hold of it, and the electricity that zaps through me has nothing to do with static cling. I swallow hard, my eyes shooting up to his. “I will be collecting on that, Noelle.”