Naughty Santa

Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

“What do you mean they aren’t there? I placed that order before I left L.A.” Paris listened as the manager of her pet boutique tried to explain why the bedazzled dog collars shipment was late.

“Did you call the supplier?” Paris asked. “Those are our biggest sellers around the holidays.”

Dammit. She didn’t have time for this. The holiday party was tonight, and she’d spent the past three days decking every damn hall...well...aisle in the Holly Jolly Feed and Seed to get ready for it.

Christmas music was playing throughout the entire store this week, though in keeping with the country theme of the Feed and Seed side, Alan Jackson was crooning about a Honky Tonk Christmas.

Back in Cali, she was solidly into alternative rock, and her playlist included Imagine Dragons and Panic at the Disco, but damn if country music wasn’t starting to grow on her. She flipped through Lydia’s CDs—Jesus, she still used CDs to play music—and pulled out a couple more country Christmas CDs for the party, George Strait for Sandy because she had a serious thing for that guy and Kenny Chesney for Jaden. Okay, fine...Chesney was for her.

“Earth to Paris,” her manager, Janice, said so loudly she had to pull her phone away from her ear. “Are you even listening?”

Paris hadn’t been because, shit, this was what she paid Janice to handle. She was up to her eyeballs in eggnog and tinsel at the moment and finding it very difficult to run two businesses in two different states. “Text me the number of the company. I’ll call them first thing in the morning and see if I can speed up delivery.”

“When are you coming back?”

Janice’s question hung in the air. Mainly because Paris couldn’t answer it. She hadn’t had another nibble on the Holly Jolly Feed and Seed since the idiots from Indianapolis had come, seen, and then not called back, and God only knew when she’d find someone else interested in a shop like this.

“This really isn’t a good time,” Paris said. “I’ll take care of the collars and call you back tomorrow.” She hung up, frustrated as hell.

Sandy came out of the back workroom with her arms weighted down with colorfully wrapped packages.

“Let me help you with those,” Paris said, rushing over to relieve her of half a dozen boxes.

“Oh, thank you, dear. I was trying to keep up with the presents, but the shop was busier than usual today, and I fell behind. I swear it was a revolving door of ladies dropping goodies off. I just need to add these to Santa’s sack.”

The Ladies Auxiliary of the North Pole Fire Department apparently held countless fundraisers throughout the year so that each child who attended the town’s holiday social would receive a gift from Santa. According to Sandy, Lydia had started the tradition and the party the first year she’d opened the store, and nothing—not even the blizzard ten years earlier—had stopped Santa from coming to the Holly Jolly Feed and Seed to deliver presents to the good children of North Pole.

Joe had filled her in on twenty-plus years of holiday party highlights last night as the two of them cuddled on her couch, Louis on Joe’s lap, Roscoe on hers. It had felt ridiculously domestic, and she’d loved it. Loved listening to him talk about past holidays. He’d been a kid himself when the tradition of the party had started, and his first gift from Santa had been a hacky sack, which cracked her up. Even more so when Joe confessed he still had it, and he was kick-ass at it. She tried to convince him that wasn’t the sort of thing you told people, but he accused her of being jealous of his mad skills.

To make matters worse, he’d shown up with it this morning and gotten her to kick the thing around with him for half an hour. It had been silly and more fun than Paris cared to admit, and Joe was right. He was great at it.

“Okay, dear. Jaden and I are going to go home and get dressed for the party. We’ll be back here in half an hour or so to help with all the finishing touches before the guests arrive.”

“Santa’s really coming?” Jaden asked his grandmother, who covertly winked at Paris as she said, “Only if you shake a leg and come on. We’re running late.”

Paris waved goodbye to Sandy and Jaden. “See you in a little while.”

She needed to get ready for the party as well, but she was too nervous about tonight. The holiday party had obviously been a big deal to Aunt Lydia and to the locals and she didn’t want to screw it up.

“Dammit,” she muttered when she realized one of the sprigs of mistletoe Joe hung this morning had fallen down. Dragging a chair over, Paris retrieved the mistletoe and climbed up, struggling to reach the hook. Teetering on tiptoe, she prayed she didn’t fall and bust her ass. That would be a great way to make a stressful day even more painful.

“Hey, whoa.”

Paris heard Joe’s voice a second before she felt his steadying hands on her rear end. “What are you doing?”

“The mistletoe fell.” With him spotting her, she was able to slip the ribbon over the hook. “There.”

Joe reached for her hand, helping her down. “You should have asked me to do that. Or left it. We’ve hung enough mistletoe that we’re in danger of turning the Holly Jolly into Lover’s Lane. Put a few glasses of the spiked eggnog in Bob’s hand, and none of the lovely ladies of North Pole are safe under the mistletoe.”

“Thanks for the warning,” she said with a tired grin. “I’ll give Bob a wide berth tonight. Your mom and Jaden went home to get ready.”

He nodded. “Guess that’s our cue to go get dressed as well. You ready?”

Paris looked around, hesitant to leave. “I feel like maybe there’s something I’m forgetting to do.”

Joe grasped her hand and dragged her to the counter, picking up her coat. “Paris. Astronauts can see the Holly Jolly from space, we’ve strung up so many lights. The good ladies in town have wrapped everything within a ten-mile radius that doesn’t move and made enough Christmas cookies to choke Jim’s entire herd of cattle. There is nothing else to do now except enjoy the party.”

She let him lead her to the front door but turned around when they got there, looking at the store, the decorations, the lights, the gigantic tree in the back corner with Santa’s huge chair sitting next to it. “It does look pretty good, doesn’t it?”

Joe grinned. “It looks perfect. Lydia would be proud of you.”

She’d never met Aunt Lydia, never knew anything about her while she lived except that her dad affectionately called her kooky and she had some connection at the bank who hooked her up with crisp, clean five-dollar bills every year on her birthday.

Since moving to North Pole, however, Lydia had become real. It was obvious she’d made a huge impact on the people in this town, and they had loved her. And over the past few weeks, Paris had come to love her too. More than that, she regretted never getting to know her before she died.

So Joe’s comment touched Paris more deeply than she would have imagined.

She turned to him and smiled, and then stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him. She could tell the impromptu kiss surprised him. They’d been very careful to keep their affair a secret, and now, here she was, kissing him in the front windows of the Holly Jolly where anyone passing on Main Street could see them.

Joe’s shock didn’t last more than a second before his arms were around her waist and his tongue was in her mouth. God, the man could kiss.

His common sense kicked in first—in truth, she wasn’t sure hers ever would have—and he broke the kiss, his lips tipped up in an amused grin. “Don’t mean to brag, but I didn’t even need the eggnog or the mistletoe.”

Paris laughed and rolled her eyes. “Come on, naughty Santa.”

He’d dropped his Santa costume by her place earlier today. The plan was for him to dress there—to ensure that Jaden wouldn’t catch sight of him at home—then she’d text him once all the kids were there. After that, he’d walk the back way from her house to the rear entrance of the store and enter from the workroom, grabbing the sack of toys that was stowed there.

Once his Santa duties were done, Joe planned to go back to Paris’s house, change into his street clothes, and then show up at the party as himself.

He held her hand the whole way to her place, claiming he did it because she was always falling on her ass. She didn’t bother to point out she’d stopped falling ever since trading in her beloved Fendi boots for his mother’s sturdy winter ones. But why would she tell him? She had no problem with Joe holding her hand.

She had no problem with anything Joe did to her.

As soon as they walked into her house, Paris turned around, pushing him against the front door, expanding on the kiss they started at the store.

Joe’s hands wrapped around her, gripping her ass and pulling her closer to him. She could feel his erection through his jeans.

It was stupid to start something they didn’t have the time to finish. She needed to change into her elf costume and return to the store in twenty minutes. While the idea of a quickie was appealing, it occurred to her she’d much rather have hours—no, days, weeks, months—wrapped up in Joe’s arms.

Months?

That thought had her pulling away from him. Paris wasn’t staying months. She wasn’t supposed to be here beyond tomorrow, but she hadn’t bothered booking a flight home, claiming she needed to stick around until the store sold.

Joe didn’t pick up on her sudden freak-out. Thank God. Instead, he gave her that adorable lopsided grin, his voice filled with regret. “It’s going to be a long night.”

She laughed because that was the right response, the one that would keep him from realizing her heart was racing, her ears thudding, her head reeling.

Paris had initiated this, proclaiming she was going to teach him all about casual sex.

Yeah, that had blown up in her face.

Because it was starting to feel like she hadn’t taught Joe a damn thing.

In truth, she was the one who’d learned something she hadn’t intended, hadn’t thought she wanted.

It was Joe who had taught her what it felt like to fall head over heels in love with a sweet, sexy, romantic Indiana boy.

And the most shocking part of that was…it didn’t scare her or make her want to puke up duck confit.

“You okay?” he asked when she continued to stare at him like an idiot.

Paris nodded, afraid to open her mouth, terrified of what would fall out. Because there were three little words clamoring for sound.

But she couldn’t say those to him.

Could she?

Joe smiled and headed upstairs to where they’d stashed his costume while she drifted to the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out an open bottle of wine. She tugged out the cork with her teeth and brought the thing to her lips, taking a big-ass chug, much like she had her first night in North Pole.

Shit.

She was in love.

So what the hell did she do now?

“Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!”

Joe ducked back into the wooden Santa house behind the huge chair that, honestly, felt a little like a throne during this annual party.

He loved being Santa for the kids. Yes, he’d tried getting out of it, saying that it was someone else’s turn, but damn, seeing someone’s face light up when he walked into a room was special. Seeing an entire gaggle of little kids lighting up, gasping, grinning, and waving? Yeah, that was kingly shit right there, and he had to admit, he ate it up.

As Paris, Sandy, and the parents distracted the kids with their new gifts and mountains of cookies and other treats, Joe snuck out the back door of the little house, crept down the aisle with the snow globes, sprinted for the aisle of chicken feed, before finally shutting himself in the workroom.

It was the look on Paris’s face that was really sticking with him. Sure, he loved making the little kids happy. But Paris had looked almost choked up tonight as they worked together, listening to the kids whisper their secret wishes and handing out gifts. He’d seen her brush a tear away when one of the older ladies, Lenore Arnold, pulled her aside and told her how the store and the party was exactly the way it had always been when Lydia put it together. When Bob told her it was better than Lydia’s parties and that Lydia would have loved it, Paris had excused herself to the restroom for a bit.

While Joe had grinned like a damn fool through it all.

Because his girl loved it here.

She was taking pride in the store. It felt like she belonged here—at the Holly Jolly and in North Pole—and she was certainly putting her heart and soul into making both better places to be.

Joe sighed. He was starting to get his hopes up. He knew better, of course, because he’d been down this road before. But this felt different. This felt more real. The other girls he’d fallen for had been here and looking for a way out.

Paris wasn’t from here. She already had a life outside of North Pole. Her love for this town wasn’t because she didn’t know anything else or because her roots were here. Hell, she hadn’t even wanted to come here, and she certainly hadn’t intended to like it.

No, her feelings of pride and happiness and belonging were fully and truly about falling for this place.

And maybe…falling for him?

As Joe slipped out the back door and the icy air hit him in the face, he thought about how conceited that sounded. She hadn’t said she’d fallen for him. He didn’t know her well enough to know how she acted when she was in love. This was all about how he felt when he was with her. How she looked at him. How everything about them from the way she fit in his arms to the way she fit into his nephew’s life felt so fucking right.

Joe jogged across the backyard to Lydia’s house and let himself in the back door. He quickly stripped out of the Santa suit, shoving it into a sack in the mudroom in case Jaden came over here before he could collect it.

He pulled his regular clothes on quickly because the mudroom wasn’t heated like the rest of the house. After running a hand through his hair, he laced up his boots, shrugged into his coat, and headed back.

Jaden would want to show him the toy bulldozer he got, and Joe had to act surprised. He also needed about a dozen cookies and maybe some fudge. Then he needed Paris.

He would always need Paris.

Joe knew, deep down, it was too soon to tell her that, but the urge to blurt it out kept bubbling up.

He made his way to the front of the Holly Jolly and pulled the door open. Jaden thought he’d had a job that ran late outside of town helping a guy with his barn. Thankfully, his nephew didn’t need any further details than that to believe it, and when there were new toys and sugar involved, the young boy wasn’t good at telling time, so he wouldn’t realize how long Joe had been absent.

The noise had died down significantly, and the crowd was starting to thin out a bit as the families with younger kids headed home. Joe waved to his mom and started in their direction.

“Look what Santa gave me!” Jaden said, running at him as soon as he spotted him.

“Wow!” Joe caught him and swung him up in his arms.

“It’s just like the one you and I looked at online!”

“It’s even cooler than it looked!” Joe said. “I bet Santa did something extra to it for you when he found out you’d be here tonight.”

Jaden’s eyes got wide. “How did he know I’d be here?”

“He knows everything,” Joe told him with a wink. Jaden told him all about the toys his friends got as Joe scanned the crowd, looking for Paris. He finally found her over by the registers. She was talking to a couple of men he didn’t recognize, who didn’t have any kids with them.

He frowned and shot Sandy a look, tipping his head in that direction.

Sandy shrugged. “Hey, Jaden, I really want to see that cool basketball that Marcus got from Santa.” She held out her hand, and Joe swung Jaden to the ground. “Come on over there with me.”

“Okay! See you later, Joe!”

“See ya, kiddo.” Joe turned immediately toward Paris and the two men.

“I’m so pleased to know that you see everything I do in this place,” he heard Paris say as he approached.

“We absolutely do. I’m sorry that wasn’t clear,” the one to her right said. He was probably in his late forties, with gray peppering his temples and a used car salesman smile.

Paris tilted her head. “I’m fairly certain I didn’t misinterpret what you said about the Christmas side.”

Her back was to Joe. Both men were engrossed in what she was saying. They’d clearly been tuning out all the hubbub around them and that included him now.

“We were actually quite surprised by how taken we were with everything,” the older man said. He had a completely white head of hair, but his smile was much less fake than the first guy’s.

Joe scowled but hung back. He hadn’t been invited to this conversation. He didn’t like the looks of these guys, but it was clear that Paris wasn’t displeased to have been pulled off to the side, so he would just have to hang back until she was done.

“This place reminded me so much of the store in the little town in Ohio where I grew up,” the older of the two men said. “I was quite overcome when we were last here.”

“You had a store that was half a feed store and half a year-round Christmas shop?” Paris asked, her tone light.

The man chuckled. “No. But the local department store would decorate the entire first floor like a Christmas village starting in the first part of November,” he said. “It was…well, quite magical really. Walking in here the other day brought it all back. Your website doesn’t do it justice.”

Paris nodded. “I would agree. That’s something we need to work on.”

Joe felt a surge of pride. For her. She’d worked her sweet little ass off on getting the store cleaned and decorated, and it looked amazing. He liked hearing more people telling her that.

“And I want to apologize for how long it’s taken us to get back to you. We got tied up in some last-minute complications with another merger, and I’m sorry to say that it’s taken more time and attention than we’d expected. But we are very interested in the Holly Jolly and would like to talk numbers,” the younger man said.

Wait a second. What? It didn’t sound like these two were here just for the party. Joe’s gut tightened with trepidation.

Paris nodded. “I understand. I will admit that I was under the impression that you were going to pass.”

“Yes. Again, I’m sorry. We should have communicated more clearly,” the older man said to the younger one.

“We did have a few reservations,” the younger man inserted.

“But we cleared those up, Todd,” the older man said with a frown. “We have fully discussed all of it and are now in agreement.”

Joe watched Paris draw herself straighter. “Well, I wasn’t expecting this at all. I want to clarify the stipulation that everything in this store must stay exactly as it is now. With the same employees. No significant changes. Did you get that information from my lawyer?”

“We did,” Todd said. “We’re hoping to negotiate some of that, actually.”

“No.” Paris’s response was swift and firm.

“Upgrades. Improvements. That’s all, my dear,” the older man said. “I promise you that we want to make no changes to anything of substance.”

“What my father is saying,” Todd said with a heavy sigh. “Is that he is enchanted by this place exactly as it is and he intends to keep it the same. However, we need to be realistic about what we can agree to. If we’re going to operate this business for the foreseeable future, we have to be given the leeway to make appropriate changes. The stipulations from your attorney are very...stringent. Crazy really.”

“Todd,” his father snapped.

“Dad,” Todd returned. “It’s ridiculous to sign a clause that says we can never paint the outside any other color and that we will always include Randy Travis in the playlist and that we have to keep the power tools in aisle seven. It’s—I’m sorry—crazy to stipulate that this place will look exactly the same twenty years from now than it does today down to every last detail.”

Paris had done that? She’d actually gotten her attorney to write all of that into the proposal? Wow. That was a little...crazy. And amazing.

Paris crossed her arms, and Joe’s heart was pounding so hard he was struggling to hear her response over the sound.

“I don’t see why not. My aunt was able to keep it the same all the years she owned it,” Paris said, her tone cool.

“I promise you that the bird seed and fake snow that your aunt stocked in the past year is not the same that she stocked twenty years ago,” Todd said, obviously a little exasperated.

Paris’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “I suppose that’s true.”

“We’re talking basic changes. Keeping up with the times. Making reasonable improvements to improve our margins. Things like that,” Todd said.

“Again, I’m going to have to insist that you are sensitive to pricing and keeping things affordable,” Paris said. “These people work hard, and they need this store for their supplies.” She gestured toward the seed and feed side of the building before gesturing to the holiday side. “As well as deserving to wallow in their love for Christmas. They deserve to be able to afford to go Christmas crazy.” Her voice wobbled a little at the end. “They have to be able to fill their houses and yards and businesses with as many elves and candy canes and tinsel as they want.”

The older man was gazing at Paris with an obvious look of affection. As if he thought she was magical.

Dammit, he was right.

She was.

She understood this town, and she was fighting to keep this place here for them. Everything that she’d thought was silly and over-the-top and tacky and ridiculous before were now the things she was insisting stay the same.

Joe was in love with her. If he hadn’t been sure before, he would have been in that moment. Everything about what she’d just said to these men made him want to grab her and never let go.

But she was leaving.

There was no longer any reason for her to stay. She’d come to sell the business, and now she had a buyer. Even more, a buyer who thought the store was wonderful and wanted to preserve it as it was.

Joe had secretly hoped she’d never find a buyer. That if someone did make an offer, it would come with a plan to bulldoze the place. The first couple of days she was in North Pole, Paris probably would have gone along with that. But it hadn’t taken her long to get to the point where she wouldn’t let someone tear it down. Still, it wasn’t until the last few days that he’d discovered she truly couldn’t imagine this place being anything other than the Holly Jolly and that she understood how important it was to the town.

Still, Joe had hoped—now that she loved the place—she wouldn’t find someone who would keep it as it was. He’d hoped she wouldn’t be able to let it go.

The older man was grinning widely. “I can’t wait to spend time here and get to know the people and know that they’ll be using the tools they buy from me in the spring to hang their Christmas lights that they get in here in December.”

Paris’s shoulders rose and fell as she took a deep breath, and she dropped her arms.

Dammit. She was feeling less defensive. That wasn’t good.

“The name must stay the same. The inventory must stay the same. The employees must all maintain their jobs with the same salaries and benefits. You even have to continue to play both Christmas music and country music at the same time inside the store,” Paris told them.

Todd rolled his eyes, but he nodded. “That’s one of my father’s favorite parts.”

“Me too,” Paris said.

That was all Joe needed to hear.

These guys were buying the Holly Jolly, and Paris had no reason to stay in North Pole.

The cold ball of hurt and dread in Joe’s gut was completely his own fault. She’d never said she would stay. They’d gone into the whole sex thing knowing it was just sex. At least, that’s what they’d said. It was nothing new that he had fallen hard and quickly, so the fact that he wanted to put his hand through some drywall or drink a bottle or two of whiskey or yell and rage was not her fault.

He still felt all those things though, so he turned on his heels and headed for the door.

He had to get out of here.

Paris’s heart was pounding.

Frank Winters wanted to buy the Holly Jolly.

He wanted to keep it exactly as it was. He was agreeing to all her stipulations. Even the super-crazy ones.

Hearing his son, Todd, point those out made her realize just how crazy they were. She hadn’t thought about that when she’d insisted her lawyer put them in there because keeping everything exactly as it was in the Holly Jolly right now was a must. However, when Todd started talking about how ridiculous and over-the-top a lot of it was, she realized she’d put those stipulations in because she thought it would prevent any serious offers.

But Frank had just made a serious offer. Not just an offer. He was willing to pay the stupid high price she’d also set. In hindsight, that had probably been to discourage buyers too.

And his last name was Winters.

It felt as if he had to own the Holly Jolly. The man talked about the place with an affectionate wistfulness in his eyes that Paris could completely relate to. It was exactly how she would want the next owner to feel.

He was perfect.

And she didn’t want to sell to him.

Because she wanted to keep the Holly Jolly.

The realization hit her right between her breasts, right in the center of her chest, making it hard to take a deep breath.

She wanted to keep the Holly Jolly.

She wanted to stay in North Pole.

She wanted to stay with Joe.

God, it was so fucking cold here. So out of her comfort zone in every way. So like nothing she had ever expected.

But she wanted it. She wanted all of it.

And yes, Joe was most of it. She would want him wherever he was. But she could honestly say that she also wanted North Pole and this crazy, wonderful, quirky, weird, amazing store.

“What’s wrong?” Frank looked legitimately concerned as he leaned in with a frown.

“What do you mean?”

“You look like you’re about to faint,” he said.

“Or throw up,” Todd added, also frowning.

“Oh, I’m…” Paris waved her hand in front of her face. She suddenly felt hot. But not like she was going to throw up. More like she was going to cry. But in a good way. She needed to find Joe, needed to tell him. She also needed to ask him if it was okay if she stayed.

Oh…crap.

Paris was going to stay and that was not part of their plan. They’d talked about this being just sex for sex while she was here. Short term. Nothing serious.

Now she was just suddenly going to stay?

She knew that it would seem out of the blue to him too. Who would have guessed that she’d fall madly in love with snow and stuffed reindeer and country music and candy canes?

Okay, loving candy canes wasn’t that hard to believe. They were awesome. As just candy canes. But now she knew how they could be used during hot sex with a big, bearded guy whose heart was even bigger than his cock—and that was saying something.

Yeah, Paris wasn’t worried about the cold. She would have Joe.

Maybe.

Please, God.

She turned and looked around. There were a few people still lingering in the store after the party. Surely Joe was one of them. He’d be here waiting to help her clean up. She’d come to know him well enough to know he was the guy who stuck around to help. In fact, she half expected him to be here already, filling a trash bag with the ripped wrapping paper, the red and green napkins, and half-eaten cookies.

But she didn’t see him. He was big so that was weird, but he had to be here somewhere. Paris had noticed him come back in after changing out of his Santa suit but just as he’d headed for Jaden, Frank and Todd had caught up with her.

“Paris?”

She swung back to Todd and Frank. “I’m sorry.”

“Is everything alright?” Todd asked.

Paris nodded. “Everything is good. Everything is really, really good. I need to go.”

“Go? We need to head out tonight. We’re expected back in Indianapolis tomorrow morning,” Todd protested. “Is there somewhere we can go to get everything signed?”

“No. I’m sorry. I’m not selling.” That sounded great out loud. It felt great to say it.

“Excuse me?” Todd asked, frowning.

“I’m not selling,” she repeated.

“We came all this way,” Todd said.

Paris lifted a shoulder. Frank Winters was a very nice man, but she wasn’t as fond of Todd. “I’m sorry, but you didn’t tell me you were coming.” Honestly, if he’d called and let her know they were interested, she might have come to this realization about the store, the town, and Joe, sooner.

“I’ve very recently made the decision to keep the store. To stay in North Pole.”

“But...I…we…” Todd spluttered.

Frank watched her thoughtfully. “Would more money make a difference?”

“No,” she answered honestly. Of course she needed money. Like every normal person. But she had also inherited Lydia’s house, and the cost of living in North Pole was nothing compared to L.A. Paris didn’t know what she would do with her store there. Maybe she could maintain her ownership and just have Janice manage it. No matter what, she would have a small income from the Holly Jolly, and she really wanted to make it work.

“What about if we offer you a job in another of our stores? Full benefits, large salary, your pick of location?” Frank was still watching her with a slight smile.

Paris shook her head. “No. I want to be here. In this store. Doing this.”

Frank nodded.

“This is outrageous!” Todd exclaimed. “You should have let us know that you’d changed your mind. You should have been in touch.”

“Todd,” Frank said mildly. We weren’t in touch either. It’s fine.”

“But—”

“Paris owns this store. This is how it should be.” Frank gave her a smile. “I think you’ve made the right choice.”

Paris felt her eyes go wide. “You do?”

“Doing something with your life that you can be passionate about every day is wonderful. And doing that in a place with people that give you joy is a true gift. I’m so glad you’ve found that.”

How could Frank read all of that about her so easily? They’d spent maybe an hour together total. “How can you tell that’s how I feel?”

He smiled, one of those wise-older-person smiles that came from seeing a lot of life, learning from past experiences and mistakes. “It radiates from you, my dear. This store will never be all it can be if it’s not yours. And I have a feeling the same is true of this town, and these people—whoever they are.”

“Joe,” she said without thinking. His name just slipped out. “Joe is the person. My person.” Jaden and Sandy and all the store’s regulars were part of it too, of course, but Joe was definitely the one.

“Joe’s a very lucky man. I hope he knows that.”

Paris gave Frank a huge smile. Then on impulse, she leaned in and kissed the older man’s cheek. “Thank you.”

“I can’t believe this,” Todd muttered.

“You’ll be fine,” Frank said. “I’ll buy you a hot chocolate on our way out of town.”

Paris fought a smile. Todd Winters didn’t strike her as the hot chocolate type, but she didn’t give a shit. Because Joe sure as hell was.

“Fine. But I want marshmallows, not whipped cream,” Todd grumbled.

Paris huffed out a laugh. Apparently, she was wrong on that count.

“Of course, you do,” Frank said with a smile.

“I wouldn’t knock the whipped cream,” she joked.

Frank gave Paris a wink. “I mostly raised him right, but his mother convinced him that marshmallows are the better topping for cocoa. It’s a cross I’ve had to bear.”

Paris laughed and watched the two men head for the door.

Then she looked around the store again.

Her store. Everything in this place belonged to her and she loved every bit of it.

But mostly she loved Joe, and she needed to tell him that.

Right now.

Then she needed to tell him she was staying.

But where the hell was he?

Frowning, Paris started for the wooden Santa house. Sandy was just off to one side with Jaden, who was helping gather up paper and bows and talking nonstop. Clearly, he’d had a lot of sugar.

“Hi, guys!” Paris gave them both a big smile. She wanted to tell them she was staying too, but Joe had to be the first. “Have you seen Joe?”

“Yes!” Jaden answered nosily—and obviously gleefully—wadding up wrapping paper and stuffing it into a garbage bag. “He loves my new bulldozer!”

“I’m sure he does.” And clearly that was all that really mattered to Jaden at the moment because he didn’t offer her anything else.

She turned to Sandy. “Do you know where he is?”

Joe’s mom looked around. “He was here. We chatted, and then he went to find you.”

“Oh, I haven’t spoken to him.” Paris frowned and glanced around too.

“He headed in your direction not that long ago,” Sandy assured her.

“He did?”

Sandy gave her an exasperated smile. “Yep. Just before Ryan Cuppers and Liam Drivers started a game of tag, knocked into the snack table, and dumped the punch bowl over. I lost track of him after that.”

“What?” Paris quickly looked around but saw no evidence of the mess.

“We got it cleaned up,” Sandy said, waving her hand as if to say don’t worry about it. “But I didn’t keep my eye on Joe.”

“He left!” Jaden said, bouncing like a bunny over to her. He wore two big red bows on top of his head. Bunny ears, she assumed.

“He did?”

“Yep! I saw him.” Jaden was still jumping up and down.

Wow, how many cookies had the kid had?

“When?”

“Before,” Jaden said, bouncing in a circle around her.

Paris rotated, watching him. “Before when?”

“Before now!” He giggled.

Right. He was eight. Telling time wasn’t really his forte. Especially when overstimulated with presents and a visit from Santa and a game of tag that had ended in a major punch bowl incident.

Paris would have normally asked what bunnies had to do with Christmas, but suddenly she didn’t have time because Joe had left.

He hadn’t stuck around to help Sandy clean up the snack table disaster or the wrapping paper mess? He hadn’t waited for her?

Had he overheard her talking to Todd and Frank? Had he heard their offer?

Oh God. Did he think she was taking it? Of course he did because why wouldn’t she?

She’d given no one—even herself—a reason to think that staying was an option. Until she’d been face-to-face with everything she thought she wanted and realized it wasn’t at all what she needed.

Then a more chilling thought occurred to her. What if he’d overheard her saying she was staying. What if that was the problem?

Her heart dropped to her stomach.

“I need to go.”

Something in her tone caught Sandy’s attention because she looked up quickly. “Are you okay, honey?”

“I’m not sure. I need to find Joe. I need to talk to him.”

Sandy looked worried, but she nodded. “Okay.” She reached into her pocket. “Take the truck. Jaden and I can grab a ride home with the mayor and his wife. It’s an election year, so he’ll be out there shaking hands and kissing babies until every last person is gone. Call me if you need me.”

Paris’s eyes stung, touched by Sandy’s kindness. She’d grown very close to Joe’s mom in just a couple of weeks. Paris loved her parents, but her mother had been less warm and cuddly and more like the “cool mom” in Mean Girls . Somewhere around middle school, Mom had become less maternal and more friend. They had a great relationship, but Paris couldn’t remember the last time Mom made her soup when she didn’t feel good or hugged her when she was discouraged or offered help whenever Paris needed it. Sandy had done all three of those things in the past two weeks.

Paris nodded and sniffled. “I will. Thanks.”

She headed straight for the door, pushing it open, anxious to find Joe.

Of course, she was met by a blast of frigid air and also, of course, she’d forgotten her damn coat.

For a second, Paris thought about going to Joe’s without it, but icy fingers wrapped around her, and she decided to spare a few seconds in favor of warmth. Running back into the Holly Jolly, she headed to the back room. Hanging on a hook was the big ugly coat Joe had given her right next to her cute little zebra print jacket. She’d been wearing the bigger one because it was warmer. It wasn’t fashionable—at all—but no one in North Pole cared about that.

Plus, it felt like Joe was hugging her whenever she wore it, which was kind of a silly thought, but she liked it. He’d given it to her to take care of her, and every time she slipped her arms into the too-big sleeves, she thought of the big arms that, when wrapped around her, made her feel warm and safe and cared for. Her eyes dropped to the boots sitting on the floor under the coat hooks and a plan formed.

Her knees were going to get a little cold, but it would be worth it because she was determined to make a statement.

Five minutes later, her cute elf costume was laying on the floor of the breakroom, and she was in the big coat, with a stocking cap pulled over her ears and her feet shoved into the boots.

She looked like an idiot, but she was warm and prepared to go get her man. Failure was not an option.

Paris tromped down the snowy sidewalk toward the truck, praying no one stopped her for a chat. Then she fired up the truck, realizing it was the first time she’d driven on snow. The thought of attempting such a thing would have terrified her a couple of weeks ago, but now, she just put the vehicle in gear and pressed on the gas.

Once she arrived at Joe’s, she noticed the light was on in his living room.

Her stomach clenched when she realized he’d gone to his own house rather than wait for her at Lydia’s. Or even the store.

Something was definitely wrong.

Paris climbed the outdoor steps to his apartment over Sandy’s garage. The cold air swirled underneath the coat and across parts of her that had never been exposed to temperatures under seventy degrees. She’d nude-sunbathed a couple of times in California, so maybe not even under eighty. Certainly never fifteen degrees.

It was probably dangerous because she needed those parts, but Joe was worth the risk.

She planned to give him about two minutes to answer the door before she’d have to sprint back to the truck and call him from inside the heated cab.

It only took him one.

He threw the door open and frowned down at her. She tried not to panic when he didn’t say anything.

“Hi.”

It was a weak start, but Paris had never told anyone she loved them, so she wasn’t really sure how to begin.

Joe’s expression was unreadable when he offered a wooden, “Hi.”

Paris stuffed her hands in the pockets of his coat, unsure if it was the cold or her nerves causing them to shake.

He hadn’t invited her in.

Why hadn’t he?

“Joe.” Oh great. Now her voice was trembling too.

Enough, she thought. For God’s sake, pull on your big girl panties, Paris.

She took a deep, steadying breath. “I love you, Joe. I’m moving to North Pole. I’m going to move into Lydia’s house permanently because…I want to be with you.”

Apparently, she was just going to go for it.

It didn’t sound as good out loud, but she hoped it got the point across.

His surprise allowed her to step forward, put her hand on his chest, and push him back. Dammit, it was fucking freezing outside.

Paris kicked his door shut behind her once she’d cleared the threshold.

“I have a buyer for the Holly Jolly, but I’m keeping it. I’m staying because I want to live here.”

It took him a long moment, but Joe pulled in a deep breath and shook his head. “We don’t have what you want or need here.”

“That’s not true.”

“You’re from California. You don’t know how to even walk on snow.”

“I just drove here,” Paris said proudly, but Joe ignored her.

“You know nothing about chicken wire or wrenches or Garth Brooks.”

“Fine. You’re right. But…” She stepped closer and put her hand back on his chest again, this time leaving it there. Over his heart. “But I know you. I know how you make me feel. I know I’ve never felt like this before. I know I can’t imagine not feeling it every single day for the rest of my life.”

Emotions swirled in his eyes. He swallowed hard. “You turned them down?”

“Down flat. They offered more money. Other jobs. Whatever I wanted.” She gripped his shirt in her fist. “And I said no.”

Finally, Joe blew out a long breath, reaching out to grasp her wrist. “Paris, I can’t ask you to stay. I can’t ask you to give everything up.”

“You didn’t ask,” she pointed out. “This is my decision and mine alone.”

“You have a life back in L.A.”

She lifted one shoulder, shrugging. “I exist in L.A., but I live in North Pole. I love this place, the people, the Holly Jolly.” She gave him a tremulous smile, aware he seemed to have missed her first proclamation. She wasn’t sure if that was because she’d blindsided him or because he didn’t want to hear it. Paris needed to know, so she put herself out there one more time. “I love you.”

Joe’s shoulders relaxed, his tight expression gone. “Thank God. Because I love you too.”

He started to pull her close and lean in, but she stopped him.

“Hang on. I’ve got something for you.”

“You do?” He looked puzzled because her hands were clearly empty.

She stepped back, pulled off the hat, kicked off the boots, and then she opened the coat.

His eyes heated as she shrugged it off.

“That’s a really big bow,” he said, his voice gravelly.

The bow had been wrapped around Santa’s chair at the Holly Jolly before Santa Joe had arrived. She’d found it draped over the table in the back room, so she’d grabbed it and wrapped it around herself like a Miss America sash. The bow settled right over her belly button.

In other words, it covered nothing.

“Yeah, well, you need a huge bow for a big package for a very, very, naughty Santa,” she told him with a wink.

“I thought I had the big package,” he said, stepping forward.

“Oh, you do.” Her seductive tone was ruined by her voice breaking as her emotions bubbled up and spilled over. “But all of this with us, everything…is big. Really big.”

“And naughty,” he added.

“So naughty,” she whispered.

He cupped her face and looked down at her with an adoration that Paris had never seen directed her way before. “Yeah, it is. And that calls for a big bow for sure. And…” He bent forward, putting his shoulder right against that bow, then stood, lifting her over his shoulder just like he had the first day they met.

She shrieked with surprise. “Joe!”

“And a big cup of hot cocoa.”

Paris immediately settled as he carried her to the couch in front of the fireplace. “Ooh, I hope you have a big candy cane for me too.”

He tossed her onto the cushions, following her down. “Don’t worry, California girl, Santa’s got everything you need.”