Shoved (Moonlit Lake Matchmaker #4)

Chapter 10

SERENA

He was a grump. The grinchiest of grinches. I needed to remember that. Or at least remind my traitorous body.

It didn’t matter that I felt a zing move through me all the way to my toes at the mere brush of his fingers on mine. Or that I melted into a puddle like a snowman in front of the fire anytime he looked my way. Or the fact that his rude remarks brought out my inner snow monster, transforming me from a festive snow angel to a prickly icicle in an instant.

I had no room in my life for a man. But if I did, he’d have to understand that Sadie and I were a package deal. Anyone I let into my life had to love kids, and from what I’d seen of Storm, I was pretty sure that ruled him out.

I could easily trim the thorns from rose stems to make them safe to handle. Too bad I couldn’t do that with him. No. He might be nice to look at, but only from a distance. I just needed to stay as far away from this grinch as possible. And we would all be safe.

“Sadie, come on. It’s time to get ready to go. We don’t want to be late or we’ll miss them turning on the lights.”

“I’m coming. Don’t leave without me.”

“How could I leave without you? You’re my little snow fairy.” I tousled her curly blond hair, making her giggle. “Here are your snow pants. It’s really cold out tonight. And who knows how long we’ll be standing outside? I don’t want you to freeze or get sick.”

She didn’t argue and put on all the winter gear I set in front of her. Snow pants, coat, boots, mittens, scarf, hat—only her eyeballs were sticking out. I did the same, except I had long underwear on under my jeans, instead of snow pants.

The entire town had shown up for the tree-lighting event. We waded through the crowd until we found my mom. She was in line for hot chocolate. “My sweet girls, you’re just in time. Who wants some hot cocoa?”

Sadie jumped up and down and raised her hand excitedly. “Me! I want some. I can have some. Can’t I, Mommy?”

“Of course. What’s a tree-lighting without hot chocolate?”

While we waited, I scanned the crowd for familiar faces. I knew a lot of people in town, but I’d been told that this event attracted people from the surrounding towns as well. Apparently, that was true.

I finally spied a few of my friends… AJ, Lanie, and Sam. Once we had our hot drinks, I held Sadie’s hand and went to join them.

“Where’s Junior?” Sadie asked AJ, hoping to see her playful puppy.

AJ sighed, “Sorry. He had to stay home. He would have been too excited to play with all of these people. And not everyone appreciates a strange puppy jumping and drooling on them.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Sadie admitted, hugging my leg. Crowds seemed to bring out a bashfulness she otherwise didn’t possess. “I like it when he gives me puppy kisses.”

AJ bent down and booped Sadie on the nose, making her grin. “You’ll have to come over to see him soon. He loves to play with you. I think you’re his favorite munchkin.”

Sadie’s face lit up. “Did you hear that, Mommy? I’m his favorite.”

“Of course you are. You’re everyone’s favorite.”

Just then, a leash wrapped around my legs, and caused me to lose my balance. I was about to fall when strong arms caught me from behind and brought me upright again. I turned to thank my savior when I our eyes met. It was the grinch.

I held my breath, waiting for him to complain about someone bringing a dog to a busy event like this. After all, this wasn’t a petting zoo. But instead, he apologized.

“I’m so sorry about Lulu. We’re a work in progress.” His face was serious and held his typical scowl. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. “I’d have left her home, but she’d have escaped and come on her own, anyway.”

I stood there glaring at him until Sadie’s giggling brought be back to the present. A black and white fluff ball was slathering her with kisses.

“Lu. That’s enough.” Storm scowled, his hands fisting on his hips. “Let the girl breathe.”

Sadie hugged the dog and was rewarded with more kisses.

My gaze shifted between him and the frisky pup, trying to make sense of this unexpected pairing. “I, uh, is this your dog?”

“Yes. It’s a recent development. I went to the pound just to look, not intending to adopt. Well, you can see how that worked out.”

AJ laughed, “Rookie mistake. Everyone knows there is no such thing as window shopping at a dog shelter. You’d have to have a heart of stone to look at them and not fall in love.”

“Yeah. I thought I’d be safe.”

AJ shook her head. “You talk big, Storm, but if you had a heart of stone, you’d have never gone to look at shelter dogs to begin with.”

He blew off her comment. “Serena. Nice to see you again. And we’re balancing the scale by me almost knocking you over this time.”

His tone was light, but his reminder of my past bumbles caused me to bristle again. “I’m surprised to see you at an event like this. Seems a bit too festive for someone like you.”

He took in my red scarf and Christmas tree earrings. “I might not be an elf-incarnate, but that doesn’t make me a scrooge.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a grinch, but close enough.”

Sadie leaned into me and pulled on my arm. “But Mommy, he’s not green or hairy. And everyone knows that the grinch just needs love, and his heart will grow three sizes.”

Then my sweet girl launched herself at Storm and wrapped her little arms around him. His eyes were wide. He clearly had no idea how to handle this unexpected miniature assault. But to his credit, he didn’t push her away or scold her. When she loosened her grip, he set her onto her feet on the snow.

“We should probably introduce ourselves. Don’t you think?” He looked down at Sadie, and she nodded. “I’m Storm, and this is Lulu. What’s your name?”

“I’m Sadie. And I love puppies.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss Sadie. Lulu’s lucky to have a new friend like you.” He looked from Sadie to me, putting together that she was my daughter. Then he patted her on the head, but still didn’t crack a smile.

This unexpected side of Storm was hard for me to handle. It was so much easier to deal with him when he was a prickly cactus. That I knew what to do with. But surely he would stay away now that he knew I was a single mom.

I turned my attention to those on the other side of me. My mom was talking to Honey, Storm’s mom. I’d talked to them both about the Holiday Goat Yoga event. My mom was a yoga instructor, and Honey had goats and a space to do it at Willowbrook Farm. It was scheduled for next week.

Since they both agreed to help, I was able to check two big things off my to-do list. “Thank you both for agreeing to do this. It’s going to be so much fun.”

Honey clapped her hands in front of her chest. “I’m excited too. I was just telling your mom that I have a surprise planned. You’re gonna love it.” She peered over at Sadie, who was still playing with Lulu. “I hope Sadie will be there, too. She’ll get a big kick out of this.”

“Oh, I’m sure she will, no matter what it is. If it involves animals and Christmas, she’s all in.” I assured her Sadie would absolutely love goat yoga. I actually wasn’t sure if I should tell her about it ahead of time or not.

A group began singing Christmas carols. The crowd joined in. Sadie tugged on my arm. “I can’t see, Mommy. What’s happening over there? I wanna see.”

I lifted Sadie in my arms, hoping it would help. But there were so many people, I couldn’t see either.

“I still can’t see,” she whined, craning her neck and jumping up and down, almost falling out of my arms.

“Sorry, that’s?—”

Before the words were out of my mouth, Storm lifted Sadie out of my arms and put her on his shoulders.

“Yay! I can see everything from up here. Like I’m on the top of the world. Thanks Mr. Storm.”

As much as I wanted to pull my little girl out of his arms, she beamed brighter than any Christmas lights. He kept his gaze on the tree, his face like stone. His hands held tightly to her legs to make sure she didn’t fall. He almost seemed protective. And his dog sat right next to him, like a guard on duty.

I didn’t know what to make of this man. He was a walking contradiction. As a protective mama polar bear myself, I kept my eye on him and Sadie.

I didn’t like the way it squeezed my chest to see the two of them together, looking very much like any father-daughter team. Please don’t give her any more ideas.

Honey nudged my side. “There’s a lot more to Storm than the stony facade he shows people. He’s a good man, I promise. I hope you give him a chance to show you.”

“That’s not necessary. We’re not together. His dog just?—”

“It doesn’t matter what brought you together.” Honey shifted her gaze to Storm, Sadie, and Lulu. “It’s a beautiful picture. Isn’t it?” Before I could respond, she turned to talk to the rest of her family. They’d just arrived, and her husband, Rob, put his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. Those two were the cutest.

So there I stood, all alone, watching a gorgeous grumpy stranger hold my daughter so she could see the tree, unable to shake the uneasy bafflement of it all.

And how weird was that interaction with his mom? I liked Honey, but I couldn’t believe she was practically shoving me and her son together. I hardly knew the man. And what I did know, I didn’t like.

No, he was the grinch. The grinchiest of grinches. Wasn’t he?

I wasn’t so sure.

He did buy his mom flowers and shoveled snow for his neighbors. And apparently, he’d adopted a shelter dog. None of that made him Father Christmas, but seeing him treating my daughter with such kindness… I didn’t know what to think.

It didn’t matter, though, because I’d vowed to make this Christmas the best Sadie had ever seen. And I didn’t need a man to do that, or to get in the way of that.

I looked around for my mom. Now, where did she disappear to?

The crowd started counting down, the anticipation building. When the lights turned on, everyone sang “O, Christmas tree.”

It was magical. My daughter’s eyes were wide, and her smile sparkled like the star on top of the tree. Storm’s eyes met mine and locked for a moment. My breath caught and my heart flipped. Then his gaze returned to the tree. The spell was broken.

As soon as the carols were done, I pulled Sadie down from his shoulders. “We should probably get going, kiddo. It’s past your bedtime.”

“But I’m not—” Sadie couldn’t even finish her protest without yawning.

We said our goodbyes and headed home. The whole way, my mind kept replaying every encounter I’d had with Storm, trying to make sense of it all.

Who was this man, really?

And why did I want so badly to figure him out?