The December Market (Shelter Springs #2)

17

Over the next week, Amanda was too busy to worry much about either Birdie and Paolo or her own growing feelings for Rafe.

Between her downtown store and her market responsibilities, she didn’t have a spare second.

During the day, anyway.

At night, when she should have been collapsing into a dreamless, exhausted slumber, her subconscious seemed to want her to focus almost exclusively on Rafe and Isaac.

She dreamed of them nearly every night.

Sometimes her subconscious relived that stunning, fleeting kiss she and Rafe had shared, and she would wake up with the sheets tangled around her and her body aching.

She could understand that. She hadn’t been this attracted to anyone in a long time. Maybe not even since Jake.

Weirder, though, were the dreams where she, Rafe and Isaac weren’t doing anything exciting, simply the ordinary activities of life. Washing dishes together, doing yard work, blowing out birthday candles.

Either way, she awoke each day with a strange ache in her chest, a loneliness she didn’t want to face. Instead of dwelling on it, she invariably tried to jump straight into the chaos of the day, determined to push them both out of her head.

In reality, she rarely saw Rafe over the next several days. They did not have another conversation longer than a passing hello. They certainly did not share more of those stirring, spellbinding kisses.

Now that she was fairly certain most of the kinks of the market had been ironed out, she chose to split her time more evenly instead of spending all day at the market. She still worked at the kiosk for several hours, mostly in the evenings after she had worked at her downtown store.

She was fully aware Rafe worked almost the exact opposite schedule. He had told her that was the plan. Still, Amanda would never have admitted to anyone else that the reason she was so willing to turn over more responsibilities to her market kiosk team during the day might have something to do with the very sexy paramedic working across the row at the first aid station.

Finally, after the market had been open a week, she came in around five, expecting him to be gone.

Instead, almost the first thing she saw when she arrived was Rafe at the first aid station with Kelli Child, a woman several years younger than Amanda who sold her locally produced honey products at her kiosk several rows over.

Rafe’s dark head was bent over the other woman’s hand, turning it back and forth as he examined it.

Kelli was pretty, curvy, vivacious. Everything Amanda wasn’t. She sighed, annoyed with herself.

The young woman was also obviously interested in Rafe. Amanda wasn’t close enough to hear their conversation, but she could see the way Kelli angled her head just so and leaned her body closer to his big, muscular frame.

Amanda had heard rumors a few weeks ago that Kelli had recently broken up with her longtime boyfriend. Some kind of spat over credit card bills.

Rory owned a landscaping business and played in a band on the weekend. He was also ten years older than Kelli. Apparently she had a type, since Rafe was at least that.

Kelli said something and then laughed, a tinkling, delicate laugh that seemed to shriek like a fire alarm in the crowded hall. Rafe said something in response, giving Kelli a slow, amused smile that made Amanda shiver, even from the end of the row. Not her business. If he wanted to smile at a notorious flirt like Kelli Child, he was completely entitled. Kelli might be young but she was an adult, despite her surname.

Unfortunately, Amanda had to walk directly past them on the way to her shop. She could always go down the next row and walk halfway back up to The Lucky Goat stall, but that would just be silly, wouldn’t it?

She drew in a breath, hitched her messenger bag over her shoulder and walked casually toward her shop.

Unfortunately, she had only taken a few steps when he spotted her.

“Amanda. Hi.”

She widened her eyes, as if she had just noticed him. “Oh. Rafe. Hi. Hello, Kelli.”

The woman clearly didn’t look thrilled at the interruption. She glowered slightly before pasting on a fake smile.

“Hi, Amanda.”

“I didn’t expect to see you here this evening. I thought you were mostly working at the first aid station during the day.”

As soon as her words were out, Amanda regretted them. He would likely sense—correctly—that she had been thinking about him entirely too much.

“That’s right. Afternoons usually work better with Isaac’s school schedule but the medic who was covering the first aid station tonight called in sick and Izzy already had plans, so I’m pinch-hitting. Isaac is spending the night with his grandparents. I believe they’re going to watch the Lights on the Lake parade.”

“Is that still going on?” Kelli rolled her eyes. “It was so lame the last time my friends and I went. Who wants to stand outside in the cold to watch a bunch of stupid boats go past?”

Amanda adored the festival that was one of the only joint activities between Shelter Springs and the neighboring town of Haven Point.

When she was a girl, she and Birdie and Griffin used to go every year, bundled up in their warmest coats, and hold their own judging contest. They would rank the boats that traveled between their marina and the one in Haven Point and back, choosing the rig with the best lights, the most unique decorations, the silliest, the most beautiful.

It was one of her favorite childhood memories about the holidays. She would much rather be wrapped up in a blanket on a lawn chair next to her grandmother, laughing and drinking hot cocoa while they watched festively lit boats go past under the stars.

Instead, she was here at the market, which was sure to become even more hectic with shoppers looking to come inside and warm up the moment the last boat sailed from Shelter Springs to make its way down to Haven Point.

“It’s not lame if you’re six years old and love boats,” Rafe pointed out.

“I suppose that’s true,” Kelli conceded. “And it’s always fun to go down to Haven Point and visit their little festival.”

Amanda knew the early organizers of the Shelter Springs Giving Market originally started it as competition for the Haven Point Lights on the Lake Festival. Instead of holding a fair over only one night, as Haven Point did, Shelter Springs could have one that lasted an entire week. The event had steadily grown over the years until it was now a two-week-long extravaganza.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t join Isaac and your parents to watch the boats,” Amanda said.

“I’ll survive. I’m sure he will tell me all about it tomorrow, in vivid detail. At least it will give him something else to talk about besides his visit to Santa a week ago.”

She caught her breath at the reminder of the boy’s wish for a mother for Christmas. A mother who wouldn’t be her.

“In my limited experience, I don’t believe Isaac must ever lack for something to talk about.”

“True enough,” he said with a smile before turning back to Kelli, finishing his work wrapping an elastic bandage around her wrist using his right arm as well as the one in the cast.

“There you go. That should help keep down the swelling if it’s sprained, though you definitely want to have your doctor take some X-rays as soon as you can.”

“Thanks.”

“How did you hurt your wrist?” Amanda asked.

Kelli withdrew her arm with clear reluctance from Rafe’s. “My stupid landlord didn’t salt the steps again after the storm last night. I slid on the ice as I was walking to my car after I ran home for lunch to grab my phone charger.”

At least her injury hadn’t happened here at the market. Their liability insurer would appreciate that.

“It’s been killing me all afternoon and I finally decided I should do something about it.”

Amanda strongly suspected she had probably waited until Rafe came on duty.

Kelli examined her wrist from various angles. “Thanks. Great job. You’re good at that.”

“Um. Thanks.”

“So good at it, in fact, I might ask you to wrap it again for me tomorrow.”

“That might be a little tough since tomorrow is Sunday and I won’t be here.”

She made a face. “I forgot the market was closed tomorrow. I still think we should have stayed open every day. By closing on Sundays, we’re missing half the weekend shoppers.”

Amanda did not really feel like explaining all the reasons again to Kelli. Over the years, the organizing committee had experimented with staying open on Sundays but data showed they actually saw half the traffic on that day as other days of the week. Since many of the vendors ran one-or two-person operations, the decision had been made to remain open only six days of the week so that those hardworking merchants could have a chance to breathe.

“As you are so passionate about it, you should definitely write that comment in the suggestion form we’ve asked everyone with a booth to fill out. That helps us figure out what to do in the future.” She gave a polite smile. “Also, you could always volunteer to be on the market committee next year.”

Kelli grimaced, clearly not enamored with that idea. “Maybe. Between my YouTube videos, TikToks and Instagram, I don’t have a lot of free time for this kind of thing, like you do.”

Amanda wasn’t exactly overflowing with empty hours she needed to fill, but she decided there was no point in responding to Kelli’s barbed comment.

“I should get back,” the other woman said after a moment. “My sister is filling in for me and she said she had to leave at five thirty.”

Which had been at least twenty minutes earlier, Amanda thought rather sourly.

Kelli hopped up from the chair and placed her wrapped hand on Rafe’s arm in an unmistakably proprietary gesture.

“Thanks again, Rafe. You’re the sweetest.”

He raised an eyebrow at her enthusiastic gushing but only gave her a slight smile in response. Kelli gave a little finger wave to Amanda and headed through the crowd toward her stall, which was on the other side of the convention hall.

“Are you planning to stay until the market closes, or will you have a chance to make it to any of the boat festival activities?” Rafe asked.

“I’m here for the duration, until closing. Later, actually. Our security guard will be a little late since he was going to the festival with his family, so I told him I would do the final walk-through to make sure all the vendors have locked up their stalls and everyone is out of the building.”

“Is security for the event really a major concern?”

“Not normally but we caught a couple of kids hiding out in the bathrooms earlier in the week, waiting until everyone was gone so they could cause mischief and raid any unlocked shops. Apparently somebody at school dared them.”

“I’m surprised it wasn’t one of those lame social media challenges.”

“It might have been, as far as I know. Anyway, we are trying to be extra vigilant now so I said I could stay after closing.”

“Do you have someone staying with you?”

“No. I’m fine. The security guard should only be about half an hour later than normal, but that’s long enough for someone up to no good to cause trouble.”

“I’m not sure that’s a great idea. You should have someone with you, especially if you’ve already had problems with trespassing kids.”

“I’m not worried.”

“Good for you. I am. As I said, Isaac is staying overnight at my parents’ house after the boat festival. I’ll stay with you when the market closes so there are two of us to do the final walk-through.”

She instinctively wanted to argue, to tell him she was perfectly capable of handling the responsibility on her own. The truth was, though, while she was certain she could handle a few juvenile delinquents, she would be grateful to have someone else here.

Amanda was embarrassed to admit that she didn’t like being alone in the huge convention hall. She found it more than a little spooky. Something about the empty rows of closed-up shops that were usually bustling with activity seemed eerie, unnatural.

It seemed silly to argue with him when she would truly appreciate his presence. “Okay. If you’re sure you don’t mind, thank you.”

“I’ll find you after the market closes.”

She nodded and hurried on her way to The Lucky Goat kiosk, where she donned her apron again, put on her most cheerful smile and did her best to convince herself she had no reason for this buzz of anticipation.