The Snuggle is Real (Christmas Falls: Season 2)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Mason

I stepped out onto the porch as a beat-up Chevy pulled into my driveway. How ironic that Ford didn’t drive a Ford.

The tires crunched over the remnants of snow that I’d never cleared away. I wasn’t used to having any visitors and preferred to risk slipping to spending time shoveling.

“Be careful!” I called as they opened their doors. “It may be slick.”

Charlie hopped down, paying exactly zero heed to my warning, and darted up the driveway. “Wow, it looks like a gingerbread house!”

Lacy trim along the peeked roof and latticework over the porch did give it that vibe. I’d only seen one other place in town that looked more like a gingerbread house—and that was the Gingerbread Cottage B&B.

But for all the outward charm, my home’s interior needed a lot of work.

Ford walked up the driveway, stepping more carefully. “Charlie, you should be careful out here.”

She shrugged. “If I fall, I get up again.”

I smiled. “Out of the mouths of babes, huh?”

Ford chuckled. “Yeah, well, a fall is easier to take at that age.”

Whether he meant physically—or metaphorically—I figured both were true. Charlie had been a heartbroken, teary-eyed little girl missing her mom at the park. Now, you’d never know it. She was all smiles as she looked around eagerly.

“Where’s Peppermint Bark?”

“Oh, he’s inside. He’d just get all wet and muddy if I let him out.” I grabbed the door handle. “Come on in, but beware. This house is a little bit of a DIY project.”

“DIY?” Charlie asked as she followed me inside.

“Do-it-yourself,” Ford said. “It means he’s doing improvements to his house on his own.”

“Or trying,” I said with a little laugh.

Pepper was dancing in a circle—nails skittering as he fought for purchase on the old hardwood floors. They were solid but dull and scuffed, especially right in front of the door.

Charlie dropped down to pet him while Ford followed me farther into the living room. I’d set up my Christmas tree this week, glowing in front the window catty-corner from my forest green sofa and matching armchair with red throw pillows. A fluffy red rug spanned the floor between the furniture and my flat-screen TV on the wall.

But Ford’s gaze was on the ceiling. “The woodwork in here is amazing. It’s not often you see such intricate detail in crown molding.”

“Yeah, it’s got a lot of character.”

“Great bones,” he agreed. “Those staircase bannisters are beautiful.”

I nodded. “It just needs a little TLC, I guess.” I waved to the scuffed floors.

“Nothing a little refinishing couldn’t fix,” he said.

I nodded along as if I knew the first thing about refinishing floors. “It’s on my to-do list. Along with stripping the wallpaper and repainting upstairs.”

He winced. “Yeah, that’s never fun.”

I wiggled my scabbed index finger. “Don’t I know it.”

Ford’s forehead creased with concern. “What did you do to yourself?”

“Oh, I was just a klutz. The scraper slipped.”

Ford took hold of my hand, raising it for a closer look at the cut. His hands were large but gentle as he cradled mine, and for a moment I couldn’t breathe.

“You should be more careful,” he murmured. “If there was any rust on that scraper, make sure you’ve had a tetanus shot.”

I wet my lips. “Oh, uh… It was new. There was no, um, no… What was I saying?”

This man was frying my brain.

“No rust?” he asked, lips quirking in amusement.

“Right! No rust.” I tugged my hand from his before I melted into a puddle on my floor like the bits of snow still clinging to our shoes. “Want to see the rest of the house?”

I charged off without waiting for a response. Charlie and Pepper were locked into a little game where they each pounced at each other, so we left them playing in the living room.

“I knew the place needed some work when I bought it,” I said. “I just figured that I might not be here long, and it’d be a good opportunity to fix it up and resell it for more.”

“You’re not staying?” Ford asked.

I glanced over my shoulder. “It’s not that I’m planning to leave. But my job has taken me from place to place. I’m from the Ozarks, and there were only so many job opportunities. I had to take them where I could.”

“So that’s how you ended up here,” he said as we reached the top of the stairs. “I wondered.”

“You did?”

I didn’t really expect a guy like Ford to be curious about me. I was just his Holiday Hope Foundation connection. Sure, his kid liked my dog, and Ford was a friendly enough guy, but I was a blip in their lives. A means to an end. Right?

“I grew up here. I’m always curious about why anyone in their right mind would choose to move into a holiday greeting card.”

I laughed. “It’s not that bad.”

“Just wait until you’ve lived through it twenty or thirty times.”

I opened a door on the right to show him the room I was attempting to remodel. “We’ll see how long the city wants to keep me around, I guess. There’s still a lot of good work I can do with the foundation.”

“You’re kind of amazing,” Ford said.

I blinked. “Sorry, what?”

“The way you help people.” He shook his head. “I know the job doesn’t pay that great, but you… You really care.”

“Of course I do. It’s not just a job to me.”

“I can tell.”

I waved a hand to the partially stripped walls. “Thankfully I’m better at running the foundation than stripping wallpaper.”

Ford chuckled as he walked closer to inspect a wall. “I can see that you’re struggling with it.”

“Let me guess? You’re handy as well as”— Gorgeous. Charming. Sexy— “a good dad.”

“Well, the jury is still out on that,” he said, “but I can show you how to strip.” He paused. “Uh, the wallpaper, I mean. I’m sure you know how to strip…other things.”

“Well, I could always use more practice,” I teased.

“I’m sure we all…” Ford trailed off and cleared his throat. “Yeah, anyway. Let me show you the technique that works best for me.”

A flustered Ford was adorable, even if I really shouldn’t be teasing the straight guy. Still, the appearance of his ex-girlfriend had reminded me that Elias was right. My crush was harmless.

So for the next twenty minutes, I indulged in a little fantasy where Ford wasn’t just a dad I was helping out, but a guy who genuinely liked me. He demonstrated how much to dampen the paper, how long to wait before attempting to scrape it, and the best ways to wield the scraper.

Then he handed the tool to me. “Okay, give it a shot.”

I’d done all these same steps. I knew how to Google, after all. Though I hadn’t done them nearly as effectively.

I did my best to emulate him, and when he stepped in close to correct my grip on the scraper, then to angle my wrist just so, my insides fluttered.

“Like this?” I asked, peeking at him through my eyelashes.

“Yeah. Try it again.”

Sadly, he stepped away. I scraped the wall, using the tips he’d given me and was shocked at how much better it worked. Whereas before the wallpaper was breaking off in little pieces, causing me to scrape at the edges again and again, now it came away in a much longer strip.

“Wow, that was really helpful.”

“Should I be offended you sound so surprised.”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” I turned, nearly bumping into him. He was so close. “More that I…”

The words dried on my tongue as the warmth of his body washed over me. The curl of his lips drew my eyes. The silky softness of his beard. Those eyes, so dark but somehow layered with different shades.

“More that you?” he prompted.

“Oh, I’m just…not that good with my hands.”

“Oh, really?” He smirked. “Well, that’s a shame, Mason. All your boyfriends must be so sad.”

“What?” My words registered with me. Not that good with my hands . “No! With repairs, I mean.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Ford, I swear.” I slapped his chest with a laugh. “I’m very good with my hands when I need to be.”

He caught my hand, holding it over his heart. Was it just me, or was it beating just as fast as mine?

“Ford?” Charlie called from downstairs. “Where are you? I’m hungry!”

Ford dropped my hand and turned toward the door. “Be down in a second, Charlie!”

Just like that, the moment between us fizzled out. Which was good. Because it was supposed to be harmless flirting. Ford wasn’t really interested in what my hands could do. He was just teasing me. That was all.

“We should get going so you can enjoy your night,” Ford said.

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “I’ll walk you out.”

“Nah, stay here. Get some of that stripping done.” He pointed to the wall, and this time, I didn’t make any flirty remarks. “That whole section is primed for you.”

“Good idea,” I said. “Thanks for all the tips.”

“Sure thing. Let me know if I can help you with anything, all right? It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for us.”

“That was Holiday Hope Foundation. I was just doing my job.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I thought we agreed it was more than a job to you.”

Busted .

I smiled. “Guess you got me there.”

He tentatively slapped my upper arm, like we were bros, and all my silly fantasies that we’d actually been flirting shriveled up and died.

As I watched him leave the room, I tried to convince myself that was a good thing.