Chapter Five

Lilly interviewed, Cisco filmed, and the cops ate the cookies in a jolly cluster. Lilly didn’t realize she was looking for Justin until she saw him emerge from a hallway dressed in his Santa suit. Her heart leaped, and her pulse began to race.

It’s only because he’s your subject, she told herself. There’s no other reason to get excited.

Her fluttering stomach, shaking knees, and racing heart disagreed.

Nonsense, she insisted. It’s just Justin. You’ve known him forever.

He pushed his way through his fellow officers, his dark, intense gaze focused on her, and she shivered. Of course I’m shivering. He’s staring at me like he’s about to arrest me.

But that wasn’t the truth, and she knew it. His eyes seemed to bore into her somehow, making all of her body tingle and her mind race. Just as his must have when he was at the lectern the night before.

And then he smiled. At her.

Lilly almost dropped the platter of cookies. At the last second, she gripped it tightly. But there was nothing to say. She just swallowed, hard. “Hi. Justin.”

His smile—had he smiled?—had been a quick flash of white, a pair of dimples. His old smile, just like Hannah had said. It was overwhelming, just like the scowl that had dropped into place immediately after, the one she’d come to recognize as his usual face. Still, that smile—the ghost of it—was seared into her mind.

“Hey,” he said, his voice a silky, dark timbre. Again, her skin seemed to tingle. “You ready?”

“Ready for what?” she breathed at him, her entire body perking up at the thought of being ready for something—or anything—with Justin.

He crinkled his nose and tilted an eyebrow. “To get going. We have toys to pick up. Let’s get this show on the road, huh?” And he turned away, just like that.

Lilly’s feet hit the ground with a thud. She’d been floating on clouds, and now she was back on earth, in the police station, staring after Justin and wondering what had just happened to her. Had she really just been ready to do anything with her best friend’s brother?

“Stunning, isn’t it? He’s so not jolly.” Kevin appeared at her side. He reached for the plate she held to snatch up the last cookie. “Good piece last night. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with today.” He moved off, and Lilly was left standing alone with an empty plate and a still-pounding heart.

…

“Where are we going today?”

“Straight to ho-ho-hell. But first, coffee.”

Lilly sighed. “Come on, Justin. You gotta work with me here. What’s our first stop?”

“The fire station.” He furrowed his brow and wrinkled his cute nose. “You know, you still smell.”

“Excuse me?” She grabbed a hank of her own hair and sniffed, but all she could smell was mint. Is it my skin? She tried to be inconspicuous as she sniffed at herself.

Justin pulled his car into the coffee shop drive-through line behind four or five other cars. Then he turned to look at her. “Look, it’s distracting. I can’t do my job if I’m distracted because of how you smell.”

“I’m distracting you? The way I…smell? It’s distracting?” She couldn’t smell anything, but then again, most people who smelled had no idea they were offensive. “I don’t understand. I showered. My clothes are clean—”

“It’s not your clothes,” Justin said. “It’s you. You smell like candy canes. You’re stinking up my car.”

“Stinking up— Are you serious?” A ripple of annoyance swept over her, replacing the panicked embarrassment she’d felt. “Stinking? Stinking!” She turned to the back seat. “Cisco! Are you hearing this? Do I smell?”

“Don’t look at me, chica. I like candy canes, but I’m staying out of this conversation. I’m just the All-Seeing Eye.” He lifted his camera to his shoulder. “Ignore me.”

Lilly clicked her tongue and looked back at Justin. “Stinking?” she repeated. She was so upset, she couldn’t formulate another way to say it, and didn’t care. “Stinking.”

“That’s what I said. I got home last night, and all I could smell was you. Messed up my sleep. Every time I rolled over, I smelled candy canes and woke up.”

She wasn’t sure how to interpret this. “Why would that wake you up?”

He shrugged; his ears turned as scarlet as his Santa hat. Oh. A clue. The annoyance faded, leaving her with a sense of wonder and bewilderment. His ears only turned red if he was embarrassed.

Was that why he was being so grouchy?

“Don’t you like candy canes?” She blinked up at him.

He drew his brows down low and turned away to scowl out the windshield. “It doesn’t matter why it woke me up. The point is, it did.”

“So you’d rather I smelled like…what?” She relaxed into her seat as her heart gave a little leap and her stomach fluttered with butterflies. She’d kept him awake because…he was thinking about her, maybe? Why else would he be embarrassed to admit to being kept awake?

Could he be crushing on her? Hannah thought so…

“I dunno.” Justin pulled up to the menu sign. “What do you want?”

I want to investigate this. Us. She looked at the board and made a split decision. Was he acting all growly and miserable just to scare her away when in fact he felt completely different? She really wanted to know, because she was crushing on him a little bit, too. “Peppermint hot chocolate and a candy-cane doughnut.”

Justin narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re not getting that.”

“You asked what I wanted, and that’s it. Deal with it, Santa.” She tossed her head and wondered if she looked too flirty. But then, wasn’t that the point?

Justin glowered. “I told you not to smell like a candy cane anymore. So that’s what you get?” His forehead wrinkled.

“Don’t do that. You look like a shar-pei.”

“A what?” He wrinkled his nose in addition to his forehead. Her stomach flip-flopped again. He was hot, sexy, and adorably cute all at the same time.

“Can I help you?” the server at the other end of the intercom asked.

On impulse, Lilly leaned over his lap to call out, “There’s not enough help in the world for this guy!” Because that’s what she would have said when they were younger. Or maybe it was just an excuse to touch him, even briefly. She caught her breath and leaned back in her seat, but all she could think about was how the heat of his body had just seared her skin and made goose bumps travel all over her body. Oh, Lilly. This is so not right. What are you doing? What are you trying to achieve?

She couldn’t do this, couldn’t follow her impulses, and especially, she couldn’t follow the urgings of her heart. This piece was her one and only chance. If she didn’t do a great job with it, her chances of getting on full-time with Channel 10 were over. She’d have to relocate, find another job. She didn’t want to leave the only family she’d ever known a second time. Not to mention, that family included Justin, and that was all kinds of awkward and weird.

She sat back and stared out the windshield as she pondered. Her parents had loved her, but they were older and busy with their busy careers and jet-set lifestyles. For example, they’d hired professional decorators to provide a tree and dispose of it immediately after New Year’s Day. They’d bought cookies decorated by a culinary artist at a trendy upscale bakery; the cookies were baked with precision and the best of organic products, but no love or laughter. And no one wanted to scarf down the entire tray in one fell swoop. They were only for show, a nod to nostalgia.

Without Hannah and Mary, her life would have been staid and sterile, and she would have grown up to be a perfectly respectable snob. Thank God for the female Weavers. They had rescued her and made her feel like part of a family, not just a responsibility.

Justin was all that stood in the way of that. Getting involved with him in any way other than as a friend was setting herself up to fail in so many ways…

…

It seemed to take forever until they reached the first donation site. Justin got out of the car and stood there in his body-hugging, too-tight, ready-to-burst-at-the-seams Santa suit, looking way too muscular and more buff than any Santa should.

No. No, she couldn’t—and she shouldn’t—think that way about him. He was just Santa and her subject. She had a job to win, and that’s all she could, or should, think about. Lilly squared her shoulders. “Look cheerful, Santa,” she ordered as Cisco hoisted the camera to his shoulder. “It’s game time.”

“This beard makes my skin crawl,” he muttered.

“Get over it.” Lilly moved close to Justin and reached up to fluff the wig under his hat. But then she thought better of it and grabbed his collar instead, dragging him down until his face was only about an inch from hers.

It was time to set Justin, and herself, straight.

…

Justin stared at Lilly’s lips. Her sparkly, glossed pink lips. It would be so easy to lean down just a little more and press his mouth to hers. He could blame the mistletoe on the brim of his hat, and no one would be the wiser. Just one kiss. It was a Christmas tradition, and though that meant practically nothing to him—bah, humbug—it was one tradition he could embrace. Right now, anyway.

What could it hurt?

Me, stupid. Are you out of your mind?

The night before, she’d been a sexy elf in a revealing costume. This morning, she was practically virginal in her short green skirt, red tights, and ugly sheepskin boots. But even in a bright red turtleneck, a green-and-red scarf, and that stupid jingle-bell hat over her beautiful, curling auburn hair, she was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen.

O’Rourke had been right. He was head over heels for Lilly, and there was nothing he could do about it, because she was the kind of girl who deserved more than a few kisses and a good night in bed—she deserved a relationship.

Good, he told himself. I’m not a relationship kind of guy.

Beyond that, his career was dangerous. Every day he stepped foot out the door, he walked into a potential shoot-out. He never knew if he was going to survive his shift. With that in mind, he didn’t lean down and kiss her lips even as every fiber of his body told him to go for it. She tightened her fingers on his collar and pulled him slightly closer.

He resisted. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done.

Her breath wafted across his lips and brushed over his face as she said, “Justin, I love you. I really do. I’ve known you practically forever, and even though you don’t particularly like me anymore, I still consider you one of my dearest friends. Whether you believe me or not.”

She loves me. He felt a smile curling up the ends of his mouth, then he mentally kicked himself. Stop it!

“But if you don’t start giving me interviews I can use, I’m going to make you regret it for the rest of your life.”

Wait. What? “Oh, really? Too late, Maddox. I already regret knowing you,” he lied, trying to sound gruff but failing miserably. At least to his own ears. He could hear the longing in his voice. He felt it in every nerve in his body. He wanted so much to just pull her close and kiss her. Just once…

He tried to pull away without being bent over like an old man, but she had his collar tight in her grip.

“This is it. My one chance. My only chance. Please. It’s make it or break it time for me.”

“You mean the way you broke”—my heart?—“my sister’s heart? My mom’s?” There. Back to the old bitterness. Much better. Staring down into those big holly-green eyes, he reminded himself that he needed to do this. For himself, for his sister and mother…for Lilly.

Lilly continued. “Please, let’s put the past in the past and focus on the present. I know you…well, you don’t like me much anymore, I don’t think, but please, don’t ruin this for me. Could you at least pretend to be having fun?”

Her eyes glittered with tears, and her voice sounded scratchy. Oh no. He’d made her cry. Justin’s heart crumpled like used wrapping paper. He was angry. With her, yes, but mostly with himself. He was being a jerk. And he could pretend to have fun with this. It wouldn’t kill him. It would only bruise a little.

“Okay,” he said and nodded, flinging his empty Santa bag over his shoulder. “I’ll do better. I’m not loving it, but I’m going to pretend I do.” Because—I’m an idiot and I can’t help it. The things you do to me, Lilly Menace. He started walking toward the fire station. “Let’s do this thing.”

Ugh.

Justin wished the first stop on the collection route had been anyplace but this. Then again, it was all municipal organizations today, so he had no choice. The East Side fire station, city hall, the West Side fire station, the West Side police station.

“It’s not that I don’t want to be Santa, Lilly,” he said. “No, wait. That’s a lie. I don’t want to be Santa. But you have to understand. Cops and firefighters…there’s a rivalry.”

“Why? You both serve the city and the citizens of Holly Hollow.”

“Yeah, but…it’s like…we’re almost the same species but different offshoots.”

“Truth,” Cisco said. “My brother’s a firefighter back home. His roommate’s a cop. They make fun of each other about it all the time. I don’t get it.”

“They march to their own drum. Let me put it that way,” Justin said.

“Well, let the beat go on. I love firefighters. Do you think they have a firehouse dog? Or a cat? I wonder if they have a Christmas tree? Cisco, we’ll have to get a shot of all of them standing around it. I should’ve made cookies for them, too,” Lilly said, prattling on as usual. She tossed her hair over her shoulder, and her bells rang with a merry jingle. “I wonder if they have a calendar? Or a cookbook?”

The calendars and cookbooks were part of the beat they marched to that Justin just didn’t get.

As they approached the fire station, a few of the members of Company Five spotted them; they hopped up from their chairs set up in the garage area in front of some big outdoor space heaters and came out to greet them in the driveway. “Hey! Santa’s here.”

Except they weren’t looking at him at all. They were focused on Lilly. Not that he blamed them—she was much more interesting to look at than he was. And she smelled good. Stupid candy canes.

She sparkled at the sight of them. “Oooh. I love firefighters. They’re so brave. And strong. You know what’s cool about them? They run into danger. Without guns.”

“Yeah. They’re special, all right. Great. Let’s get the damn toys and get out of here.” He spoke before he realized he was going to; the entire group of men turned and looked at him. Shoot. I didn’t mean to say that out loud.

“Ho ho ho,” one particularly handsome and muscular fireman said, turning to her. “Looking good, little elf. Saw you on television last night. You want a tour of the station?”

Justin moved to stand in front of her, blocking her from view. “We’d love a tour.”

Lilly pushed past Justin, shooting him a look that ordered him to back off and make jolly. “I’d love a tour,” she told the handsome firefighter.

Handsome smirked at him. “Sorry, Santa.”

Justin’s cheeks heated as his ears burned. There was no way he could compete with Handsome, who looked a lot like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, when he himself was dressed like a centuries-old fat guy. In a lice-laden fake beard.

And everybody knew it. They went off in a cluster, crowding around Lilly; Cisco started after them with his camera on his shoulder, leaving Justin to stand alone. Lilly Menace strikes again.

It took nearly twenty minutes to load up the car with all the toys the generous firefighters had collected. They’d gone around the neighborhood the week before, soliciting from businesses and houses; they’d probably have even more toys to pick up at the end of the week.

Apparently, Lilly wasn’t the only one who thought firefighters were hot.

Worse, they did have a calendar, and Handsome was featured on its cover. They’d given one away for each toy they’d received. “I’m impressed,” Lilly said.

“I’m nauseous,” Justin said.

She’d ignored him and continue to gush over the “East Siders,” getting a ton of footage that Justin was sure would make tonight’s news. He knew that as much as he’d tried not to show it—or feel it—his jealousy was obvious.

O’Rourke was going to roast him.

And working with Lilly was going to kill him.