by Tasha Black
She blinked, and it wasn’t a wolf anymore.
It was Will Harkness.
He studied her with an uncharacteristically serious expression. Then slowly, so slowly, he bent to kiss her.
His lips brushed hers lightly, and she heard bells in the distance.
Then he wrapped his hands in her hair and pulled her close, kissing her like his life depended on it.
His touch was intoxicating. His mouth was so warm.
Tess’s senses filled with the scent of gingerbread and the feel of his hard body pressing against her softer one.
He kissed her harder, their tongues crashed together.
She was overwhelmed with a desire so fierce she almost couldn’t breathe. She wished she could incorporate him, consume him.
Her heart beat so fast, making a hollow sound in her chest - stopping and starting again in a pattern, knocking against her rib cage.
Knock, knock… Knock, knock…Knock, knock…
“Tess,” a familiar voice came through the woods.
Mom? No, not her mother.
Tess tried to turn, but Will had his arms wrapped around her so tightly.
“Tess, honey?” the voice came again, accompanied by a knocking sound that wasn’t coming from Tess’s heart after all.
She opened her eyes to find herself wound in her sheets.
“C-come in,” she said, sitting up and untangling herself.
The door swung open and Kate Harkness entered the room, holding a plate and a mug.
“Thought you might like a bedtime snack,” she smiled.
“Thank you, I guess I fell asleep reading,” Tess said, realizing belatedly that she didn’t have a book anywhere near her.
“You had a long journey out here,” Kate said. “I’m sorry I woke you.”
“Oh, no, thanks for checking on me,” Tess said. “And I guess Will told you, but I’m really sorry about your cash register.”
Kate smiled warmly, her eyes crinkling, and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“You were trying to help, for which I’m grateful. I raised my kids to roll up their sleeves and pitch in around the house. You seem like you fit right in. I’m glad you could join us. I know you’re used to a quieter Christmas, but our little gang is glad to have you here.”
Tess smiled shyly, feeling mortified that she had just been having a steamy dream about the older woman’s son.
“Now, this is cold apple cider,” Kate said, handing her the mug. “And this is warm gingerbread.”
“Thank you,” Tess replied, taking a sip of the cider.
It was cold and delicious. She could practically taste the crisp fall afternoon when the apples had been picked.
“Mm,” she said appreciatively.
“We’ll be decorating the tree tomorrow night. The kids always look forward to it, so be sure you sleep late so you’ll have plenty of energy to keep up,” Kate said, patting Tess’s legs through the blanket and then hopping up.
She was out the door again before Tess could thank her properly.
3
Tess munched on a mini-candy cane and tried not to watch Johnny assemble the train set.
The whole house was filled with the scent of balsam fir, and the sound of Elvis Christmas music.
Hedda and Derek were curled on the love seat, untangling the strands of lights. Derek wasn’t actually helping, his enormous hands weren’t deft enough, which frustrated him, and Hedda kept laughing and taking over.
It was sometimes hard for Tess to believe that handsome and in-control Derek could shift into a giant brown bear, but his bumbling right then made it easier to envision.
Darcy, another of the grown-up Harkness kids, was at the big wooden table with one of the older kids, Hannah, helping the smaller kids cut out snowflakes.
Darcy’s fiancé, Finn, snipped furiously at his own piece of paper as Darcy teased him mercilessly. He only smiled and winked at her in return.
Darcy seemed to be pretty tough on the surface - Tess knew she was a bouncer at the Stackhouse casino. But the little ones absolutely adored her. It was odd that she was marrying a magician. But hey, to each her own, he was certainly handsome enough.
“When are you gonna put out a Christmas album, Johnny?” Darcy asked playfully.
In response, Johnny began to croon along with Elvis as he reached the chorus of Blue Christmas.
Tess had never been a fan of the kind of music Johnny’s band normally played - she was more of a Jocelyn Wilde fan, although she’d never admit it to anyone - but this was something different. He wasn’t screaming rock lyrics, but singing - really singing. The way he hit the high harmony sent an involuntary shiver down her spine.
Tess herself was slipping hooks onto the many ornaments and homemade decorations that Kate Harkness and Johnny’s girlfriend, Neve, were hanging on the tree. Neve smiled down at Johnny as he continued to sing from his spot on the floor.
In all of the hubbub, Tess ought to have found plenty to keep herself engaged and distracted from the delicious puzzle of the broken train set.
But as she turned her attention to the clay angel Darcy had made in second grade, Johnny stopped singing and sighed impatiently on the floor beneath the tree.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Neve asked him.
“It won’t work,” Johnny said, running a hand through his long dark hair.
Tess glanced over, trying to gauge his progress with the train set. It was odd to see Johnny Lazarus, an actual rock star, hanging out around the old farmhouse. Johnny was a Harkness kid, through and through, but he’d kept his birth mother’s last name after being dropped at the farm when he was just five years old.
Tess hoped wildly that if anyone else in the room noticed her staring at Johnny, they assumed it was because she was star struck.
The sad truth was that she just wanted to fix the train set herself.
But after the twin fiascos of the well pump and the cash register, she couldn’t bring herself to tinker with the antique model train.
Though she was pretty sure they just needed to clean the tarnished track. Or maybe check all of the connection points. Or…
Her fingers itched to break down the set and find out what was ailing it.
“Kate,” the deep voice in the doorway roused them all.
Derek’s friend Ethan stood in the front hall stomping his boots, snowflakes dancing in his golden hair.
“What is it, dear?” Kate asked.
“It’s the firehouse, they’re in trouble,” he said.
“What’s wrong?” Kate replied.
“Ed Walker just had a stroke,” Ethan said.
The room went silent.
“Oh, dear,” Kate breathed.
“He’s at the hospital in Springton. Dotty’s with him,” he said. “But it puts us in a tough spot at the firehouse. We don’t have enough good people these days as it is. And with the college kids gone on break, and now Ed and Dot both out, we’re just too short handed. I’m sorry. I know I said I’d help out around here, but I just volunteered to stay the week at the firehouse in Tarker’s Hollow. You know how it is with candles and decorations this time of year. There’s sure to be a need.”
“Of course, Ethan.” Kate replied immediately. “Protecting lives is more important than stringing lights and baking pies. I’m sure we’ll manage.”
“Speaking of pies,” Ethan said nervously, “the boys are holding that auction to raise funds for the station roof next week, but Dot won’t be making brownies and cookies now. And I was thinking about how everyone loves your pies…”
“Harkness Farms would be honored to donate two hundred pies,” Mom said quickly.
“That’s too many,” Ethan argued. “I won’t be here to help.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Kate said. “Go home and get a bag packed. I’ll send the kids over to stock the firehouse fridge so you don’t die of malnutrition from pizza shop food.”
Ethan’s shoulders finally sank with relief.
> “Thanks,” he said.
Kate smiled back at him.
“I’m proud of you for stepping up, son,” she said. Ethan wasn’t technically a Harkness, but Tess could see from the way he swelled with pride that he might as well be.
Ethan gave everyone a wave and a Merry Christmas. His smile really was fantastic. Tess could see why Hedda had been so keen for them to meet.
“Nice to meet you, Tess,” he said, pausing in the door on his way out. “Sorry we didn’t have a chance to talk more.”
His glance at Derek told her Hedda wasn’t the only one playing matchmaker. She felt her cheeks flush.
“Me too,” she managed.
“Two hundred pies?” Darcy asked as the door closed behind Ethan.
“The Tarker’s Hollow Volunteer Fire Station was out here when Chance got stuck in the tree. They came when one of the ovens caught fire. We could have lost the whole barn that day. If they need pies, then I’m glad there’s something I can do to help,” Kate said firmly.
“The convection fan is broken on the big oven,” Darcy said quietly.
“Yes, it will take longer, but we can take shifts,” Kate said.
“I can fix the fan,” Tess blurted out before she could stop herself.
“You can?” Kate asked, her face lighting up.
“Tess…” Hedda began warningly from across the room.
“I can,” Tess said confidently. It was just a fan, a switch, a couple of blades, and a simple motor. How hard could it be?
“Oh, Tess, I’m so glad you’re here,” Kate said.
“Why are we glad she’s here?”
Another deep voice from the doorway, this one a bit more playful.
Tess’s eyes snapped up to meet Will’s. He must have just walked in. He was surprisingly quiet for his size.
“Tess is going to fix the convection fan in the big oven” Kate said happily.
“Is she now?” Will asked, raising an eyebrow at Tess.
On the floor, the train had seized up again after lurching forward a few inches.
“Johnny, that track is dirty,” Kate said. “Let me get a scouring pad.”
“No!” Tess yelped.
All eyes were back on her.
“Um, the steel shavings from a scouring pad can get pulled into the train motor,” she explained. “It’s better to use rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth.”
“Rubbing alcohol and a clean cloth it is,” Kate said, patting Tess’s shoulder on her way out to fetch the supplies.
Tess let her eyes follow Kate’s path, and she wound up looking at Will again.
He gave her a smile so warm and sweet she just knew it had to be sarcastic.
She felt her cheeks burning and turned back to her work, sliding a hook through the loop on a shining silver ball and trying not to think about snatching the engine out of Johnny’s hands.
Whoever said the holidays were stressful didn’t know the half of it.
4
Tess rolled up her sleeves and opened her tool kit.
The basement bakeshop of the octagonal barn was already rich with the scent of baking pies. Apple, pumpkin and delicious spices competed for her olfactory attention. But she focused on the task at hand.
Ostensibly, the others were there to help with the baking and to keep her company. But she figured they were really just curious to see if she could fix the oven.
Hedda and Kate chopped apples at a big wooden counter. There seemed to be millions of apples overflowing the wooden barrels. Derek tossed the pieces into huge pots of boiling water, straining each set after ten minutes and beginning again.
Neve was tossing the par-cooked apples in spices but she kept getting ahead of Derek and dancing around Johnny.
Johnny sat on an overturned barrel, cradling his guitar in his arms like it was a baby and playing Christmas carols.
No one complained, and the music was setting the mood. Tess figured Johnny must play the part of keeping spirits high fairly often.
Will pulled crusts out of the refrigerator and laid slices of the spiced apples inside, along with chunks of fresh butter.
Darcy and Finn stood at the steel counter top, rolling out dough. Half went into the refrigerator, and half was cut into lattice-work to go on top of the pies as Will made them.
Then Hannah put the pies in the refrigerator, as there were too many to be baked at once.
The whole process was such a well-oiled machine, that Tess was almost hypnotized by the pie making - as she would be by the workings of any mechanism. She had a hard time keeping her eyes away from the steady work of the family’s hands.
It figured that Hedda had found herself a job, and she seemed right at home, like she’d been there forever.
Tess would never fit into a relaxed family like this one. She’d be forever needing to tinker with the set-up.
Like how it was making her batty that Neve’s job was too short and part of her time was wasted.
Though Tess could see that Neve’s dancing, like Johnny’s music, was making everyone happy, it just didn’t seem right to dance next to boiling vats of water.
And couldn’t Neve help Darcy cut latticework between tossing batches of apples? Darcy was falling behind some of the time, which gave Will time to joke around, like he was doing right now. And that, in turn, made Darcy fall even further behind.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Will called to Tess, rousing her from her reverie.
“Oh, er, just thinking,” she said stupidly, then ducked down to the oven again.
She was going to have to disassemble the whole thing to get to the motor. It was a tricky job - her favorite kind.
Tess was just removing the door when she heard the heavy footsteps behind her.
She looked up a pair of denim clad legs, over a very distracting bulge, past a white t-shirt and up into the handsome face and bright hazel eyes of an amused Will Harkness.
“Humor me and unplug it first,” he said quietly.
At first the words refused to make sense in her mind, she was so thrown by the sudden attraction she felt.
So she gaped at him, wondering if he was about to sling her over his shoulder and carry her away. Surely he had to be feeling the attraction too.
“You know, the oven?” he whispered, looking concerned.
The oven?
The oven.
Oh, god.
After the incident with the cash register last night she really ought to have been thinking about fire safety. Not fantasizing about the wrong person.
Though come to think of it, Ethan the firefighter might be the best choice for a woman who kept playing around with electricity. If only she’d felt this spark with him instead…
She nodded without making eye contact, feeling her cheeks blaze.
“Need help sliding it out to unplug?” he asked.
Tess wanted to say no, she really did. But it was an industrial stove and way too big to move by herself.
She hopped up and they each took a side.
“Careful, it looks like a flex line for the gas, they can rupture easily,” she warned him.
He raised his eyebrows, as if in respect for her knowledge, and they eased the metal monster slowly forward.
It was impossible not to notice Will’s biceps bulging as he worked. Tess found herself getting worked up and having to look away.
She could practically feel him smiling. Did he know? He must. How awful that he knew she was attracted to him. Though he was probably used to women having crushes on him.
Damn that vis—No. Dream.
She was calling it a dream. It wasn’t a vision. Definitely not a vision…
“Is that good?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s perfect,” she replied.
They both sank down to reach the plug, but this time they were on opposite sides of the big stove. Nonetheless, his fingers brushed hers and she felt a whisper of energy pass between them.
Tess looked over at him, wondering if he felt the s
ame. But he was silhouetted by the light from the room and she couldn’t read his expression.
She bustled back to the front of the oven, and busied herself with her tools, trying not to notice when Will stood and walked past her. Chills ran down her spine when his denim clad leg brushed her shoulder.
Get it together, Tess.
She got out a screwdriver, opened the door to the oven, and found the place where the doors attached.
Slowly, methodically, she removed the screws, and lifted the door off the hinges. Then she pulled out the racks, and removed the hood around the center of the oven itself.
At the bottom of the thing, there was a casement of metal that surrounded the filter, and below that, the fan unit.
This part was tricky. Tess had seen diagrams of how these things were put together, and once she saw something like that, it just kind of stuck in her brain. But every model was different, and she had never actually worked on a convection oven before.
She had to search a little to find where the metal shroud attached, but once she did, it came off without issue.
She spotted the filter, but also a lot of wires inside.
She squinted at them and wondered at the age of the diagram she had seen. She had a feeling this thing was practically futuristic in comparison.
She worked the filter out and found herself staring at a nest of red and blue wires, more like the inside of a bomb than an oven.
Well, she’d just have to untangle this mystery one wire at a time.
She took a deep breath.
Something wasn’t right.
Johnny’s music had gone silent.
Tess turned to see that everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare down at her.
Oh, brother.
She turned back to the wires.
“I’ll bet we could download a manual online,” Hedda said brightly.
“I’m good,” Tess chirped back.
She grabbed a random wire and pulled it out of its port.
“Tess, we can call in a favor with the appliance guy over in Springton,” Kate told her. “This is a pretty complicated piece of machinery and it’s better off as a regular oven than not working at all.”
“Wow, it looks like a bomb or something,” Will joked, echoing her own thoughts.
