Lights, Camera, Christmas!

by J. D. Light

  Most of the actual townspeople were used to my presence, so simply waved as I made my way over to Declan's booth, but the out of towners who recognized me would either run up and ask for pictures or autographs while others stopped and stared and smacked their loved ones to get their attention and pointed.

  By the time I finally made it to Knick-Knack Patty-Cakes' booth, it had taken me thirty minutes to walk the three blocks, and I was freezing because I'd left my jacket back at the tent, so I was just wearing my Christmas sweater and my gloves, but damn was Declan completely worth it.

  He was also wearing a Christmas sweater, but he'd clearly been a little more prepared than me, because he was also in a jacket, stocking cap and a scarf. His cheeks were flushed from the cold and he seemed to be enjoying himself, with a giant, gorgeous smile on his handsome face.

  "Hey," I said, walking up beside his table, giving a small wave to Logan, but only acknowledging the sweet man for a moment before giving Declan all my attention… as usual.

  "Blake, hey," he said in surprise, while handing an individually wrapped cookie to a little girl. "What are you doing over here? You must have just missed Emma. She took some coffees over to the tents for you guys."

  "No, I saw her," I said shrugging. "I just thought I'd come say hi."

  "Oh," he said, facing me while Logan butted him out of the way, handing a woman with a bundled little baby in her arms. Or, I assumed it was a baby since it was completely covered, and I couldn't really make out anything but the cocoon it was wrapped in.

  "Hi," he said, suddenly going shy on me, blushing. "You want a cookie?"

  I nodded, thanking him as I took the package when he handed it to me. I tried to unwind the little bread tie at the top of the tiny little wax-paper-looking baggie with a snowflake on it, but my gloves were making it a bit difficult.

  I started to take one of my gloves off, but Declan stopped me, putting a hand to my wrist and taking the cookie from me, unwrapping it with ease and slipping the treat out into his hands. He blinked down at my gloved hands again and shrugged before holding the cookie up for me.

  I licked my lips, feeling oddly warm at the prospect of him feeding me, so I eagerly bent down and took a bite. My lips brushed his fingers and he gasped, his eyes going to my mouth as I chewed, humming my approval as he licked his own lips, swallowing hard.

  I wanted to lean in further, maybe let him taste the cookie on my mouth and add his flavor to the sweet treat, but I still wasn't sure if he would welcome something like that. I'd asked him to one thing or another for the last two weeks, but there was always a reason why he couldn't go. They were all logical and even good reasons, but I was starting to wonder if they weren't also just convenient excuses, since he'd literally not been able to do one.

  "Wow, this is really good," I said huskily, and his gaze snapped to mine, slightly darker than normal and a bit dazed.

  "Thank you," he said, his breath strangely hitched as he looked back and forth between my eyes and mouth. He was still holding the cookie out, and I leaned down to take another bite, that time purposely capturing one of his fingers with the inside of my lip, dragging it over the chilled skin.

  He took a shuddering breath, and Logan chuckled at something behind Declan, making him jump slightly, snapping out of it. When he saw I was ready for another bite, he popped it into my mouth, careful not to let his fingers touch my lips.

  He looked away as I chewed, and I frowned slightly, disappointed that our moment had been broken. Or had it even been a moment? Maybe I'd imagined the whole thing.

  Declan moved back over to the table, bumping Logan out of the way, and Logan moved over toward me to chat. I wasn't really sure what we talked about, since I was trying desperately to understand if something had just passed between Declan and me, or if I was imagining it.

  The warmth I'd managed to generate while eating that fucking cookie had seeped away, the longer I stood there talking nonsense with Logan. It wasn't that I didn't like Logan. He was actually a great guy. Nice, funny and absolutely gorgeous, but I couldn't seem to focus on anything but Declan. Plus, Logan wasn't my type. I liked my men a little softer with plenty to grab and clutch at. Someone whose body would mold to mine when we climbed into bed at night.

  A breeze stirred up, and I shivered.

  "Where's your jacket?" Declan asked suddenly, coming to stand in front of me. He reached out, rubbing his hands up and down my arms, looking around. "I bet you're freezing."

  I blinked, glancing down at the way he was rubbing my arms, frowning. "I left it in the tent," I said, wishing he'd put his hands on more than just my arms.

  "Loge, do we have a blanket around here?" he asked his cousin, still not even looking at me as he looked around, his head nearly brushing my chest as he bent forward a bit, trying to see under the table.

  "No, Emma wrapped up in it before she left," Logan said, glancing in my direction. He blinked for a second at the way his cousin was rubbing me before pulling his lips between his teeth like he wanted to laugh and then turning back to the old man standing there holding money out for his coffee… while also watching us.

  The old man winked when he caught my eye, and I tried not to laugh myself.

  "You better get back over there where it's warm, Blake," Declan said, glancing up into my face. "Or you're going to freeze."

  Our eyes met, and again, I thought I saw the spark of something, and then he gasped, jerking his arms away and stepping back.

  Damn! I thought people were supposed to get easier to read. It seemed like the more time I spent with Declan Alexander, the more confused I got.

  "Yeah," I said finally, trying to swallow my disappointment without choking on it. "Thanks for the cookie, Declan."

  He gave me a soft, nervous smile and a nod, only meeting my eyes briefly. "Of course."

  Chapter Three

  I pursed my lips, looking around the shop. I was going to have to build more shelves… or stop making things.

  Nope, definitely just going to have to build new shelves. I loved sitting around watching Christmas movies and making my little trinkets, plus so many of my customers loved them. By the time Christmas was over, they'd all be gone, and I'd be working on the next batch come January. I never got out of the Christmas spirit until it was almost springtime, and I was right back in it by the middle of September.

  The sleigh bells rang, and I turned from the box of snow globes, smiling happily when I saw Declan Sunday strutting in with a bright grin on his face. My crush that had once been for an actor I never thought I'd actually meet, had turned into a full-blown, butterfly inducing, wet-dream producing want since the man had started coming into my shop daily. Especially after the cookie thing.

  Holy sh… shoot. I'd never been so quickly turned on in my life. His lips had been so soft and warm, and when the inside of his lip had slipped over the tip of my finger, wet and silky, I'd felt it directly in the di… penis.

  And the guy was nice. Like genuinely nice.

  Originally, I thought he'd be interested in my cousin Logan, but though he seemed to like Logan platonically, he didn't seem to be attracted to the man, and Logan didn't seem interested in him either. It still didn't mean he wanted me, even if I'd thought I'd seen something in his eyes when he'd eaten that cookie out of my hand. I was clearly a very imaginative person, so the fact that I'd imagined a spark in his expression over me wasn't all that surprising, but that was all it was, my imagination. In what world would Blake Sunday, successful TV actor with the gorgeous face and body, who could have anyone he wanted, want the chubby owner of a bakery, knick-knack and coffee shop?

  "Hey, Deck," Blake said happily as he stepped up to the counter, his eyes finding mine and locking.

  I was thankful that my nerves had finally started to settle around the man, especially with all the snow globes in the room. Nothing good could come from glass products of any kind being in the same room as a nervous me.

  Sometimes, the way he looked at me––like the m
oment we were in––he just seemed so excited and happy to see me. It was so hard not to imagine that he liked me in a way that wasn't completely platonic.

  I didn't acknowledge the second bell, way too distracted by those pretty blue eyes that were lit up and beckoning me closer. "Hi," I said a little more huskily than I'd meant to, but we were standing directly across the counter from each other, leaning into the top, our faces less than a foot apart. From this close, I could see the light freckles scattered across his nose and forehead with one really distracting one at one of the peak of his cupid's bow… and I wanted to taste it.

  "This is where you disappear to all the time, huh?" a female voice said behind Blake, and we both started. He turned and I leaned around him to see Mercy Strong standing there, lips pursed as she slowly took in the shop and the vast amount of Christmas decorations, the large fully done up and heavily lighted Christmas tree, and all the little trinkets on the already overflowing shelves.

  "Mercy," Blake said, frowning harshly. "What are you doing?"

  "You said you were going to get coffee." She turned her cold, but beautiful blue eyes on him before letting them bounce to me and then off again. "I want coffee too."

  Blake licked his teeth, before turning to me and giving me a small smile. "Deck, this is Mercy Strong. Mercy, this is Declan Alexander. He owns this place."

  Deck. He'd shortened my name like we were friends. I knew it probably wasn't that big a deal since he'd been coming into my shop for closing in on three weeks now, but it felt significant to me. I really, really liked it.

  "You should put coffee in your shop name," Mercy said, drawing my attention away from his face where we'd once again just been standing there staring at each other for no reason. "I had no idea what you sold here. I probably would have come sooner."

  I blinked over at the raven-haired beauty, and then Blake and I both looked over at the window that had large cartoon drawings of two coffee cups dancing one ceramic and the other a to-go cup with a lid, and a muffin and a croissant in a little plate with steam rolling off the top, while the window on the other side of the door had a Christmas tree bough framing the top with an ornament hanging over a large snow globe.

  Making eye contact with Blake, I sucked my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing. "That's a good idea," I said when I thought I might be able to keep from laughing while she squinted at the menu, completely ignoring me.

  "You make snow globes?" Blake asked quietly, drawing my attention away from the woman and back over to his gorgeous face.

  His eyes were so clear and beautiful, the blue leaning toward green in a way that made them look like the Caribbean, so warm and lovely. I wanted to fall asleep looking into those eyes and wake up the same way.

  "Oh, yeah," I said after another of those moments where I spent a bit too long staring at him. "They're my favorite."

  "Mine too." He smiled brightly, and I sucked in a calming breath, my heart rate spiking at how a face that shouldn't be able to get any more gorgeous, did. "My mom still has my collection. I send her ones to add to it when I find them." He tilted his head before bending down to look at one of the globes a bit more closely. "Why does this look so familiar? I feel like I know this place."

  I dragged my gaze from his face, scolding myself internally for once again staring like an idiot, and gave my attention to the globe he was concentrating on.

  Oh fudge. I cringed slightly. I'd forgotten about that one. It was a pretty exact replica––if I did say so myself––of one of the sets of my favorite of all Blake's movies. The one I'd watched so many times I knew every line and exactly when to look up from whatever I was tinkering with just to see all the parts where Blake was in the shot. That little snow globe was like a little representation of my utter and ridiculous infatuation with Blake Sunday and his movies.

  I opened my mouth to… Well, I was probably going to lie my ass off, and redirect his attention to something else when a little hellion zoomed by me, knocking me off balance on his way to my box of snow globes.

  "Jensen!" I said, when I recovered with the aid of Blake’s strong hands reaching out over the counter and steadying me by grabbing my shoulder. "What are you doing?"

  "Sorry, Uncle D," Jensen said, not even looking at me as he peered down into the box, oddly careful as he picked up one globe at a time, squinting at the scene inside before putting it right back where he'd gotten in from. "But I ain't got time to talk."

  "You don't have time," I corrected dryly, giving my ten-year-old nephew an exasperated look.

  A frown creased the otherwise smooth surface of his forehead when he looked at me. "Ain't that what I just said?" He went back to looking through the box, apparently no longer interested in our conversation. "I need to borrow one of your snow globes."

  "For what?"

  "Andrew Martin," he said simply. It wasn't exactly an answer, but it also kinda was, which was why I was suddenly getting nervous.

  "Are you planning on hitting him with it?" I asked, hesitantly, not really sure I wanted to even know.

  He blinked up at me, clearly thinking long and hard. "I don't think so," he said, not exactly instilling the kind of confidence I felt like I was probably supposed to have in him before letting him leave with a possible child-killing snow globe, but I also wasn't sure he wouldn't hit me with it, and if it was between Andrew Martin and me living through this day, I was going to pick me, because Andrew Martin was a little shithead whose parents were two of the only people in town who made me feel like I wasn't welcome because of my sexuality.

  It didn't seem to matter to the Martins that my family had been a part of this town since it was founded over a hundred and twenty-seven years ago, and they'd literally just moved here less than a decade before. They were constantly rude, and Wayne Martin had even gone as far as to tell me that this was a family town, and I needed to take my ways somewhere else. To which I'd very calmly and rationally told him that I knew it was a family town, as in, my family had been a part of this town since before his great, great, great grandma was born. Of course, that wasn't where the argument ended, and it had pretty much turned into a screaming match with him yelling at me––in the middle of a family town––that he didn't want his children thinking it was okay to suck dick, and I'd told him to talk to his wife about that because she'd been blowing every dick she could get her mouth around for months, and that had actually been true.

  Needless to say, he came after me, and I had a feeling if he would have gotten his hands on me, he might have actually killed me, but one of our starting inside linebackers for the Hidden Springs football team had tackled him to the ground and held him down until he calmed down.

  Bracen Lewis was a good, sweet boy who I'd caught more than once eyeing the cute little tutor of his in a way that was not at all about learning while the two boys occupied one of the smaller tables in the back, and though he'd yet to come out, he only ever smiled and shrugged when he'd look up from staring at the boy quickly working through one of his math problems with ease, and see me watching him.

  I need one of your gay ones," Jensen said, still holding the snow globes up one at a time to look at them in the light.

  "Gay ones?" Blake asked, drawing my attention over to his mirth-filled face.

  "Mmhmm," I said, rolling my eyes. "I make some with tiny little Pride flags somewhere in the scene, and all the money from those sells go to LGBT centers."

  "Ha!" Jensen exclaimed excitedly, holding one of the snow globes above his head. "This one."

  I couldn’t even see which one he grabbed, but regardless of the fact that he was quite a handful, I knew he'd take care of the thing, so I wasn't too worried. I was actually more worried about his intentions than anything. "What exactly are you going to do with it?" I asked hesitantly.

  He paused in front of the door, turning to look over his shoulder at me. "Andrew said nothin' gay is pretty. Well, this is gay, and everyone thinks snow globes are pretty." He shook the snow globe in the air, pursing
his lips before turning back to the door. "And if that doesn't work, I'll hit him with it."

  "Jensen!" I yelled as he pushed the door open. "Don't you dare hit anyone with a snow globe."

  My awful nephew chuckled, holding the door open for a moment to send an adorable smirk in my direction. "I was just kiddin', Uncle D…" He let go of the door, but the last thing I heard before it fell shut was a mumbled, "probably."

  I sighed, dropping my face into my hand, groaning. "I'm going to need a drink."

  "Hey," Blake said excitedly. "What time do you get off? We should go to the cute little bar down the road. They have peppermint margaritas."

  My stomach flipped excitedly, and I smiled, once again leaning forward against the counter.

  He's not asking you on a date, dumbass. Don't get too excited. But still, even if he wasn't asking me out on a date, spending any amount of time with him that wasn't here at the shop would be great. Of course, drinking around him could turn into an issue pretty quickly, since I didn't drink very often, and I was kinda known as a lightweight.

  "I'd lo… did you say peppermint margaritas?" I asked suddenly, curling my lip and tilting my head.

  He chuckled, nodding his head. "Yeah, I'm not sure about it either, but I'm willing to try."

  I nodded. I'd be willing to try too. Hell, if Winston's was making them, they were probably pretty good. There was a reason people from neighboring counties tended to come to Hidden Springs just to go to the bar. Of course, our taxis, Ubers and the two local Inns tended to get some elevated business on the weekends too.

  I was still nodding and smiling when I saw my sister's dark head out of the corner of my eye, and I held up a finger for Blake to give me a moment. "Emma," I said calmly, ignoring the glare she sent me, like I was bothering her by speaking. "Go find Jensen and make sure he isn't beating Andrew Martin with a snow globe."

  "Sorry, Deck," she grumbled, walking right over to the box of snow globes and reaching inside. "I ain't got time."