“Work is the opposite of a hobby,” he said, chuckling.
“I can’t think of anything else,” I said. “Ever since I graduated from college, I’ve been obsessed with making sure that I’m self-reliant, that I’d never be how I was back when I was growing up. You know, totally dependent on other people.”
“I get that,” he said. “But surely there has to be something that takes up your free time. Boyfriend?”
My embarrassment went from “partial” to “all-consuming.”
“Um, no,” I said.
“That’s a surprise. I’d think a woman like you would have every single guy in town trying to buy you a drink.”
I blushed, and as soon as I felt the heat rush through my cheeks, I turned away. I didn’t know what to be more bashful about—that he was asking me about my nonexistent dating life or that he was asking me if I was single.
Did that mean anything? Was he trying to see if he had any competition?
Easy, Isla, I thought. The man’s just trying to make conversation. Quit reading into things.
“You’ve got to have something you do when you’re not at the office.”
“Well,” I said. “There’s something. But it’s kind of stupid.”
“The stupider the better,” he said.
Oh God, I thought. You’re really going to tell him, aren’t you?
“You know those really cheesy movies on the family channels?” I asked. “The ones about, like, a woman from the city going back to her hometown and falling in love with someone she knew from high school?”
“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I love them!”
I stopped in my tracks.
“Are you serious?” I asked. “Or are you just messing with me?”
“I’d never mess with anyone about such an important subject,” he said. “I watch those too. Kind of a guilty pleasure.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Part of me was convinced this was some kind of joke, that he’d stop at any moment, laugh and tell me he was only screwing with me.
“The Christmas ones are my favorite,” he said. “I’d probably be watching a half-dozen of them if I weren’t out here working during the break.”
“Same!” I said. “At home, maybe a little wine, some corny but strangely touching holiday romances on the TV.”
He flashed me a smile.
“A woman after my own heart,” he said.
Okay, I knew that this was only a figure of speech. But it was still enough to give me pause. That and the revelation he was just as into these movies as I was.
“You see Twelve Wishes last year?” he asked.
“Oh my God, yes!” I exclaimed. “Where the bitter businesswoman from New York comes home for the holidays, and the spirit of Christmas comes to life and tells her she can’t leave until she grants twelve Christmas wishes for people in town?”
“That’s the one,” he said. “And she, of course, falls in love with the handsome art teacher.”
“The one who was too ‘weird’ for her in high school,” I said, a giggle escaping me.
“And they’re doing the sequel this year,” he said. “We might have to catch the reruns though.”
“Maybe they get the channel here?” I asked. “Exploring the city sounds fun, but cheesy movies sound just as good.”
“One by day, the other by night,” he said. “But you might be right about getting them here. Or maybe you’d have to learn Portuguese overnight.”
“Hey,” I said. “I’m a quick learner.”
We continued on, and as we did I caught Adam looking at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Do I have something on my face?” I asked, feeling self-conscious.
“No,” he said with a smile. “Just thinking about what I told you on the plane, about your attitude.”
“Is that right?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Killer employee, but an even better way of looking at the world. And your guilty pleasure…just makes me wonder what else you have hidden away. Maybe something that you don’t even know about.”
Another blush. And as I tried my best to hide my reddening cheeks, I noticed that Adam was still simply regarding me.
“I know, I know,” I said. “I blush easily. It’s embarrassing.”
“No,” he said. “Not that.”
“Then what?” I asked.
Another warm smile.
“Just admiring what you are.”
With that, he continued on. I, on the other hand, was frozen in place.
What was happening between us? And was it wrong of me to kind of love it?
Chapter 11
Adam
Damn that wine.
I’d gotten caught up in everything—the evening, the booze, and, of course, her. And just like I’d had to remind myself over and over again from the moment I’d laid eyes on Isla at the airport, I did my best to keep myself in check. At the very least I’d stopped at two glasses. God only knew how difficult it would be to stay professional if I had a little more wine in me.
So, after chiding myself just enough to get my head straight, the two of us continued on.
The town grew quieter as the shops around us closed one by one, the owners heading home for Christmas. Before too long the hustle and bustle subsided, and there was only us and a handful of other people out, some of them clearly couples in love.
“I hope you’ve had a nice night so far,” I said.
“It’s been great,” Isla replied. “Exciting and relaxing at the same time.”
Part of me wanted to keep the night going, maybe see if there was a cozy little bar still open where she and I could share one more drink and see where the rest of the evening took us.
No, I told myself. Enough’s enough—time for the hotel. You’ve got a whole other day of keeping yourself together tomorrow.
But damn, she was simply so nice to be around. It wasn’t just her beauty—it was everything about her.
“Hey!” she said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Look at that!”
She pointed ahead, and I stopped to see what she was referring to. Further down the road was a small crowd in front of an illuminated building that I recognized right away as a church.
“I bet it’s a Christmas service,” she said. “Want to check it out?”
“Sure,” I said.
We picked up our pace and were soon close enough that I could see that the gathering was in front of a live nativity scene, complete with mules for the wise men.
“Wow!” Isla said. “That’s so cool!”
She was right. I’d seen plenty of nativity scenes over the years, but this was something different, something special. Maybe it was the almost out-of-time feeling of the town around us, maybe it was the company.
As I’d done so many other times that day, I glanced over at Isla out of the corner of my eye. An expression of wonder was on her face as she watched the proceedings. Something about the way she looked made me smile without even having to think about it.
The host of the performance stepped out in front and began speaking, the entire crowd watching him in silence.
“You getting any of that?” Isla asked quietly.
“Portuguese isn’t my strong suit,” I said. “Spanish, French, sure, but not this one.”
She appeared impressed that I spoke any language other than English. But her eyes were soon back on the show. I watched right along with her, allowing myself to be caught up in the experience.
As I watched, however, I noticed that one of the mules seemed a bit…restless. The other two were still and well-behaved, but this one shifted where he stood, as if he wanted to be any place other than standing there in the middle of that scene.
I tried to turn my attention back to the speaker, but the mule continued in his bad behavior. In fact, it began to get worse—to the point that other people around us began to notice.
Finally, I couldn’t resist.
“What’s up with that mule?” I hissed.
“Not sure,” she said. “I’ve been watching him. Whatever’s up, it looks like he’s about to have an old-fashioned mule freak out.”
“Is that a thing?”
“It’s a thing,” she said.
“You sound…very confident about this.”
She nodded.
“You know when I told you that I got shuffled from family to family back when I was younger?”
“Of course.”
“Well, one of those families was more…rural than the others. Learned a thing or two about how to handle animals like that. And what to look out for when they’re going to go off the rails.”
“What would mean the mule is about to go…off the rails?”
She said nothing, her eyes widening slightly.
“You see that?”
She pointed to the mule, who by this point had begun to buck, the other actors doing their best to calm him down.
“That’s what that means.”
“Is this bad?” I asked.
“It’s bad,” she said.
And then it got crazy. The mule let out a noise that sounded like a bark and a whinny all at once. If anyone had been trying to ignore the animal before then, they couldn’t do it any longer.
One of the wise men tried to grab onto the animal, but it bucked again, its legs kicking back into the air, barely missing the wise man. Then it took off in a run, cutting through the rapidly spreading crowd and out into the street.
Ho-ly shit.
No one seemed to know what to do as the mule run wild—that is, aside from getting the hell out of the way. But I wasn’t about to stand by and not do anything. I’d never tamed a runaway mule before, but I’d always prided myself on my ability to learn anything with a little hands-on experience.
I rolled up my sleeves, my eyes on the crazed animal.
“Adam,” said Isla. “I mean, Mr. Forde.”
“Adam is fine,” I said. “Considering the circumstances.”
“Adam,” she said again. “What are you going to do?”
“Grab that thing,” I said with a small smile.
“Have you ever done anything like this before?”
“Nah,” I said. “But how hard can it be?”
The mule broke across the street, commotion sounding out around us as no one seemed to know what the hell to do.
“Trust me,” she said lowly. “A runaway mule’s tougher than it looks.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said.
A determined smile spread across my face, the same smile that appeared whenever I was ready to take on a challenge, and I broke out into a sprint, cutting the distance between me and the mule in no time at all.
Okay, I thought as I sized the animal up. Can’t be that strong—just wrap your arms around it and wrestle it to the ground. Once you’ve got it down, some other people are sure to jump in and help you.
Sounded like a perfect plan to me. Nothing else to do but see it through.
“All right boy…girl, whatever you are,” I said, my gaze on the animal which was now bucking in place. “Let’s do this nice and easy-like, got it?”
With one steeling deep breath, I jumped in, arms wide out. My heart was racing and I was ready. I wrapped my arms around the mule and grabbed on as tightly as I could.
But it wasn’t nearly tight enough.
Maybe it was the booze, maybe it was my angle of attack, maybe it was the fact that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But in the brief few seconds of my holding onto the mule, its coat coarse against my skin and the smell of the thing like I’d just stuck my head into a barn, it managed to buck me right off and onto the ground before I even knew what the hell happened.
It let out a braying whine as I hit the ground, my butt ringing out in pain as I landed. I came to my senses just in time to see the mule running off.
And following closely behind it was…Isla?
I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. But sure enough, it was her.
What is she doing? I thought. I’m twice her damn size! If I couldn’t wrestle that thing to the ground…
Evidently, though, wrestling wasn’t what she had in mind. Instead she ran in front of the mule and raised her palms. For a moment I was certain that it was going to keep going, just slam on into her and send her to the ground like it’d done to me.
That didn’t happen. Instead the mule stopped in his tracks as surely as if a brick wall had dropped down in front of it. Her palms still raised, Isla made slow steps toward the animal.
And to my shock, the mule didn’t budge. It stayed perfectly still as Isla approached. I glanced over my shoulder back at the crowd to see that they were all watching the scene with the same surprise that I had been.
Isla moved closer and closer to the mule, and as she closed the last few inches, my gut tightened at the idea of it bucking at the last minute and hurting her. But that didn’t happen. Instead she placed her hands on the sides of the beast, leaned in, and whispered something into its ear. And it stayed perfectly still all the while.
Once she’d worked her magic, she took the animal by its harness and began to walk it back toward the church. My jaw nearly dropped. She’d really done it. Isla’s eyes flicked onto me for a brief moment as she passed, a surprised expression painting her features for a moment.
Cheers broke out among the crowd as Isla led the animal back to the nativity scene. She returned the mule to its place, and once everything was ready the show went on. Isla returned to my side as it did, flashing me a small smile.
I didn’t know what to say.
The nativity soon reached its end and the crowd began to scatter, more than a few of the people casting appreciative glances in our direction on their way. Okay—maybe most of the glances were for Isla. She’d actually tamed the thing, after all.
Soon, the area had cleared, and it was just the two of us in front of the church.
“What?” asked Isla.
I must’ve been looking at her with a strange expression.
“Nothing,” I said with a smile. “Just finding out that you’re full of surprises.”
Chapter 12
Isla
I was being a total liar.
As we walked on every bit of my being was dedicated to looking cool and calm and totally not like I’d just managed to sweet-talk a mule—a mule that very well could’ve put a hoof right into my butt at any moment—into compliance.
But if Adam could look unflappable, so could I. Tame a mule? All in a day’s work. Barely even broke a sweat. Then again, knowing Adam he was probably able to see right through me.
Against my best efforts, a laugh slipped past my lips.
“Something funny?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said. “Just…”
“Come on,” he said, nudging me gently with his elbow. “Let’s hear it.”
“You promise you won’t be mad?” I asked.
He gave me a sly grin before responding.
“I guess you’ll have to tell me and then find out.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but another laugh came out instead of words.
“Sorry,” I said, composing myself. “It’s just…when you tried to grab the mule…”
“Oh, no,” he said, knowing where I was going with it.
“And you…you looked like you were trying to give it a hug or something. And then it just kicked you off like it was nothing.”
Red flashed on my face followed by panic in my gut. I’d just told the boss I was laughing at him possibly getting hurt.
“I’m sorry,” I quickly added. “I know I shouldn’t be laughing.”
But true to form, Adam was unbothered.
“You think my technique was off?” he asked with a smile.
“Maybe just a little,” I said. “Those mules are tougher than they look.”
“Believe me,” he said. “Now I know.”
“Just thought you could grab that thing and wrestle to the ground, huh?�
� I asked, pleased that he was able to see the humor in it.
“You know me,” he said. “I like to tackle problems head-on.”
He was right about that. He’d taken on the problem of the mule in the most head-on way possible.
“But you’re not hurt, right?” I asked. “I’d feel terrible laughing about this if you were in pain.”
“Well,” he said, reaching around and clapping his hand onto his butt—a very nicely shaped butt, I might add. “I landed right here on the cobblestones. But it hurt more in the moment.”
“And then there’s the matter of your shirt…”
I glanced down at the long tear in the side of his expensive-looking button-up. The rip was big enough to expose his body underneath, giving me a teasing glimpse of his trim, toned abs. It was enough to make my mouth water even more than the dinner had, and I had to use all my restraint to not ogle.
“Huh?” he asked, glancing down.
He noticed what I was referring to and pulled at it a bit, now giving me a glimpse of his cut sides and chest.
Damn, Isla. Stop staring!
“I was wondering where that breeze was coming from,” he said.
Then he turned his attention down to my feet.
“And you didn’t get out of this unscathed.”
“Huh?”
I glanced down at the ground, me now being the one unsure of what the other was talking about. Then I spotted it. My shoes were a total mess, dirty and one of the short heels broken on the right shoe. And now that I actually was paying attention, I realized that I was walking with a slight limp as a result of the broken heel.
“Wow,” I said. “I must’ve wrecked these things trying to catch up with that guy. How on earth did I not notice?”
“Adrenaline,” he said. “Same reason I barely felt landing on my behind.”
I stopped and undid the straps of my shoes, taking them off and slinging them over my shoulder as I walked.
“Careful,” he said.
I didn’t break stride, the cobblestones of the road cool underneath my feet.
“It’s actually kind of nice,” I said with a smile. “You should try it.”
He regarded me with a curious expression. Then, without saying a word, he squatted down and began taking off his shoes.
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