“I have this super cute, festival little red dress and a knee-high pair of black boots?—”
A blood curdling scream echoes through the speaker phone, and I instinctively cover my ears. I can’t tell which kiddo it is, but I recognize Code Red when I hear it. Guess I’m on my own for the rest of Operation Christmas Explosion.
“Gotta go,” Mandi says quickly.
“You owe me!”
The phone goes dead, the immediate silence almost eerie.
Without Mandi chattering up a storm, I seem to really notice the cabin for the first time. It’s larger on the inside than it looks on the outside with an open kitchen set up beneath the loft that flows right into a surprisingly cozy living room.
My gaze travels to up again, and I can’t help but wonder if that loft is where Tripp sleeps. A naughty zing races through me of that thought of him tangled naked in his sheets. I quickly shake the forbidden image away, knowing nothing could ever happen between us even if the mandidlike me, and set to work decorating.
Chapter 2
Tripp
I should be startledto find a woman passed out on my couch, but the snow-covered Jeep in my driveway was a dead giveaway.
I don’t know why Harley Greer is insidemycabin, but I’m suddenly wishing the impending storm was too weak to have ended my latest hunting excursion early. I simply couldn’t justify keeping a father and son stranded on Christmas Eve. The dad was clear his wife would kill us all if they didn’t make it home for Christmas morning—deer or no deer—so I called it early.
Would I have found Harley comfortably wrapped up in my plaid patterned throw blanket, curled up on my sectional if I’d gambled with the storm a little longer?
Probably not.
Well…maybe not.
I’ve gone to great lengths to avoid my sister’s best friend, hoping that time and distance would dull the burning attraction I feel for her.
When I moved home to Caribou Creek last spring, Harley wasn’t in town yet. I’d never met her or had any idea the fucking hold she’d have on me when I did. By the time she showed up, I’d already bought a remote cabin a few miles outside of the city limits and decided to settle in my hometown.
I hoped she’d eventually get tired of Alaska and move back to wherever she came from. But instead, she announced at the Thanksgiving dinner my sister hosted that she rented a tiny cabin down the block from Mandi—for the nexttwoyears.
She has to go.
“Harley?” I call out, my voice purposely loud and deep to wake her.
She screams, jumping up from my couch and landing in a fight-ready position. The red and black plaid blanket is still tangled around her waist, failing to cover the skin-tight tank top that’s pulled so far down the red lace of her bra is showing. A flannel button up I’m almost certain is mine hangs open and off one shoulder, shiny with silvery strands.
Fuck me.
She’s so fucking adorable I almost forget to be pissed off about the intrusion. My twitching dick thinks I should let the whole breaking and entering thing go.
“What are you doing here?” she squeaks, tugging the blanket free and tossing it onto the couch, revealing a skin-tight pair of black leggings that accentuate her long, curvy legs. Legs I’ve longed to run my palms up and down more times than I care to admit.
“Ilivehere.”
“Oh, right.”
“The better question is what areyoudoing here? Inmycabin?” The moment the question leaves my lips, I notice a twinkle overhead and find my answer.
I lift my gaze to the loft, horrified to find shiny, sparkling red, green, and gold garland wrapped around the railing. It reminds me of an anaconda coiled around a tree branch, if that snake were made of shiny metallic tinsel. “What the fuck?—”
“Before you get mad, Mandi sent me.”
My gaze travels the span of my cabin, and my stomach drops. Holiday decorations areeverywhere,in every conceivable place and on every surface. Like a fucking elf vomited Christmas cheer all over my cabin. There’s a giant, fully-decorated tree blocking the living room window, some type of Santa’s village on my fireplace mantel, and oversized snowman holding a holiday wreath stationed next to the kitchen island.
“Take it down.”
