Chapter One
Natalie Gonzalez-Torres wasnot a Christmas person.
People assigning themselves holidays, as though it was a personality trait, was, in itself, silly. It’s not that she hated Christmas, she simply did not understand why it was treated like the Super Bowl of holidays, especially when Halloween, an infinitely better day, was right there. But she didn’t consider herself a sentimental person and, therefore, couldn’t care less about the most sentimental of all holidays.
Her youngest sister, Carla, liked to tease her that this preference proved she was part villain. Natalie didn’t care. It was one more thing her family didn’t understand about her, and to be fair, she didn’t necessarily always understand them either. She accepted being a Halloween person in a Christmas family.
It wasn’t that Natalie didn’t love her family. She wasn’t that much of a villain. It was just…her family was constantly together and up in each other’s business all year long, not just during the holidays. So unless she got stranded on a deserted island by herself, there wasn’t much of a reprieve from either the Gonzalez side nor the Torres side.
Case in point, her cousin Diego. He knew of her low tolerance for Christmas music, especially when it came on the direct heels of Halloween. Was nothing sacred anymore? It took an hour into her shift, and the discovery of absentmindedly humming a bar of Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas,” for her to realize her cousin had snuck into the manager’s office and switched from their normal station of inoffensive coffeehouse music to one featuring Christmas tunes.
“Ugh, Diego. Seriously?”
The kid, who was a year out of high school with thick, shaggy hair, turned his head toward her with the appearance of complete innocence. “What?”
Natalie was not the owner of Pony Expresso, a small coffee shop located in the heart of the historic downtown area of Placerville, California. This title belonged to her Tío Enrique on the Gonzalez side. She was, however, the manager, giving her ultimate control over when sentimental sap, such as holiday tunes, was allowed to infiltrate the workspace. She was hoping to push this until at least the week before Christmas, because there was no reason to rush into this type of music commitment.
Fortunately, she had no problem telling off any employee, especially when they were young, cocky, and happened to be related to her. This was exactly what she did, making sure to chew Diego out in Spanish, so most of the customers would remain ignorant of the situation, as she relieved Crystal at the register for a break. Her cousin responded to her early morning music tirade by smirking and rolling his eyes as he returned to his work at the espresso machine. He was Tío Enrique’s son and had the unearned confidence of a kid who could get away with most things.
“Yes. What can I get for you?” she said, flipping to English, and raising her gaze to the customer standing there. She had to raise her eyes quite a bit more than she was used to as he was very tall. Natalie wasn’t sure if it was his large presence or something else, but she immediately felt overwhelmed by him. Perhaps he felt the same because the man froze, as if he was dumbfounded to find himself standing before her.
The spell broke when an older man in his twilight years, jabbed the younger one in his side. “Mason. Wake up. Whaddya want?”
“Oh. Uh… Sorry. Let me…uh, let me have the…” The man’s eyes darted across the chalkboard menu on the wall and appeared to be approaching a panic in his attempt to order something. “What do you recommend?”
Oh, for the love of—It wasn’t as if they had a very lengthy menu. Compared to places like the local Starbucks, their menu was quite small. And while there were times she enjoyed playing this guessing game with customers, today was not that day. She had a lot to do, there was a long line of customers, and there was still Christmas music playing. She wasn’t in the mood.
“I recommend that you know exactly what you want by the time you get to the register,” she heard herself saying before she could think better of it. Definitely not A+ customer service this morning. Her villain side showed up at the most inopportune times.
She expected the man, Mason, to demand to see a manager after her inappropriate and sarcastic comment. Instead, those hazel eyes connected with hers again and his lips lifted in amusement.
“Just get him the same as me. Small coffee, black. For Daniel,” the older man injected while pulling out his wallet to pay and shoving a few bills into the tip jar. “We also have a meeting with Enrique.” Then Daniel yanked the younger guy out of line who almost tripped and said some word she didn’t quite understand. The whole encounter was a lot more awkward and flustery than ordering coffee ever should be.
Weird.
Natalie was never happier than when Crystal reappeared and retook her position at the register, letting Natalie return to her previous job of restocking the supplies and yelling to her uncle that he had visitors. She glanced up as her uncle came from the back, wearing slacks and a soft burgundy sweater, rather than his usual everyday uniform of track pants and long-sleeve T-shirts. The one thing ruining the professional businessman illusion was him lightly dusting pastry crumbs from his chest and mustache. He shook Daniel’s hand before doing the same with Mason, but he was much more openly friendly with the former. They clearly knew each other well. The younger guy met her eyes again before quickly moving his gaze away, as though he didn’t want to be caught staring.
Natalie wanted to giggle—No, strike that. Thirty-year-olds didn’t giggle. Natalie wanted to laugh because the look Mason gave her was clearly one of interest. While she was no stranger to receiving attention, even in her place of work, she wasn’t used to the attention-giver being so flustered. Casually flirting and asking her out was one thing. Tripping all over himself like she was a gorgeous woman in possession of large boobs, instead of a chest that aspired to be a B-cup, was definitely more unique.
He was Caucasian and not only was he tall but also broad, although he didn’t appear muscular under his clothes. His physique gave the impression of something softer, like he was on his way toward establishing a dad bod and gave great hugs. He had close-cropped hair that was a medium brown with some reddish undertones. His jawline was in the process of growing a beard but, at this stage, the follicles weren’t long enough to hide a cleft in his chin. The eyes weren’t quite brown and not quite green but a swirly, hazel combination of both. She had to admit, this was exactly the type of guy she tended to gravitate toward, and maybe she found herself sneaking glances at him as well.
Except there was already a strike against him.
He was obviously a local guy.
Natalie made it a rule never to get involved with local guys. The less chance she had of running into someone she might want to eventually avoid, the better.
Also, he was clearly too nice. It was a mistake fortoo niceguys to get involved with her because what they wanted and what she wanted was not only not in the same ballpark, it wasn’t even in the same sport. Her needs were very simple. As long as she didn’t have to commit to an actual relationship, she was good. Anything else wasn’t worth the hassle either for them or for her. Plus, the older she got the less Natalie enjoyed shredding hearts. She may have been a villain, but she didn’t have the stomach for any organs, let alone the beating ones.
Okay, that was two problems. He was a local. Too nice. Oh, and he had trouble making decisions under pressure. There was probably a lot more she could list but their encounter had lasted two minutes and she wasn’t psychic.
Hmm. That did make her think, though. Daniel had ordered for him, ordering the same drink as himself. Except there was no way Mason was a black coffee type of guy. His vibe was reading something entirely different. Also she was feeling a tad guilty about being rude earlier. She could at least do something for the guy. It wasn’t as if he was the one forcing Christmas music on her. The only person who earned her contempt so far was her cousin.
“Are you working on that order for Daniel yet?” Natalie asked Diego.
“Just getting to it now.”
“Make only one a black coffee. The other should be…a Nutella latte.”
