“Is everything okay here?” Mason appeared, his gaze shifting between Stan and herself, as though he was somewhat nervous about the situation. Regardless, she was never more glad to be bothered by the man.
“Mase! Hey! I was just making friendly conversation. I’m a friendly guy.”
“Was he bothering you?” he asked her. “There may be a meditation spot and V.I.P. parking at risk here.”
Stan’s eyes widened. “No, I was not bothering her. I just wanted a hot chocolate and her window wasn’t closed yet, so I assumed she was still open. Oh, and I was telling her about my Santa extra work. She didn’t know I was inSanta Heist 2. Besides, it’s not like I’m telling the secret to anyone who doesn’t already know the secret.”
She shot a look at Mason the same time he looked at her, his own features tensing. When Stan’s mouth opened again, she scrunched an eye, anticipating him blurting the news about how she and Stan had a Tahoe fling. She never expected this secret to be revealed between a horse trailer and a waffle truck.
“I mean, you guys already know you’re dating.”
Her eyes popped open. What the hell was Stan saying? “Wait—Who’s dating?”
“Look, we agreed to drop it in exchange for the things you wanted and you’re not keeping your word,buddy,” Mason said through a strained jawline. He turned to her, lifting his arms in a helpless pose. “Sorry, honey. I tried to keep it a secret because I know you love your privacy, but Santa Romeo here can beverypersistent.” He gave her a sly wink.
She stared at Mason, then Stan, before shifting back to the first man again. The pieces were starting to come together. “Soooo, we don’t know each other?” she asked Stan. “I mean, before today, we’ve never met?”
He gave a confused glance to Mason. “Have we? I don’t remember and I have a pretty good memory. Have you also done extra work in holiday blockbusters?”
She leaned against the counter, placing her head into her palms, relief flooding through her as ridiculous, out-of-control laughter burst forth.
The two men, unsure how to react to her strange outburst, exchanged uncomfortable looks with each other.
After she was able to catch her breath, she addressed Mason. “And you told him we—you and I—are dating?”
He appeared stricken, his face flushing, the only thing coming out was a series of stammers.
“Yeah, you should feel bad,” Natalie said, interrupting him and putting a hand on her hip. “After we had the whole conversation about keeping this news quiet until after the holidays. You had to tell the one guy working the farm who’s pretty much talking to everyone. Do you know how gossipy kids are? Why not just take out a billboard, Mason? I’m sure at this rate, half of El Dorado county knows by now.”
It took a second for him to recover and respond. “I said I was sorry. But, I mean, look at you. You’re, like, the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known, and I’m just supposed to stay quiet when all I want to do is shout to the world.” Mason dropped to his knees as though begging for forgiveness. “Please don’t be mad. You know you’re the strong one. I’m nothing but the weak, pitiful man who adores you.” It was all pretend, but this didn’t stop Natalie’s heart from doing a tiny dance in her chest because how exciting would it be to have someone who meant those words.
“God, Mase. Now you’re just embarrassing yourself. It’s not really that big of a deal,” Stan said.
“And you.” She turned her attention to Stan, and she could have sworn he did a hard swallow behind the Santa beard. “I really hope you’re not going to get in the habit of trying to blackmail me into giving you hot chocolate.” She did a slow full-body lean against the counter, making her gaze as steely as possible. “If you want to address me, you’ll call me Natalie. I will not answer to anything else. I am not your hot chocolate girl. If you want something, you can come here and stand in line like everyone else. And you get whatever number of marshmallows I feel like giving you, if any. Got it?”
Stan gave a sheepish grin. “Yeah, yeah, of course. And all that before, about the hot chocolate and stuff, I was just joking. Mase will tell you. I just like joking around.” He then looked at his phone. “Well, I better get going. I’ll see you guys tomorrow then.” He took off toward his red car in the parking lot.
Mason slowly got on his feet and patted the dust from his knees while Natalie finished her task of putting things away for the night.
“Are you going to tell me how I ended up inside a sitcom?” she asked. “You’re welcome by the way.”
“I kept meaning to come over here earlier and tell you about it. Sorry about that. The lie kind of sprang out of nowhere and it was the only way I could think of to get him to back off so he wouldn’t come around here and bug you all the time. So you’re also welcome by the way.”
“Do I seem like the type of person who can’t take care of that myself? You should save your rescuing for someone else, Prince.” It was true. She didn’t need to be rescued. Natalie was more than capable of shutting someone down when she didn’t want the attention. Sometimes it was as easy as being herself. Although, once she got over the shock of the situation, and the relief she didn’t ever have a secret rendezvous with Stan, she found the situation kind of funny. Despite his weird way of going about the whole thing, what Mason did could be considered sweet.
He didn’t respond to her, becoming quiet as she finished locking the horse trailer for the night.
“You’re right,” he finally said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put you in that position. I wasn’t thinking.”
His apology surprised her, and she felt bad for getting snappy at him. “It’s okay,” Natalie replied as she pulled her knit hat over her head and zipped her coat. “I’m just tired and hungry. I haven’t had much to eat today and the whole thing was a little unexpected, as I’m sure you can believe.”
Mason grinned. “You didn’t imagine you’d end up with such an amazing boyfriend on your first day on the farm?”
“Certainly not one who appears to worship the ground I walk on. I’m a little surprised at how much I like it.”
“I find it hard to believe this was your first time experiencing that.”
“Believe it.” Natalie dug through her bag, searching for her keys. She had tossed them in this morning, and they’d disappeared somewhere in the void.
