Chapter Ten
Day one ofPoinsettia Paradise had gone pretty well for Mason. Better than well. In spite of first-day chaos, it had ended on the sweetest of notes with Natalie gazing up at him over her waffle wrap, those big dark eyes softening towards him. When she looked at him like that, he could forget about a lot of things. He could forget worrying about whether his dad would ever trust him again. He could forget about whether the first day of business matched what they did last year. He could even forget his stomach rumbling because he’d given his dinner away. But, as long as he was alive, he’d never forget how she had looked at him at that last moment, as though she’d wanted him to reach out to her. It took everything in him not to. He tried that once already and he wasn’t ready to get knocked down again so soon.
“Mason?”
“Hmm. What?” He turned and found Charlie there. The older man came into the office, removing his gloves.
“One of the power strips got unplugged yesterday and half the Sawzall batteries didn’t get charged.”
Shit.Just when he thought things were going fine, something had to come along and remind him that he didn’t have everything together. “Does my dad know?”
“Nope. I just found out and you’re the first one I told.”
He took a moment. He could do this. “It’s Sunday. People will probably take their time coming in today. Let’s start charging them now and we’ll use the Sawzalls we have. The rest will probably be charged in about four hours. If anyone complains about the wait, maybe we can offer them a complimentary coffee or something from the truck.” He snuck a glance at Charlie. “What do you think?”
“Yeah, I think it’s fine. What else can we do?”
“It’ll be fine,” he reassured himself.
Having an excuse, he went to Natalie soon after she appeared at the farm that morning. “I need to ask for a huge favor.”
“You’re not going to ask me to be your fake girlfriend at a high school reunion or something, are you?” Her eyes reflected more of an amused glint than a suspicious one.
He smiled, feeling similarly amused himself. “If that’s what you consider to be a huge favor, then I need to rephrase myself. I need to ask for a very small favor.”
“How small are we talking about?”
“Compared to fake dating, it’ll be hardly any effort on your part.”
She finished unlocking the horse trailer and went inside but not before saying, “What a shame. I like a good scheme.”
When she put it that way, he wouldn’t mind a good scheme himself. He was about to tell her that when he noticed his dad approaching and rushed through an explanation. “We might have a problem with a limited number of Sawzalls for cutting trees today. If anyone comes to you saying we promised them a complimentary drink while they wait, can you do it? Just keep track of it and I’ll make sure your truck is compensated later.”
She looked at him oddly, as though trying to figure out what everything meant, but he ran out of time because Daniel was here. “Dad, hi.”
“Mason. I went to the office to talk with you and you weren’t there. What are you doing over here?”
“Oh, I was…” He tried to think of a reasonable excuse to offer on why he appeared to be randomly hanging out at Natalie’s truck as though he was more interested in a crush than handling business. He was hit with a moment of panic because this was exactly what it looked like and he was stuck.
“Sorry,” she interrupted. “I wanted to pay Mason back for the food yesterday. He was nice enough to spring for me when I was starving. Here you go.” She shoved a ten-dollar bill at him.
“You don’t have to—”
“It’s fine,” she said, smiling sweetly. “I’m returning thefavor. It’s not a problem.”
He took the bill, mumbling his thanks, as he turned his attention to his dad. “So, did you need something?”
Luckily, his dad simply wanted to chat about normal business things and hadn’t suspected any panicking on Mason’s side.
Throughout the day, Mason pushed himself as far away from the coffee horse trailer as he could by helping people load their trees and getting the saw situation worked out. If he was out among the trees, he could almost pretend he didn’t smell the fresh roast of coffee beans in the air. In reality, he probably couldn’t but his mind played tricks on him all the time and he imagined the scent teased him everywhere.
Toward the end of the day, he returned to her truck fully intending to return her ten dollars and to thank her for helping out with the earlier situation, even though it ended up not being necessary. Also, he was worried this was another day where she went without eating a proper meal. He stopped at the waffle truck before making his way to Natalie’s. She was finishing with a customer, her last of the day since everything was shutting down.
“Hey,” she said with a smile. Soft creases bracketed her mouth as though she was pleased to see him.
“Hey, yourself. Thanks for covering for me today,” he replied, sliding the ten dollars across to the counter. “How’s your day been? You haven’t been bothered by any Santas lately?”
Her face scrunched adorably as if in thought. “He did come by for a hot chocolate, but he stood in line, did not blackmail me, and was, in fact, very well behaved. I guess you’re one intimidating guy.”
