Page 38 of Falling for the Grinchy Bad Boy

Chief Bryden slid a plate in front of me loaded with more food than I usually ate in a day. “All joking aside, you’ve earned yourself a good breakfast. You did a nice thing for the town yesterday.”

“I was just lending a hand,” I said, forking up some eggs. “Must have been a slow news day.”

“So, tell us about this Joy Murphy,” Elijah said. “She’s pretty cute in that picture.”

Elijah was a young probie from Salt Lake City, still on his probationary period. He came to a small firehouse to get experience. He had no idea about the drama that consumed our little town. And he had no idea Joy was someone special around here. At least, she had been.

I nearly choked on my coffee. “She’s the event coordinator. That’s it. End of story.”

“Uh-huh.” Matt leaned forward, obviously enjoying himself.

“It’s community service,” Chief said. “Good PR for the department. Shows we’re involved in the community beyond just emergency calls.”

“Exactly,” I said, grateful for the support. “Pure community service.”

“Sure it was,” Tony said with a grin. “And that’s why you climbed up there yourself instead of letting one of us do it.”

“You guys weren’t there.”

“We were available. You could have called.”

Damn it, he was right. I could have called for backup, gotten someone else to make the climb. But the thought of Joy looking disappointed, of that beautiful star not making it to the top of the tree? I had wanted to fix it myself. Which was stupid and probably told everyone at this table more about my state of mind than I was comfortable with.

“Whatever,” I said, focusing on my eggs. “It’s done. Tree’s decorated. Everyone’s happy.”

“Speaking of which,” Matt said. “You guys going to the lighting ceremony tonight?”

Chief nodded. “We’ll have a crew there on standby. You know how these things go—someone always slips on the ice, or we get a short in the electrical system, or Mr. Lake’s dog gets loose again and causes chaos.”

“Remember two years ago when that kid got stuck in the fence?” Matt laughed. “Took three of us to extract him without destroying the whole thing.”

“This year will be different,” I said, surprising myself with how certain I sounded. “Joy’s got everything planned down to the last detail. She’s not going to let anything go wrong.”

The table went quiet. I realized they were all staring at me with various degrees of amusement and speculation.

“What?” I demanded.

“Nothing,” Chief Bryden said innocently. “Just nice to hear you have faith in someone. I take it the planning session went well.”

“She’s competent,” I said defensively. “She listens to my safety guidelines and she’s literally planned every minute of these events. And she has backup plans. I went over everything and it looks like she’s got it handled.”

“I’m sure she does,” Tony agreed. “And I’m sure it has nothing to do with the way you’ve been in a better mood the last couple of days than you’ve been in months.”

I opened my mouth to deny it, then closed it again. I had been in a better mood. And it did seem to coincide with a certain Christmas-obsessed event coordinator showing up in my life with her ridiculous Santa hat and her peppermint mochas and her ability to make me want to climb forty-foot ladders just to bring back her smile.

But I wasn’t going to actually admit that to these apes.

“I’m looking forward to those turkey legs,” Matt said, rubbing his stomach. “Best part of the whole ceremony.”

“Turkey legs?” Elijah asked.

I was grateful for the distraction.

“Oh man, you have to try the Christmas turkey legs!” Matt’s eyes lit up. “There’s this vendor who comes every year, sets up right next to the hot chocolate stand. Smokes these massive turkey legs. I swear, they’re like ostrich legs, they’re so big. Makes you feel like a Christmas Viking or something.”

“A Christmas Viking,” I repeated.

“Yeah, you know. Like you’re about to raid a village, but in a festive way.”

The mental image of Matt dressed as a Viking with a Santa hat was ridiculous enough to make me actually laugh. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Hey, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. There’s something primal about eating meat off a bone while Christmas carols are playing. Very satisfying.”

The conversation drifted to other topics—upcoming shifts, equipment maintenance, Tony’s ongoing struggle to convince his wife that he needed a bigger television. Normal stuff. Comfortable stuff. The kind of easy camaraderie I was used to but had felt on the outskirts of for a while now.

As the morning wore on, my thoughts drifted to tonight. I was looking forward to the lighting ceremony. I wanted to see that big ass tree all lit up. And I was excited to see Joy in her element as everything came together.

Hell, I just wanted to see Joy.

Which was dangerous territory for a guy who was supposed to be sworn off women and Christmas and anything that might lead to getting his heart stomped on again. But thinking about Joy’s smile when that tree lit up, I couldn’t bring myself to care about the danger of getting emotionally destroyed again.

By the time I left the station, I had made a decision. I was going to go home, clean up, maybe even shave off the scruff I’d been growing since No Shave November. I was going to put on a decent shirt and show up to support Joy’s big night.

Not because I was interested in her, I told myself as I drove home. Not because I was starting to care about Christmas again. Just because I wanted to see everything go smoothly. Because I helped get that star up there, and I wanted to see it light up the night.

That was all. Nothing more.

Even if the face in my bathroom mirror was calling me a liar as I reached for my razor.