Page 14 of The Christmas Accomplice

Welton joined Reece to look their snow dude over. “Yeah, he is pretty gnarly.”

“Gnarly?”

“Hey, you chose the vest from the 90s. I was just going with the vibe.”

Reece cocked an eyebrow. “Vibe?”

“All right, knock it off,” Welton said, looking around. “Where’s that coupon?”

They approached Edward, who smiled as he handed Welton the coupon. “Sorry you got stuck with this guy for your first activity.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” Welton said. “Despite the handicap, I still got a free appetizer.”

“Hey, I earned half of that appetizer,” Reece said.

Welton looked at the coupon. “This says it’s limited to one per guest. Are you a guest or an employee?”

Reece just stared.

Edward snickered. “I think I’ll head back inside. Reece, could you collect the props and bring the trunk in with you?”

Reece nodded without taking his eyes off Welton. “Sure, Edward. I’ll be right in.” Once Edward had walked away, Reece grinned. “You’re going to be a bit of a troublemaker, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Fanning himself with the appetizer coupon, he walked past Reece toward the resort. “Guess I’ll go check out the menu. I’m thinking artichoke and spinach dip sounds good.”

“I’m telling you, the cheese sticks are the way to go,” Reece said.

Welton turned back. “What’s with you and these cheese sticks? Do you have a stake in a mozzarella farm or something?”

“A mozzarella farm?” Reece’s chuckle made Welton blush, again. Dammit. “You do know cheese is made from milk, right? It’s not, like, grown.”

Welton laughed, his brain clicking and spinning as he tried to come up with a response. “What? Duh. Of course I knew that. Everyone knows where cheese comes from. What I meant to say was a stake in a dairy farm. All this fresh air and high altitude has gone to my head.”

“Right. Okay.” Reece smiled and looked at Welton a moment, making him fidget. No one had ever just stood and looked at him like that before. Was there something wrong with him?

Just as Welton was about to say something completely ridiculous to fill the silence, Reece said, “That would be no. I don’t have a stake in any kind of mozzarella business.”

“Well, that’s a shame. Because I hear good things about the cheese sticks here.”

Reece’s smiled widened, and the sight of it shorted out a tiny little circuit in a dark back corner of Welton’s mind. That little circuit seemed to be in control of a door or a gate or drawbridge for something in the middle of his chest. It swung open and a strange, tingling sense of want and need flooded his system, roaring through him like a lion escaping a cage for the first time in his life.

“I’m really getting a troublemaker vibe off you now,” Reece said.

“Vibe? Come on, nobody says that anymore. That’s so over.”

And with that, Welton turned and practically ran toward the resort, the whisking of his snow pants sounding like a shriek. His brain jerked and shuddered, and his heart slammed so hard it echoed in his ears.

Dear God, am I flirting with Reece? My first day on vacation? What the hell is wrong with me? Oh yeah, Dean showed up, that’s what’s wrong with me.