Page 41 of Mistletoe Mischief

“I like mine burnt,” Jace argued, grinning up at Sam.

“Yeah, see, he likes it this way. You just mind your business.”

Clark rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything else about it.

Chris Winters stood and held a steel travel mug in his hand. “I just want to take a moment and say thank you to everyone for being here. I know some of you have other jobs, and this was your day off, but still, you showed up here to help out. I am a lucky man to have such an amazing family and circle of friends.” Chris held up his cup and said, “To family and friends.”

The group chorused, “To family and friends,” and Chris sat down, leaning over to kiss his wife’s cheek.

“I was comparing the numbers earlier,” Clark said, sandwiching his marshmallow between two graham crackers as he talked. Clark was the Winters’ foreman and helped handle the business side of things. “We did roughly twenty-five percent more sales today than we did on Black Friday last year.”

“That’s awesome,” Nick said, popping an uncooked marshmallow into his mouth. “It was interesting how many new faces showed up.”

“I was particularly intrigued by your new friends, Pike,” Merry called, grinning at him slyly. “How do you know a travel blogger?”

“Alia’s a podcaster, but I entered her contest on Instagram and suggested she come to Mistletoe because it’s an awesome place to visit, especially for the holidays.”

“She was not what I was expecting for a world traveler,” Merry said, licking her fingers. “Her boots were more for looks than for hiking the trails.”

“I thought her friend was going to castrate Pike for a second,” Nick joked.

“That’s her assistant, Ryler.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Merry said.

“What does?” Pike asked.

Merry shrugged. “It’s not a bad thing. She probably makes her assistant do all the heavy lifting, and she comes in for the photo op.”

Pike frowned. “I’ve listened to her podcast. It would be hard to describe things the way she does without firsthand experience.” Although, he’d wondered the same thing earlier, he didn’t want to bad mouth Alia.

“Sorry, Pike,” Merry said, pulling her blanket around her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to besmirch her. I was just thinking out loud.”

“Have you heard from Anthony?” Nick asked.

“He texted me. He decided to stay the weekend in Boise with his brother.”

“Huh,” Noel added to the conversation. “I’d have thought he’d come rushing back with all these celebrities here because of you.”

“I thought the same thing,” Pike said, wiping off his hands with a napkin. “But he hadn’t seen his brother in a while, so I can’t blame him.”

“That’s weird,” Clark said.

“What’s weird?” Pike asked.

“I was driving back from a delivery and thought I saw his truck in town.”

Pike frowned. “Are you sure it was his? Because I checked his GPS location, and it says Boise.”

Clark shrugged. “Maybe he took a different car.”

“Ant doesn’t have another car,” Noel said.

“Maybe he decided to carpool with Delilah,” Holly offered. “She was heading to Boise to visit her parents.”

Pike stiffened. “Why would they do that? They don’t even get along.”

“With gas prices the way that they are, I’d carpool with my worst enemy if it meant being able to save money.” Holly laughed.