Page 3 of Chasing Kaylee Kringle

She’d rushed out of the store and climbed into her silver sedan, taking deep, shuddering breaths. Why were they still looking for her? Was there a flyer hanging in every city and town on the West Coast?

Kaylee decided it was time to head east, and although she kept her IDs and cash with her at all times just in case, all her clothes were back at the pay-by-the-day motel she’d been staying at. As she started to pull in, Kaylee noticed several motorcycles parked in front of the office. Three men walked out with the manager, who pointed down the walkway toward the rooms. Kaylee recognized the cut worn by the Pit Viper Motorcycle Club and ducked down in the seat. They passed by each door, finally stopping outside room five.

The same one she’d been staying in.

Pressing her foot down on the gas, Kaylee headed out of town and took a left, wanting to put some distance between them before pulling over. Kaylee drove until she had to stop for fuel, then punched in a new destination into the car’s GPS. She’d crossed the border into Idaho the next morning and hadn’t stopped moving, taking jobs and saving until she had enough to move on.

Until Holiday.

They should have given up searching, especially since Kaylee wasn’t a danger. No one in their right mind would want to testify against the Pit Viper Motorcycle Club.

Kaylee pinched the skin of her hand to chase the past away, but it was always there, a reminder that her life was no longer normal. It was all about survival, and that meant keeping her relationships to a minimum and being ready to run at any time.

So, no movies. No dinner. The only thing she needed was to stay one step ahead of Ansel, the Vipers, and him.

No. If he found her, Kaylee would face a fate worse than death.

Chapter Two

Rick

Diaz watched her say goodbye to the man on the corner, her steps picking up pace as she moved swiftly along the sidewalk toward her work. He’d been in town several days, watching her at work, going grocery shopping, visiting her friend next door, and was getting to know her routine, who she was now. He’d watched people smile and wave at her like she was the Rory fucking Gilmore of Holiday, Idaho.

Holiday, ha. The place sure took things to the next level. Giant peppermints and greenery hung above the windows of the florist, while the ice cream shop had strung garland with big red bows along the front of the building. There were lights everywhere, and on the other side of the building in the park stood a giant potato statue.

What the hell was up with Idaho and potatoes?

Kaylee slowed to a stop in front of the building directly across from him, and he took an eager step in her direction, impatient to finally catch her. She’d led him on a merry chase, but he’d traveled across two states to find her, and it was time for her to pay the piper.

She pulled a set of keys out of her pocket and opened the glass door of Heart Stop Coffee Shop. When she stepped inside, her boss smiled at her. Diaz could see it all through the window as the two women chatted, until Kaylee disappeared into the back. Dana appeared at the glass door a few moments later, flipping the closed sign and opening the door for a couple holding hands.

Diaz grinned, anticipation coursing through him. “Showtime.”

Chapter Three

Kaylee

Kaylee stood in front of the large espresso machine, steaming a silver pitcher of milk for the four drinks she had on deck. Judging by the line out the door, she’d have a dozen more soon, so she needed to be quick. If there was one thing she’d learned while working at Heart Stop Coffee Shop, it was how to multitask like The Flash.

She looked out the big window at the street, watching the clumps of people pass by. Strings of white twinkling lights lined the perimeter of the window, but other than that, the view of Holiday was unobscured. Several businesses across the street blocked her full view of the town square, which consisted of three historical landmarks, a lot of green grass when it wasn’t covered in fall leaves, and a park with a sculpture of a two-story potato standing at attention. They were close enough to Lava Hot Springs to bring the tourist crowd in the summer, but during the fall and winter months, the quirky town’s festivities drew in people on their own. From Fall Fest to their Spooky Straw Maze out at the Meyers’ farm, followed by the Thanksgiving parade and town potluck, there was plenty of small-town charm to attract tourists.

Kaylee flipped a bottle of caramel drizzle in her hand and squeezed a heart on top of the coffee she was making. Several patrons who were watching nearby applauded, and she grinned. If the movie Cocktail had been set in a café, she would have been Tom Cruise but with boobs.

The place was hopping thanks to an even greater influx of tourists after Holiday, Idaho, was featured in Small Town USA’s Christmas episode. The town’s Potato Lights Spectacular caught the producer’s attention, and they’d come out just after Labor Day to film. Everyone banded together to set up Main Street and the square exactly as they would on the day after Thanksgiving, minus the dusting of snow Eastern Idaho usually gets in late November.

The number of people made her nervous, and Kaylee wished she could hide out for the next two weeks to avoid the crowds, but unfortunately, her friends and neighbors would have something to say about that. After everything that had happened, she needed the comfort of the familiar. Craved it. After her first town meeting, they’d pulled her in for every holiday celebration, making her a part of something like she’d grown up there. It put her in a constant war within herself on whether to scare them off or soak up the connections as long as she could.

It wasn’t just the crowds that were making her bah, humbug the holidays. Kaylee had never celebrated Christmas with anyone but her parents and Elasia until she’d taken off. That first Christmas she’d spent alone in a cheap hotel, crying into a carton of store bought eggnog that was mostly rum and having the overwhelming urge to call her family. Even in her drunken misery, Kaylee kept telling herself that while she stayed away from them, they were safe, but it didn’t stop her from missing them. She thought about how, on Christmas Eve, her mother insisted that her siblings and Kaylee gather in the living room to listen to Christmas stories she read aloud, no matter how old they got and she swallowed back a lump of emotion, dumping two tablespoons of white chocolate into an empty cup.

As for Elasia, their usual holiday celebration consisted of exchanging overpriced boxes of See’s Candies and gorging on them while they watched various holiday movies that ranged from slightly cheesy to nacho.

Kaylee laughed out loud at her own mental joke. Elasia would have laughed, too. Then she’d have called her cringey.

She shook her head, pushing the sadness away. Kaylee couldn’t dwell on the past. She had to concentrate on moving forward.

Starting with the row of drinks in front of her.

Tipping shot after shot of espresso into each cup, she smiled at the crowd of coffee lovers chatting. There were several men and women giving one another the look, as Jolene Newbury called it. As the town matchmaker, Jolene relished pointing out when she knew sparks would fly between two people.