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“Chicago has a lot of retail opportunities.”

“I don’t know anyone there,” I said.

“You know me.”

I looked at him, amused. “Sir, I have known you two days. You can’t move to Chicago for a man you’ve only known two days.”

“Okay,” he said. “Fair point.”

“Why are you asking me? Are you hitting on me, William Dixon? Because I don’t date criminals.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Even after working for one?”

I gasped playfully. “You of all people know you’re innocent until proven guilty.”

He gave me a smirk.

“Actually,” I said, “there’s something I wanted to tell you. I’m maybe, possibly thinking about moving to Little Christmas.”

“What?”

“Noel’s offered to sell me the hot chocolate shop.”

He studied me. “And do you want to live here?”

“I mean, it’s a really good offer. I’d be close to Noel. And I do like the town and the people.”

“It doesn’t have a flannel store,” he said.

I smiled and looked out over the firepit. “I know. But sometimes happiness comes from being near the people you love. Even if you don’t fully love where they are.” I looked back to him.

Then we just sat there in our ugly sweaters, gazing at each other in the glow of the fire, the wood crackling in the cold.

God, why did this feel so… familiar?

Maybe there was a me in another dimension. A me who knew him. A me who liked him. Maybe even a me who loved him. And she was screaming at the me of here to do something about it. But what was there to do? I mean, really, what was there? Kiss him? Hook up with him? A man I’d known only two days? Someone who didn’t live where I lived, who couldn’t be more than a quick romance in a town he hated coming back to?

I couldn’t have a fling with William.

I could move to Chicago… but then I’d be giving up Noel and the chance at having my own business. A shop I could grow into something amazing, a real future that wasn’t based on a maybe—especially when the maybe was a man. I’d already lost enough, banking on men. It had never served me.

I had to be smart. Practical. So I could not kiss a handsome man by the fire in the snow. I couldn’t have a whirlwind romance or be swept off my feet. I couldn’t afford to, no matter how much I wanted to.

He peered at me silently and I felt a flutter in my stomach. Then his eyes dropped to my mouth.

Damn. Maybe I could.

The whoop of a police siren broke the moment. A cruiser pulled up to the curb with the window down. It was Wayne. “Have you two seen anyone in a Grinch beanie?” he asked hurriedly.

We shook our heads. “No…”

“Someone in a Grinch beanie just stole Santa’s Sleigh.”

12

WILLIAM

“WHO WOULD DO THIS?” Noel asked, hugging her arms around herself.