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He groaned. “You’re asking me things I don’t have the answer to. That’s different.”
“How do you not know where you’re going to live?”
“Quinn…” He stopped and sighed. “Can we not do this right now?”
I stared at him for a moment. Actually, I thought it was a really good time to talk about where he was going to live, especially since it was now quite clear that he was hiding something about his living situation.
Something I was going to get to the bottom of.
“Fine,” I snapped. “Let’s do this. But this snowman is mine.”
Over the next hour, we made some good progress. All the inflatable decorations were put into place, and we managed to get all the lights laid out to where they needed to be ready to string everything up.
We were a bit of a dream team at this.
I was still hungry, though.
I was running on that cherry pie from last night, and I think I’d slept most of that off.
I didn’t want to eat breakfast with Nicholas, though. I’d clearly edged onto a touchy subject where him living was concerned, and it was a little awkward still. I didn’t think us sharing a meal would help that right now.
I fiddled with lights along the porch fencing. They might have been new, but they were knotted, and I was sick to death of lights this year. I’d untangled more of them than anyone ever should have to in their lifetime, and that was just in the past ten days.
Nicholas passed me and walked inside, pulling his hat off as he closed the door behind him.
Well.
That was rude.
I huffed out a breath and continued on wrapping the lights around the fencing. If I didn’t get to come and see my hard work in the dark, I was going to be pissed, because I was working my butt off out here.
I was freezing it off, too, but that was a complaint for later.
Probably.
I brushed some snow off the top of the fence. It was still coming down, even though it was light, but thanks to the thick blanket of it already on the ground, it was easily settling. The ground under my feet was sloped, and I carefully navigated my way up, avoiding the bushes, and finished wrapping the lights, then threw the plug onto the porch to be plugged into the extension cord.
Next up, the bushes.
His grandma really had thought of everything.
I unrolled a long strip of lights that rested perfectly over the snowy bushes. Not that I thought you’d be able to see them by the time it snowed and covered them again, but the thought was nice.
The front door opened, and Nicholas stepped out with two steaming mugs. “Hot chocolate?”
I peered over at him, adjusting the lights. “Thank you.”
He brought it over and handed me the mug. “It’s looking good out here.”
“I think your grandma was trying to win the town prize for the best lights,” I noted. “There are a lot more lights than I thought there was.”
“You can say that again. She might have left money to cover the property taxes, but I don’t think she earmarked enough for this electricity bill.” He chuckled and leaned against the porch. “Thank you for helping me. I don’t doubt that you’ve had enough of decorating this year.”
“Eh.” I sipped my hot chocolate. So hot. So nice. So chocolatey. Mmmm. “I’m just on autopilot now. But you better believe I’m following you home later so I can see the results of all my hard work.”
“I was excited about you following me home until you kept talking.”
I swatted his arm. “Give it a rest. I told you, it’s not happening.”
“It could happen.” He smirked. “All I need is mistletoe to get started, right?”
“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him, shooting him my best glare. “I told you that was a one-time thing and only because I didn’t want to upset Maisy.”
“Maisy? Oh, the kid.” He shook his head. “So if I found mistletoe now and put it over my head, you wouldn’t kiss me?”
“Absolutely not. I couldn’t think of anything I’d rather do less.”
“The more you argue, the more I think you’re starting to like me, Azazel.”
“If I weren’t freezing cold right now, I’d throw this hot chocolate all over you.” I sniffed and cradled the mug. “Fortunately for you, I think my fingers are frozen, so I’m going to keep hold of it for now.”
“Let’s go inside and sit down. We’ve been out here for nearly three hours.”
“Three hours?”
What the hell? I’d been out here in the freezing snow for three hours?
No wonder if I felt like I’d had a one-night stand with Jack Frost.
“You don’t need to tell me twice.” I navigated down the uneven terrain and followed him into the house. It was a thousand, hundred thousand, million times warmer in here that it was out there in Frosty the Snowman’s asshole.
