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I didn’t want Freddie, or Charlotte, or any of the Rapidians judging Henri. “There is something special, and just so you know…we didn’t…”
“Whoa, Dude.” Freddie held his hands up in front of him like he was in a stick-up. “That’s none of my business. And, who cares if you did. When you meet the right person, sometimes things happen at a different speed.”
“Is that what happened with you and Serena?”
Freddie had opened a candy cane and while we waited for the parade to resume, it hung jauntily out his mouth. He took it out with his fingers and held it like a cigarette, “Hell no. We hated each other.”
“Really?”
“Yep.” He crunched on the hard candy. “But, that’s just because I didn’t know the real her. It seems like you know that girl.”
I nodded. He was right. I did feel like time had been suspended and I knew Henri better than I’d known any of my past girlfriends. And, we hadn’t even slept together. “It doesn’t matter.” I sighed. “If I want to be with her, we will have to do long distance.”
The fire truck in front of us lurched ahead and we were marching again. “What’s wrong with that?” Freddie asked. “You get to live your life here and have weekends full of hot sex.”
“Easy, there are kids around,” I hissed.
He laughed. “They can’t hear anything, and they’re too obsessed with the fat man behind us. Can you believe how perfect he is?”
“He probably is Santa.” I laughed. “In that case, I’d ask him to keep the roads closed until the end of December.” The closed roads were what was keeping Henri in Chance Rapids.
We rounded the corner at the end of the street and almost as quickly as it started, the small-town parade was over.
“I’ll bet you can’t wait to get these things off,” I whispered to Dave, as I took off the antlers. Freddie helped me load Simon and Dave into the horse trailer.
“Have you asked her?” Dust puffed into the air as Freddie banged his gloves together.
“Asked her what?”
Freddie cut me a side-eye. “Before you ask her to do long distance, why don’t you ask her to stay here.”
“She can’t stay here.” I was quick to reply.
“Why?”
I took a deep breath. “She has a life in L.A. A job. Friends. And, we’ve only just met. That would be insane, Freddie. I can’t ask her to stay.”
“One. She can do that job from anywhere. Two. She just made a whole group of friends here.” Freddie held up his hand and pointed to a finger with each point he made. “And three. She looks like the kind of woman that is crazy enough to move to a small town to be with a mountain man she’s only just met. You’d be crazy not to give that a chance.” He clapped his hands together. “That’s all. If she wants advice on living in this town, tell her to bring a bottle of rose over to our house and Serena can fill her in the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
“Are you the ugly?” I gave him a punch in the arm.
He winced and dramatically rubbed his arm. “Just think about it. Winter is long and cold here.”
“She’s not a heater.” I closed the doors to the horse trailer.
Freddie grinned and the glint is his eye told me he was about to say something lewd or crude.
“Stop.” I held up my hand. “My dad is coming over here.”
Freddie turned and waved to my father. “Hi Bob.” As my dad approached, Freddie’s radio squawked. The dispatcher came through with some codes that I didn’t understand, along with an address on the other side of the railroad tracks. “Copy that.” Freddie barked into the radio. “Jack. There’s a fire. Come on. We’re going to need all the hands we can get on deck.”
Dad held out his hand. “Give me the keys, I’ll take tweedle dee and tweedled dum home. You go with Freddie.”
“Come on.” Freddie gestured for me to follow him. The fire truck with all of the official firefighters roared off, its sirens blaring. Freddie and I hopped into his pickup truck, he put the green light on the dashboard, and stomped on the gas pedal.
I patted my chest, looking for my phone. I wasn’t going to be able to meet Henri at the G-Spot. “Shit,” I muttered. “My phone is in my car. I’m supposed to meet Henri.”
After the conversation with Freddie, I had planned on having a serious discussion with Henri. I wasn’t quite ready to ask her to stay here, but I was ready to ask her to go on a real date.
